Japanese Cherry trees

The inscription pretty much explains it (in English below). On the north side of Lake Burley Griffin, near Commonwealth Avenue Bridge.

Captain Cook

The Captain Cook Memorial globe at Regatta Point. This is only half of the memorial - the other part wasn't in operation on Saturday because of the wind. It's a water jet in the lake, which shoots up nearly 150 metres into the air. When it's windy, the water can blow across onto Commonwealth Avenue Bridge, and can be a traffic hazard, so you'll have to wait for another day for a photo of that.

The globe shows the routes of Captain James Cook's three voyages - you can see the red, yellow and blue lines better on the image below.

National Library of Australia

The National Library of Australia, viewed from Commonwealth Park on the northern side of Lake Burley Griffin. The trees are starting to display their autumn colours.

Waterlily

Waterlily on Nerang Pool, Commonwealth Park.

A Prime Ministerial walk

 

I went for a wander around the lake while yesterday's birthday party was in process, and came across this fellow also out for a stroll. Apparently he's quite new, and there's no plaque announcing his identity, which had a few passers-by a little confused. But if you know anything about Australian politics, you'd have to recognise Sir Robert Gordon (Bob) Menzies, Prime Minister from 1939 to 1941 and from 1949 to 1966 - the longest serving PM in our history.

A castle in Canberra

Canberra is full of surprises, including this castle in Commonwealth Park, down by Nerang Pool. 

It's a fabulous playground for kids, and I was there with the boy-child to celebrate his friend's birthday. Plenty to keep them amused here - tunnels, ladders and secret spaces to hide in.

Bus stop

If you've been to Canberra, chances are you would have seen one of these concrete bus shelters. Installation of this style of shelter began in 1975 and, from what I've heard, they may keep the worst of the rain off, but they're also very good wind-catchers! The tactile paving section near the sign is a relatively recent thing, and is designed for vision-impaired travellers.

Going under

Canberra is very car-centric, but the paths through the suburbs and underpasses mean pedestrians and cyclists don't have to deal with the traffic on main roads. 

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! 

Kaleen High School

UC High School Kaleen is smaller than many other ACT high schools, but has some interesting programs, including a partnership with the University of Canberra (UC), a small farm with livestock, and a Canberra Organic Growers Society community garden. Next time I'm over that way I'll have a wander around and take some photos in the school grounds.

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. 

Coptic Church in Kaleen

The Pope of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Shenouda III, died yesterday. He opened this church in Kaleen in 1991. We've been here before - nearly a year ago - but it seemed appropriate to take another photo today.

[Photo has had a dry brush filter applied in Photoshop]

X O O

Early morning shadows on the playground in Mt Rogers Reserve. There are a lot of these playgrounds - most of them almost identical - in Canberra's parks and preschools. The company responsible for them must have done very well out of Canberra ...

Fergus

Walking out of the Jamison shopping centre yesterday, I spied a strange face behind construction fencing. I'm not sure if Fergus is the character's name, or the artist's, but I did manage to get a better shot over the top of the fence. And I wonder what the loose brick is hiding?

New for old

Along this stretch of Ginninderra Drive today, the old power poles (above) were being replaced with new ones (below). Quite a job, in terms of worker safety and minimising electricity supply disruption.

Restricted Access

One of the water reservoirs on Mt Rogers.

Trig station

This is the trig station at the summit of Mt Rogers (704m elevation).

Student housing

Part of the new Lena Karmel Lodge student housing which opened last week, adjacent to the Australian National University. There are 485 apartments, with 558 beds, and apparently they were filled within 14 days of becoming available - before the building was completed! Which just goes to show how high the demand for student housing is in Canberra ...

Raising awareness

No idea who these people are, but the girl on the left is wearing a Greenpeace t-shirt and the one in the middle has a Greenpeace lanyard around her neck, so I'm taking a wild guess that they're associated with Greenpeace in some way. They often seem to be just hanging out on the centre island on Northbourne Avenue. I assume they're out there to raise awareness of the issues on which Greenpeace campaigns, because they haven't asked us for money when we've walked past, and haven't seemed very enthusiastic about approaching people to talk. Perhaps they wait for you to approach them first ...

Up up and away

Hot air balloons over Canberra in the early morning light.

Orange

At the entrance to the National Portrait Gallery is this huge bright orange blob. It's a sculpture called Geo Face Distributor, made in 2009 by James Angus. Constructed of cast aluminium with enamel paint, it was commissioned to celebrate the launch of the new National Portrait Gallery.

The description of the sculpture says: "Australian artist James Angus has long been interested in how the visual forms of physics, biology and mathematics inform our perceptions of time, space, scale, mass and movement. In viewing this sculpture we become aware of our innate capacity to recognise and respond to the faces of others, and of our tendency to see figurative shapes in the abstract forms of nature."

Figurative shapes perhaps, but I can't see faces in this. I'm not convinced it's the best 'face' for a portrait gallery - after all, portraits are representations of specific people - but that's not to say I don't like it, and I've seen how people respond to it: children especially can't resist touching it and checking it from all angles.

Happy coffee

Coffee at the National Portrait Gallery cafe :)

Perfect

I don't normally take photos in toilets, but I couldn't miss this one. Especially as it's in the girls' change rooms in a high school :)

The Funnel

Stormwater drain under Vergurgghen St, Melba (on the corner of Copland Drive). The buildings in the background are the college (Year 11-12) campus of Melba-Copland Secondary School.

Water water everywhere ...

The same creek from Friday, but this time from the bottom end of Copland Drive, Melba (the suburb of Evatt is on the other side of the road behind me). We've had even more rain, and it's bigger and moving faster. These trees are normally all on dry ground.

Lego and hot chocolate - perfect!

The kids and I went for a long walk down the hill yesterday morning, and ended up in Florey, at the Perfect Bean cafe. Geoff currently has a display of his Lego Star Wars models in the cafe, which was great for keeping the kids interested while breakfast was on the way.

The hot chocolate (and the rest of the breakfast!) met with general approval, and was excellent fortification before the trek back UP the hill (just me - the short people cadged a lift with the husband :) ).

I'm on a 'get healthy' program, and the poached eggs and baked beans fit into my nutrition plan perfectly. And the espresso was just what I needed. If you need to go gluten-free, you can eat here without worrying about cross-contamination - Kelly (one of the owners) is coeliac, so she's very aware of what's needed in that respect.

The cafe is open Tuesday to Friday 8am-4.30pm, Saturday 9am-2.30pm, and Sunday 9am-2pm.

And they're off!

Despite the rain, BMX racing was on this morning at the track at the bottom of Melba. My daughter was impressed by the number of girls racing :)

It's a bit damp here

We've had more rain in the past few days than Canberra usually sees in the whole month of March. And there's more to come. This photo was taken near the intersection of Kingsford Smith Drive and Ginninderra Drive this afternoon - still raining, and the normally tiny creek swollen to many times its usual width. Fortunately much of Canberra is planned with large low-lying green strips to channel the water. Other places aren't so lucky - there have been evacuations in Cooma and Goulburn to escape rising floodwaters.

Books and more books

Winchbooks in Bungendore is a little slice of heaven on earth for book lovers. Packed full of secondhand volumes from all genres, you could easily lose yourself in here for hours.