Diddams Close Park, Belconnen

This is a section of the bike/walking path around Diddams Close Park. The park is a peninsula in Lake Ginninderra, and the path continues around the lake through John Knight Memorial Park, along Emu Bank at Belconnen, and through the parklands on the western side of the lake. It forms a popular walking, running and cycling circuit, especially on sunny weekends.

Japanese Cherry trees

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

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.

Salvation Jane

This is Echium plantagineum, better known (depending on where in Australia you come from) as either Salvation Jane or Paterson's Curse, and it originally hails from the Mediterranean region. The seeds were first brought to Australia from Europe in the 1880s, to be added to the garden of Jane Paterson, who lived near Albury.  From there it started spreading, and it is now a common weed in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory, parts of South Australia, southern Queensland and south western Western Australia. And it's still spreading.

It's very pretty, with masses of purplish-blue flowers forming carpets across entire paddocks after rain. But it can also be deadly. Horses and pigs are particularly vulnerable to the toxic effects it has on the liver. Cattle and sheep are more resistant, and in fact it has carried stock through bad periods of drought in South Australia (and that's where the name Salvation Jane is most widely used), but too much of it in their diet can make even these animals very sick.

Spring in the city

A beautiful, warm spring day today, and city lamp posts are carrying bright spots of colour in these pots of petunias. These ones are in Alinga Street, opposite the Sydney Building.

The road into Braidwood

What a difference seven weeks can make! This is the road into Braidwood (or out in our case), on the Canberra side. It's lined with trees which were completely bare in mid-September (below) but covered in green again by last weekend. It's not the exact same piece of road, but along the same stretch.

The avenue of Lombardy and Golden poplars was planted in 1936 at the northern entrance to town to celebrate the 25th year of King George V's reign.

Spring is around the corner

Canberra is looking decidedly golden at the moment. The wattle is in bloom, and it's not until August-September that you realise just how much of it lines our roads and fills our suburbs. Spring is on the way, and the wattle is its herald ...