nudie!

One more balloon from the Balloon Spectacular 2014 :)

Skywhale

The Skywhale balloon coming to life on Canberra Day. Controversial? Yes, but I love her :)

Balloon Spectacular 2014

Every year in March, Canberra hosts a hot air balloon festival. We got up early yesterday - Canberra Day - to be at the launch site between Old Parliament House and the lake by soon after 6am, along with hundreds (thousands?) of other keen onlookers. As the sun arose, so did the balloons ...

Easter was HOW long ago?

So much for getting back into the swing of daily blogging, but life's like that sometimes. Hopefully I'll do better this time :)

It's a bit out of date now, but I thought it was too cute to miss - Easter Bunny ears on the Bendigo Bank ATM at the Jamison Plaza, Macquarie.

Harmony Day 2012

March 21 in Australia is Harmony Day, with the central message Everyone Belongs. It's a relatively recent thing (the first Harmony Day was in 1999) but it seems to be gathering momentum, especially in schools. March 21 is also the United Nation's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination - pretty much the same thing, but with bigger words. It's all about celebrating both cultural diversity and what we have in common. The colour for the day is orange, and it was great to see plenty of orange clothing, flags and ribbons, as well as costumes from all sorts of cultures worldwide at my children's school today.

And that's not all that happens on March 21 - it's also Daily Photo Canberra's 1st birthday today! 

The entrance to Evatt Primary School. This school emphasises sustainability, and has water tanks, an environment centre, a number of gardens (including vegetable beds) and cooking facilities, so children can learn to cook with the vegetables they've grown. Instead of the usual school fete, they have an annual Environment Fair, which is coming up on March 31. 

A special visitor for Campbell High School

Photo: ABC News

This morning Campbell High School hosted a brief visit by US President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. The school is located close to the Australian War Memorial, where President Obama laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at 9am, before speaking to Parliament. It's been a whirlwind visit to Canberra - less than 24 hours - with very tight security. Obviously I wasn't getting anywhere near him, so this photo comes from the Australian Broadcasting Commission website (more stories, photos and video here).

Darwin and a spot of croc-wrestling (hah!) are next on the agenda ...

The Queen is in town

If you're in Australia, it's a little difficult to NOT know that Queen Elizabeth II is in town. This is her 16th official visit since her coronation tour in 1954. Her Majesty arrived in Canberra on Wednesday evening, to be greeted by all the usual official guests and two children from each school in the ACT. My friend Robyn's daughter was chosen as one of the two from our school, and Robyn has generously shared her photos of the occasion.

Governor General Quentin Bryce greeting Queen Elizabeth II on arrival.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard, with ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher just behind her.

Floriade 2011: around Nerang Pool

 

Looking across Nerang Pool, with the Captain Cook Memorial Jet in the background.

 

Black swans on Nerang Pool.

Floriade 2011: the flowers

Floriade

We headed into town today to visit Floriade, a huge celebration of Spring and annual display of floral design in Commonwealth Park. This year we had a special reason to visit: my daughter was involved, together with a team from her school, in helping to plant some of the million + bulbs back in April, although she wasn't quite sure today just which ones were hers!

Floriade has a different theme each year. This year is was a Feast for the Senses, and while at ground level it wasn't always clear what each garden bed represented, from higher up you could see a giant coffee cup, a huge chilli pepper, a decorated cake, flames on a barbecue, and other food-related symbols, all created from tulips, hyacinths, bluebells, ranunculus, irises, violas, pansies, poppies and more.

There was also a Victory Garden, carnival rides, a children's area, plenty of places to eat, and a special area devoted to garden gnomes :)

I'll have more images from Floriade over the next week or so.

Mr Badger

Today I took the children to the new Gungahlin Library to meet Mr Badger (from Wind in the Willows, of course!). He told us all about his adventures with Mole, Ratty and Toad of Toad Hall; of Toad's (mis)adventures with motor cars; and the battle against the weasels, ferrets, stoats and foxes to regain control of Toad Hall.

Mr Badger comes from the Splash Theatre Company in South Australia, and has been travelling around telling his stories for nearly two years.

It's electrifying!

Today was the Canberra International Electric Vehicle Festival, on the lawns in front of Old Parliament House (more on OPH during the week). Among electric bicycles, motorbikes, mobility scooters, boats and other cars was this VW. Powered by old-style lead acid batteries, it has a range of about 50 kilometres, so is  limited to shorter trips around town, unlike some of the new Tesla cars which have a range of nearly 400 kilometres and a top speed of 212 km/hr! But the owners are sticking with it for now, and saving for when the newer technology becomes more affordable.

I didn't get a chance to take a spin in a Tesla (although they were available), but I did have a ride in a Mitsubishi iMiev - very quick, very quiet, and very expensive for a small car - about $50 000 on-road.