Out and about

As expected, the past month has been busy. Phil has since been to Sydney (and again on Friday) and Melbourne for work. Nicholas went to high school for a day. Catherine finished 2 weeks of the swimming program through school. I had to help hold down the fort at work for a week while our team was down by two due to a conference.

We went to the Nara Candle Festival at Lennox Gardens this year and enjoyed hearing the ACT Senior Concert Band play. We ate some delicious food from various food stalls and watched entertaining sumo wrestling demonstrations. Catherine and Nicholas lived dangerously and sat as close as possible to the ring and weren’t afraid of the possibility of one the wrestlers falling on them.

The next day we went the Spring Festival at the National Portrait Gallery. Nicholas and Catherine got their craft on and created some cool moths and wind socks. We also listened to some lovely music from the Looking Glass Duo and the Luminescence Children’s Choir.

Halloween came and went quickly. There was some activity for the first time in our neighbourhood in the 11 years we’ve been here. Nicholas stayed home and enjoyed giving out candy to the trick-or-treaters while Catherine and I joined two other families trick-or-treating in our area. The kids had good fun that night and it was so nice to see some houses in our neighbourhood embracing Halloween.

We engaged in more of the outdoors and culture when a friend from Sydney stayed over the following weekend. Ivy and the Fox was a great place to have Sunday brunch. The kids ran around the gardens with their walkie talkies and we explored the surrounds after we ate our delicious meals. We went to the National Gallery afterwards and checked out the interesting California Cool photograph exhibit. Catherine wasn’t too interested in the art.

From Out and about Album

Despite storms and a recent bushfire scare, we have had some beautiful sunny days in Canberra. We had a picnic dinner at Weston Park one evening, kicked a soccer ball around and enjoyed the lovely surrounds.

It has been wonderful to spend some one and one time with the kids recently. Nicholas is on a mission again to walk up the mountains around Canberra. The first one was Narrabundah Hill (elevation 688m|2257ft) which he and I did together. It took us 29 minutes total. We had some good conversation along the way and both appreciated the view and each other’s company.

The following weekend I asked Catherine what she wanted to do together and we had a fun morning at the Yarralumla Play Station in Weston Park. We took the train to the mini farm and fed the farm animals. It was a pleasant surprise feeding the animals and watching Catherine having a ball. Afterwards she had ice cream and we ate it by the water on one of the rowing jetties. We watched the clouds float by in the sky and named as many shapes as we could. It was another special moment.

The next mountain we tackled was Red Hill (elevation 722m|2368ft). We took along some friends this time. There were lots of steps on this trail and it was quite a warm day. At the top we were rewarded with the Tardis (just over 10 minutes from the bottom) and then it was another 5 minutes to the trig marker. The total walking time was 33 minutes.