Stormy weather

It's been a little damp here in the past 24 hours. We've had some violent electrical storms and sudden heavy downpours, and the stormwater system is getting a good run. Fortunately, the suburbs of Canberra have numerous low-lying green belts designed to take the overflow.

This Eastern Great Egret looks like he's waiting to cross the torrent. He might have to wait awhile ...

A minute later the heavens opened again, and I had to run for the shelter of the car. Meanwhile the egret continued to stand there.

Bring back the shops

Not the sort of images that make it onto Canberra's promotional materials, but interesting nonetheless. This photo was taken at Giralang shops, a local centre that was pretty much shut down seven years ago. The site has one owner, and there have been various plans to redevelop the site, either as shops, as apartments, or as a combination of the two. There have been objections, some from local residents, but mostly, it appears, from retail competitors in neighbouring areas, who were concerned about the possible inclusion of a larger supermarket such as Woolworths (there are specific size limits for supermarkets in local shopping centres).

According to the Canberra Times:

The approved proposal allows the centre's owners, the Nikias family, to develop a much smaller 1500sqm supermarket, which is more likely to attract an IGA or ALDI supermarket as its tenant.

The Planning Minister also approved four specialty shops at Giralang, a cafe, a restaurant, 100 underground car-parking spaces and more than 70 surface car-parking spaces.

It will be interesting to see the changes here over the coming months.

Another gorgeous day in the nation's capital

Looking from Palmerville Heritage Park over to the suburb of Giralang.

Giralang is named for an Aboriginal word meaning star, and its street names are Aboriginal words for stars, astronomers and constellations seen from the southern hemisphere.

But today I just took this photo because of the sky - just beautiful!