Finding joy in the everyday

Pool of Reflection and the Eternal Flame.  Within the Hall of Memory (at the end) lies the tomb of the Unkown Soldier - the soldier  died in France in the First World War and brought home on the 11th of November 1993 No Art Wednesday today as it is ANZAC Day . Last week my son and I visited the National War Memorial and I would like to share some of the photos I took whilst there.  I'm not one for celebrating war however I find the War Memorial so tastefully done, both as a place of remembrances, but a reminder of the horrors of war, something each new generation needs to be reminded of. War is never good. Simpson and his donkey John Simpson Kirkpatrick was born in Britain but later moved to Australia. In August 1914 he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, serving at Gallipoli the following year as Private John Simpson in the 3rd Field Ambulance, Australian Army Medical Corps. He served from the time of the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April until he was ki...

Instead of our normal Saturday rush about - trips to the supermarket and hardware store (my DH loves visiting the hardware store on Saturdays!!), cleaning the house and doing the washing - we decided to go for a walk along the banks of Lake Burley Griffin in the centre of the city.  At 9am it was still very foggy and grey (as you can see by the photo below) but not too cold for walking.  However I wasn't concerned about the fog as it usually clears by 10am, and as you will see from other photos, it did. Very foggy view of the lake looking towards to the bell tower and bridge. This lake was created in 1967 and is integral to the design of the city. A water bird warming its wings, didn't seem to be afraid of us at all. Autumn along the shore line. This lake is very popular for rowing, some of these are our Olympic athletics doing their training. We saw a number of black swan families on the shore, I wasn't sure if the one at the front was going to chase me so I didn't h...

Today I awoke to glorious spring weather so off I went to Floriade.  I went alone as DH does not like flowers, crowds and suffers from hay-fever.  Floriade is the biggest flower festival in the southern hemisphere with  over 1 million bulbs and annuals planted each year. (including 87 varieties of tulips, 45 varieties of pansies and 13 varieties of hyacinths).  You can just imagine the scent of all those hyacinths - it was beautiful.  The flower planting is staggered so there are flowers on display for the whole month.The garden beds cover 9,105 square metres. It started in 1988 to celebrate Canberra's 75th birthday. At the end of Floriade (in mid October) the gardens are all dug up, bulbs sold to the public and any flowers left are picked and given to hospitals and nursing homes in the region. It was difficult to take photos without any people in! However I tried very hard and managed a number of shots without humans - these ones below give the impress that ...

In Australia we have 2 buildings, one is called OLD Parliament House (picture below) and the other is NEW Parliament House, the latter is 22 years old (opened on 9 May 1988 by the Queen Elizabeth II) and is the current home of the Australian Government.  Old Parliament House was occupied from 1927 to 1988 and was always considered a temporary building until on was built. The current Parliament House was designed by the New York-based architectural firm of Mitchell/Giurgola Architects lead by the Italian architect Romaldo Giurgola (they won a competition to design the building).  At the time of its construction (see below), it was the most expensive building in the Southern Hemisphere at over $1.1 billion (Aust). Construction began in 1981 and was expected to cost $220 million (boy, didn’t they get that wrong).  From above, the design of the site is in the shape of two boomerangs enclosed within a circle. Much of the building is buried beneath Capital Hill (in the diagram ...

I thought I would end the week by sharing with you some photos of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra.  My cousin, her husband and children spent Monday in Canberra and we had a picnic and walk along this beautiful lake.  Here are some of the photos I took. To give you an idea of the lake, here is a satellite photo (no, I didn't take this!!) of the lake and the city of Canberra.  In case you were wondering, the population of Canberra is 330,000 and is the  Australian nations capital (like Washington in the USA). Below is a view of Lake Burley Griffin looking towards Commonwealth Bridge, one of 2 bridges that cross the lake.  This road takes you straight to the Australian Parliament) building.  Lake Burley Griffin is an artificial (man made) lake in the centre of Canberra and was completed in 1964. It was named after the American architect who won a competition to design the city of Canberra. (which I will talk about in another part of this series).  The...

The theme this Monday is " Lake Views " - these photos where taken at Lake Burley Griffin in the  heart of the National Capital of Australia - Canberra. Canberra is a designed city (by the American architect Walter Burley Griffin) and the home of the Australian Parliament (which can be seen in the distances of the photo below).  This lake is man-made and is the heart of his design.  Being a designed city - some say it is cold with no character, - but that is usually from people who do not live here - but after 90 years I think it has improved greatly and is a beautiful place to live.  For more information check this link out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canberra   In the photo above you can see new buildings rising in the city of Canberra.  It isn't like other cities (it's quite small) and part of the design was no tall buildings so it doesn't have the usual high rises seen in other places. I know these last 2 photos aren't about lakes - the fir...