Mum's visit and playing tourist

Mum came to visit for a few days so we played tourist and went to a few of the sites. We also spent a bit of time at garden shops and dancing.

This ball is suspended outside the National Museum – about a 20 min walk from my house.

In the parliamentary triangle there is a lovely walkway that has just been finished called reconciliation walk. The gardens along the walk intertwine aboriginal art and plants as well as small historical displays.

Some of these huge rocks have been brought in from the Northern Territory.

I had to keep reminding Mum that she couldn’t read everything. I like to look, she likes to read.

Outside one of the museums there is this ball of granite that is held up by running water. There is the perfect amount of pressure that you can spin the ball in any direction.

Next to the lake, at the foot of the parliament lawns there are flags from all over the world.

As the sun was setting we walked home along the lake.

Yesterday on my day off I walked up to parliament house. I had not been up there just to look around for a bit so I thought I would take some pictures to share. I got there too early for the tour so I went up to the roof, which is grass, and looked at the view first. This picture is looking up at the flag from the roof. Just to give you an understanding of the size, the flag is the size of the side of a double decker bus.

Inside the entrance way to parliament is all beautiful wood and marble. These are a few of the inlays depicting Aussie native plants.

There was a police function going on while I was there so there was security all around and the place was crawling with people in uniforms.

When the tour was ready we went all around the main building. This is a picture of the house of reps. The kept some of the parts of British parliament and took parts from American constitution.

In the senate you can see more clearly how they have picked up on the colours from Australian plant life. If you look at seats they go from a dark red, almost burgundy on the floor to a pale pink at the top – mimicking a flower from its centre to the petals.

As I walked home I turned around and took this picture. The bright sunshine and blue sky of earlier in the day had faded and just a few minutes after I got home a storm rolled in that kept going into the night. This is fairly typical of days this winter. It gives winter the feel of a rainy season – finally we get to see green!

Time with Mum and Dad

Australia is the land of the long weekend. We celebrate lots of things as long as we get a day off to do it. The latest long weekend was last week marking the Queen’s Birthday. To commemorate I went to my parents house in Sydney. When I moved to Canberra I thought I would get to Sydney about once a month to see Mum and Dad. I have failed in this goal. But I do love it when I get to catch the bus to Mum and Dad’s door and turn off my phone for a few days and relax.

This visit Mum and I played a lot of Dutch Blitz (a card game from Eastern Pennsylvania), which I mostly won =) and hung out with their community. We also used this public holiday to visit the national park just up the coast from Mum and Dad. The following photos are from our afternoon of walking around the park and marvelling at the beauty.

Caves where we saw Aboriginal hand paintings

The view from a lookout.

If you run your finger along this plant and then lick your finger you get a mild honey taste.