Snow and sunshine

This weekend was glorious. We went out to the Farmers Markets early and then Lil decided to go from there to my Mum and her partner's place for a play. This meant that P could take me to prenatal yoga, which turned out to be lucky because it was a "partners" class and so he was able to stay and join in. (I am not sure that he quite saw this as 'lucky', but that's another issue...)

Image from here.

On the way home from yoga we stopped past the train station to pick up my Dad who came down to help us out and hang out with Lil for the weekend. Then we went to Silo bakery to pick up yumminess for lunch and the week to come. After picking up Lil from my Mum's, we headed home to eat a scrumptious lunch of fresh sourdough sandwiches and tarts in the sunshine. It turned into one of those gorgeous late winter days in Canberra, where the air is still a bit crisp, but the sky in bright blue and the sun is strong and warm.


After lunch Lil forced Dad to push her on the swing, while P and I got stuck into our sadly neglected garden. I pruned the overgrown plants and did a bit of weeding, while P dug out a new veggie patch around the side. Inspired, Lil decided to join in by planting a bunch of tomatoes seeds and dragging some sticks and weeds over to the compost heap. By 4pm I was utterly shattered and took myself off to bed for a nap. Every muscle in my body felt used, but in a good kind of way.


On Sunday Dad and P were planning to take Lil out to Corin Forest to play in the snow. We were being somewhat hopeful about the snow. It had clearly come down in the Brindabellas on Thursday, but we weren't able to find any information if it was actually still around or even if it had fallen as low as Corin Forest... But we thought it was worth a try.

I spent the morning baking cookies (these ones, and I can highly recommend them - with a little less sugar than she recommends) and packing an elaborate picnic for the snow adventurers. (My intention was to potter around the house once they had gone.) However, when they were on their way out the door, P said 'Why don't you come?' and suddenly I really wanted to (partly 'cause the picnic looked so yummy, and partly because of the prospect of seeing Lil's first contact with snow) and so I threw on some clothes and jumped in the car with them.

Our prospects of finding snow were looking grim for the first 45 minutes of the 50 minute drive. We hadn't seen any at all and were preparing Lil for 'just a picnic in the forest and a play' when suddenly we started to see some patches by the side of the road. Relieved we rounded the corner to see the whole hillside at Corin Forest was covered with snow.

After a dressing Lily up into some borrowed snow gear, which was really very munchkiny, we squelched up the sodden hillside into the bush and Lil had her first contact with snow. Don't you just love "firsts"? She squealed with delight when it was thrown up in the air and proceeded to crawl and slide all over the hillside in her excitement. It was gorgeous to watch.

After making the obligatory snowperson, we stomped back down the hill to have a picnic lunch in the sunshine. It was another gorgeous day - topped off by another nap by yours truly in the afternoon.

When the sun came out

Winter has truly arrived in Canberra and yesterday was cold. The sky was gray all day and we had several period of the kind of drizzle that leaves you feeling chilled to the bone. Last night, after a day of preschool outside (they do 'Wednesdays in the garden') Lily declared herself to be "bitterly cold" and crawled into bed just to get warm.

Today, however, the sun came back out. The sky is blue and, despite all the leaves we have lost and the general sense of botanical hibernation, the garden seemed full of life. Hopefully we can have some more of this action on the weekend!

Something a little less serious

A catch-up post in dot points:

• Lily is completely obsessed with the Faraway Tree series. She has had it read to her (and listened to it) so many times now that she is talking in Faraway Tree language: "It was simply marvelous." "No, that's just horrid." etc... She is also making up "Saucepan's silly songs." They are quite funny.

• Lil's also been sick for over a week now. She's been up and down in that time and seems to be properly on the mend now, but it's been a long week. Poor kid.

• I am heading up to Sydney on Thursday to do a faculty presentation on my thesis and meet with my supervisors. It will be very useful, but I am sort of dreading it. I know that the list of things that I still need to do will be long and daunting...

• A lovely friend of mine gave us a pressure cooker as a present for leaving her our house to sit while we were in Mexico (they were moving to NZ and needed somewhere to be after their stuff had gone on ahead). It was ridiculously generous since it was just as beneficial to us to have people staying in our place and taking care of the garden etc. But, it has also been a revelation. I LOVE IT. I really like cooking, but it can be quite stressful to try making dinner when Lil is already hungry and is getting impatient and demanding. The pressure cooker means that everything is so quick to make and I can do other things while dinner is cooking. Win, win, win. It also makes cooking dried beans so very much easier, which means that I am resorting to far less cans.

• Lily and I finally planted our bulbs last week. I am hoping that it wasn't too late, as I love seeing the daffodils and tulips popping up in the Spring. I helped Lily to make little labels for the pots, but we didn't make them water-proof enough and they are fading already. Fortunately it will be fairly obvious what they are (if they survive).

• Winter has really arrived here in Canberra. It is cold. It has also been raining quite a lot, which is very un-Canberran. The absence of blue skies is starting to get me down a little - though, of course, the garden is very happy.

• My pregnancy is progressing well. We had a 20 week scan a little while ago and found out that we are having a boy. A new adventure! We are planning to call him Charlie. He is a very active little munchkin - especially in the early hours of the morning and whenever he can hear his big sister's voice.

• I made this banana bread with choc-chips on Saturday morning. It was truly delicious. I can highly recommend the recipe. (But, of course, you can rarely go wrong with anything from Molly).

• That's all for now, I think. I hope that you are well. I plan to get back on tops of things when Lil is back on her feet. Expect some Wintery photos and maybe even a few lunchboxes.
  

Floriade

We went along to Floriade yesterday afternoon to romp among the flowers. It was such a lovely day and I was feeling very keen to get out into the sunshine after PhD-ing all day while Lily and P went to the Farmers Markets and to a 3rd birthday party (I love birthday parties, so I was very sad to miss out on this one).

We spend far too much time trying to find the kids' section, which wasn't in the same place as last year, and once we finally picked up a map we were all too hungry to trek over there and so, instead, we found a cafe and bought some wedges. It was so lovely sitting outside in the sunshine looking out over the flowers (I especially love those red tulips - more photos to come I'm afraid) and listening to the music. I envision lots of weekend afternoons will be spend there this Spring.

As the afternoon drew to a close, we found a big patch of grass and encouraged Lily to have a bit of a run around. Then, worn out and happy, we all headed home for dinner.

So happy that Spring is here.

Spring, she is coming

Over the last few days the promise of Spring has been lingering in the air. And now we have a little bit of evidence of this in our garden.

Of course, this is Canberra, it is going to take quite some time for things to actually get warm around here, but still, Spring is coming.

Yay!

Op shop treasure

There is an op shop (thrift store) near Lily's dance class that I often pop into if we have a bit of time to spare in the area. It is small and really well laid out, making it is really easy to cover in quite a short space of time (even with a toddler in tow). I also generally find one or two things that interest me - a bit of fabric, a jar of buttons, some childrens' clothing...

The other day I popped in with only a few minutes to spare and emerged with some of my favourite finds ever: a gorgeous wooden chest (in which I plan to lock up all of my sewing bits & bobs); a funky ice bucket with matching tongs (that makes me want to host a cocktail party); a cute little bottle/vase; and a little fondue set (perfect for chocolate fondue). I also picked up a cute little basket (as pictured in the gardening post below) and a skein of wool that Lily insisted on coming home with... All up it was quite an exciting little shop.

While we are on the subject of op shopping: the other day I stumbled across a fabulous blog devoted to op shopping in Canberra - I op there I am - ACT. And I note that Zoe is a contributor too. Must be good.

Every day in May - photo 2

Yesterday evening I went for a walk around the lake with my good friend Angela. Canberra is a pretty beautiful place in Autumn and it is especially so around Lake Burley Griffin. The reds, yellows & oranges of the leaves look glorious set against Canberra's eternally blue sky. Then it all gets reflecting in the lake and the result is really quite special.

However, what I like even more is watching the sun set after such a perfect blue sky day. The slow decent into nighttime is just stunning. I remember when I was feeling especially homesick, while living in the States as a teenager, I would see the sun setting over the lake in my mind and yearn just to look at it again. Odd, I know. But there you have it.

And, because I couldn't chose just one photo, I'll leave you now with a few more images from our walk. I hope that you are having a lovely weekend!

And so begins summer...

Snow in October?
Sadly, no. In actual fact, our front garden caught on fire.

The flames were as high as the house, apparently. I didn't see them because I was feeding Lily with the front blinds down (to block out the hot western sun). What I did see was an enormous cloud of smoke blowing past in the wind. When I went outside to investigate there were people in our front yard trying to extinguish a fire with our hose. Stupidly (in hindsight) it was connected to our rain water tank and so it wasn't helping them very much. I tried to help reconnect it to the mains, but the smoke was going inside and Lily was upset and so they ushered me back inside to care for her.


Not long after, two fire engines arrived and the fire-fighters took over. They covered our garden in a fancy new foam to stop the fire from re-igniting.


Then the police came to investigate. At first they thought that something in our bins caught alight, but then they realised that it was only the lids that had burned when they were blown into the fire. The final conclusion was that someone had flicked a cigarette butt from their car and it had started the fire.



I am not fond of the habit of smoking, or of some smokers.


I am very fond of the random passers-by who stopped our house from burning down. And of our neighbours who helped them.

THANK YOU

It's "Fully Sick" mate

I hate summernats. For those of you lucky enough not to live in our nation's capital and who have no idea what I'm talking about, summernats is an annual event during which the vast majority of the nation's petrol heads drive their inefficient (but apparently "fully sick") petrol guzzling cars to Canberra in order to drive them around in circles and see who can:

a) make the most blue smoke;
b) drive the fastest down a ludicrously short track;
c) get the drunkest;
d) be the worst tourist in town (this one is especially hotly contested); and
e) be the most sexist arsehole in existence.

I can't remember the last time I was in Canberra at this time of year, and I hope this will be the last time in living memory (I swear it's worse than when I lived waaaaay too close to the formula one race track in Melbourne).

To top off all the general ickyness, the bastards had so many fireworks going off this evening that Lily ahs only just gotten to sleep.

It seems $1.50 a litre isn't enough to dissuade them. It's a good thing the price of petrol will just keep on rising. I wonder how expensive it will have to get before these infantile events become prohibitively expensive and die a sad and lonely death? Can't come too soon as far as the planet and I are concerned.

What's wrong with this picture?

It's December, in Australia.

Someone tell my why there is fog?

Saturday haul

We're getting back into the swing of things and heading to the Canberra farmer's market on Saturday mornings to get the week's fruit and veggies.

Our favourite Sydney bakery, Infinity Sourdough, has a stall (it's just like being back in the Cross), and, along with delicious organic fruit and vegies, there is a wonderful local couple making the best tofu we have ever tasted. They even use local soybeans!

Here is today's haul. A little smaller than usual because we ended up at the supermarket out of desperation earlier in the week.

Skyfire and Photoshop

Tonight was the annual Canberra Skyfire. A "fireworks extravaganza" set to music, or something. I haven't been since I was about 16, so am not really qualified to speak about it.

Needless to say we didn't go, but we could hear the whole thing from our apartment (the whole thing lasting about 30 minutes or thereabouts) and I headed into the corridor to see what was seeable.

This shot was taken from the 5th floor window near the lifts. I like the way you can see the traffic and the fireworks, partly shielded by someone's balcony.

A little photoshoping on the flares themselves and it was as good as being there. Sort of.

Have a happy Sunday.

Sunday perspectives

The view from our balcony is quite lovely; if you can edit out the buildings and concentrate on the mountains and sky.

Our view of sky is constantly changing each hour of the day, so I thought I'd give you some idea of what we get to see all the time.

8am.

A sign that winter is on its way. Low lying clouds always make me feel a chill, no matter what the temperature outside.

2pm.

Clear and blue afternoon sky, not a cloud in sight. And the heat was intense - something like 35c.

7.30pm.

One of my favourite things about Canberra are the nearly-always beautiful sunsets. Looking due west we get the full benefit and today was no exception.

Oh, and no sign of 3rd Pea yet, in case you're wondering.

No 3rd Pea tosay [sic]

Just in case you thought we were only interested in grammar-bashing rev heads. This one is from a craft shop.

Okay, so it's not grammar, but C and I thought it was rather hilarious when we saw it earlier today. Luckily C had her nifty new camera phone with her so we could share the mirth.

On a more somber note, we saw several shops in the bright new Canberra Centre that were closed till further notice due to flood damage.

Oh, and no, there's still no sign of 3rd Pea.

Where are you little one? Pappa wants snuggles...

All roads lead to... Mall?

C was having some Braxton Hicks last night (see link in her post below for more info on them) so we went for an evening walk to see if we could turn them in to something a little more serious - to no avail, unfortunately.

On the way back to our place I really looked at the street sign at the end of our street for the first time. I've obviously looked at it before, of course, but never really paid attention (as we're pretty familiar with the area and basically know where we are going, most of the time).

Anyway, it struck me that the options for leaving our place, if you stick to those indicated as available from the signage, are pretty grim:

Woden does have a better supermarket than the one closest to us, but that's about all. Don't even get me started on Queanbeyan - though it is one of the most marginal seats in the country (and it's a shame one would actually have to move there to make a difference on that front). And the only interesting thing about Cooma is that it's close to the snow.

Going in the other direction we have Yass (umm, drawing a blank here) and Goulburn - which has a jail (though we're getting our very own soon!) and the Big Merino (a giant concrete sheep with a dodgy gift shop/café in between its legs).

Of course, there are always the other two cardinal directions, which lead us to Belconnen (and an even scarier mall than the one in Woden) and the City Centre (with its new and super-dooper giant mall).

So in three out of four directions we have shopping malls and scary towns and the fourth just has a scary town or two.

Ah, I love Canberra.

Hail storm

Last night at around 11pm a hail storm hit Canberra and blanketed our area with piles of ice. I was trying to sleep as the hail stones pounded our windows and the thunder and lightening seemed to fill the air. P, on the other hand, ventured out onto the balcony to get a few photos.






The roads were clear in the morning, but the aftermath could been seen on the nature strips and on the roof of the building opposite us, though the fog and the morning light softened the impact a little.

The Globe

The apartment block over the road is called The Globe. Here's why. Yep, that's right waaay up there in the distance on the 7th floor is a postmodern (and very self aware, I'm sure) globe.

Our building is certainly prettier, but hopefully The Globe is less dodgily constructed. A friend in the building told me today that he has discovered, thanks to Canberra's recent rains, that at least one of the downpipes ends in a puddle in the middle of his bedroom. And his landlord wants to raise their rent! I suppose they do have a water feature...

Danger of flooding? Really?

I know we’ve been having some rain recently, but I hardly think this particular car park is in any danger of flooding in the next decade or so.

Is it really our welcome?

Enough said really.

Farmer's market Saturday

Today's photos come from the Saturday morning farmer's market. Normally it's an indoor affair and the light is very flat. This week, thanks to the Canberra Show, the market was in a different location and all the stalls were outside in the morning sunshine.

The tomatoes look fantastic and I can't wait to have them on a sandwich for lunch.

The bread comes from our favourite Sydney Bakery, Infinity Sourdough, who drive down every week and sell hundreds of loaves of their amazing breads.