Experience true light

M and I had a great weekend away at Vincentia. Had a wonderful meal on Friday night at Faro Bianco restaurant - I had the chilli mussels - excellent value for $18. Very quiet in town.

 

The weather was warm and wet on Saturday when we went to the market.

 

I've never seen so many sea anemones.

 

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Random sea anemones

 

 

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How bad can a secret Santa gift be?

Answer: very bad indeed.

The worst photo frame ever

 

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Dust on the spokes

Took a ride in Mulligan's Flat on Sunday. Very different riding on dirt and gravel, but the scenery was great. We went a lot further into the park than we usually do, taking the track into Goorooyarroo Nature Reserve.

Blue Devils

 

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Canberra Christmas shopping - commenced

Had fun on Saturday afternoon with a friend checking out the Handmade Markets and the new hipster hot spot, Lonsdale Street traders in Braddon. Between these two locales we tried some wonderful wild berry sorbet and pecan and coconut gelati at Gelati Joe's. A fun afternoon but we didn't quite make it to the new fancy Lifeline - Hipsley - because like so many things in Canberra it closed way too early. At least the Designer Op Shop across the road had a more sensible closing time for a Saturday afternoon so close to Christmas.

 

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Welcome to Christmas

Work Christmas do number 1 today - the department party. Kinda like a distant cousin's wedding. The food was surprisingly good, however. But more fun coming home and enjoying the sunset.

 

 

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Gift idea of the week

Want to guarantee a trip to emergency on Christmas Day? Or to find out which of your relatives has seen too many Monty Python films? You never realised what you've needed all along is a trebuchet.

http://flic.kr/p/dxFqS9

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Chendol for a hot night.

Tonight we met a friend for dinner at Roti House. The food was great, especially the desserts. I had been keen to return to try the chendol, which is wonderful when the weather is hot. M had the banana roti which was also tasty. 
http://flic.kr/p/dxtMEN

Random seaweed

...is the best I can manage this evening.


http://flic.kr/p/dx8Qgx

 

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Belco garlic

Amazing what a talented gardener can grow in a pot.

 

http://flic.kr/p/dwYJTq

 

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Sometimes

Sometimes the best thing about a day is the end of the day.

http://flic.kr/p/dwH7VE

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We love DDH

After a busy day, we decided to eat out. We went to our favourite cheap and cheerful ( and fabulous): Dickson Dumpling House. The place has such a huge menu that you could eat there every week for at least a few months and have something different every time. Tonight we had prawn and pumpkin dumplings, beans and pork mince, BBQ pork buns and sizzling tea smoked duck. All fantastic.

http://flic.kr/p/dwkfeP

 

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Until I work it out...

I'm going to link to Flickr ...
http://flic.kr/p/dsmWEF

agonise

Having reached my 1gb limit for photos, I am now agonising and procrastinating as to how to continue. I thought it might be time for a refresh and a chance to use a different platform. But it's taking me a lot longer to work out what I want to do than I expected.

Canberra bike ride

I haven't been riding (or blogging) much - had a couple of weeks of feeling a little poorly for various reasons - but today we had a fantastic ride on the old Federal Highway. Wonderful scenery, hardly any cars - and although it was a bit of a push for the first 20 minutes, the rest of the ride was wonderful. 

Beyond Floriade - part 2

After our Black Mountain visit, we checked out the Australian National Botanic Gardens. I didn't realise that the gardens are considered one of the best places to see Australian native plants. It's also pretty good for certain kinds of Australian wildlife. 

Eastern waterdragon

Spot the wildlife (21?)

Fuschia Heath

Yellow telopea

Telopea

Isopognon animonfolius

Beyond Floriade

After some patchy weather, Sunday was a glorious day. We checked out Black Mountain, with a walk around the hill to see wildflowers and then a trip up to the viewing platforms of the Telstra Tower. 

Canberra snow!

It snowed on Friday and we could see it on the Brindabellas. It wasn't until Saturday that we could go looking to get up close to some ACT snow. Cool!

Canberra wildlife

A wonderful afternoon here in the nation's capital. Escaping the Floriade frenzy currently happening in the city centre, we went for a walk in Mulligan's Flat. Wildlife count - a small mob of kangas, six sleepy lizards, and two echidnas. Having been appreciating US wildlife for the last three weeks (prairie dogs, chipmunks, squirrels, elks, deer, big horn desert sheep, and sea otters - pics forthcoming) it was great to see some exciting Australian wildlife so close to home. 

We then went on to Tallagandra Hill winery for tasting and sales (especially the tempranillo) and admiring the black faced Dorper lambs, and then home via Murrumbateman Winery (one of Canberra's oldest).

back to reality

Back to work today. Still labelling all the photos and working on some thoughts to document regarding our fab holiday. 

But before I forget, a couple of business names I didn't get a chance to photograph, but I just have to share:

Fanny wrappers - a lingere shop in San Luis Opispo

bikecurious - a bike shop at Venice Beach

and one I did get to photograph - Garden of Eatin' chips:

New diversions

Divert your attention here

the beauty around you

kangaroo bounces back

Minus 5 this morning and a cracking frost. The frost didn't deter our local kangaroo, which returned to eye off the grass (which is greener on the other side don't you know). Apparently those people chasing it yesterday just wanted to get a close up shot - still misguided I say. But obviously being chased off didn't put the kangaroo off trying to find something tasty to eat. 

backyard kangaroo

On Saturday morning we spotted a kangaroo in the mist, sitting not far from our back fence. It stayed around most of the day until some misguided fools tried to catch it. (Tip: you can't catch a kanga, and you shouldn't try unless you want to get hurt.)

using sony cybershot with imovie

In anticipation of our o/s holiday this year, I have been trying to solve a conundrum I've had since I changed my photographic equipment to a sony cybershot. I couldn't work out how to download moving images from the camera into the mac - and no amount of googling helped with the answer.  Tonight I discovered, by accident, and after exposure to some mac experts who gave me some new ideas, that having iphoto and imovie open at the same time, and once iphotos are all downloaded, I can 'see' the cybershot moving images in imovie (9) and can download them. Hurray! (Except now I don't have a good excuse to get an ipad before we go on hols. Hello gift idea!)

don't know what to say

Sad family things happening this week and don't really know what to say. 


In amongst it all I had a work trip to Brisvegas and was diverted temporarily by the pineapple lamps in my hotel room - just for a moment or two. 

Stayers

The rest of the week has flown, with expected July guests arriving and providing a good reason to go to The Ginger Room. The food was amazing, the service was excellent, and the wine plentiful.

things to do in Sydney - art part two

MCA has some wonderful things to view. Before actual viewing I downloaded the MCA ap, which reminded me that MCA has drawings from Veron Ah Kee, photos from Tracy Moffat and short films like 'This woman is not a car' that I didn't have time to stick around and see (but was so glad that people would get a chance to see it.)


The ap has a whole lot of info that I can't wait to listen to in a spare moment. I loved some of the exhibits in the biennale: 

things to do in Sydney - art part one

One thing I'd been keen to do on the weekend was to check out the new Museum of Contemporary Art. First, the food. The new cafe is a wonderful location for a good view of the harbour. And the food was quite tasty. 

Table view one

Table view two

Even when grey the harbour is beautiful

The MCA Cafe is on level 4 - high enough for a top view

Great sign (if you are an English speaker)