Canberra

We flew to Canberra for Easter with Lee, in her new apartment. It was a nice break with autumn in various stages around the capital.
On Thursday I cooked fruit buns and a cake for dinner at the Tavs. It was Toby's birthday but they did not get down from Sydney until just as we were leaving.
On Friday there was some rain about so we did not head out on the push bikes until mid afternoon. We rode around the lake, returning by the main bridge - not too many people but nice to see others out and about on a nice day.
On Saturday we drove south towards Cooma then decided to explore a road to the east, heading back towards Queanbeyan. We got to the water reservoir and enjoyed a walk to a limestone arch formation over the creek, then continued on to the old homestead which has been restored, and is visible from behind a protective fence.
Lee smelt smoke and we noticed a fire on a nearby hill so we set out to investigate. It was interesting climbing over fences and trying to put a smouldering log out. With stormy weather about and the risk of it flaring up, we were lucky to find a ranger to report it to while driving back past the dam.
We climbed Mt Ainslie and enjoyed walking around Lee's neighbourhood.
On Sunday afternoon, we went to a free ABC piano recital at Llewellyn Hall, then called in to a nice pub for house-brewed ales. We managed to get back there later in the week for a meal as well. It is nice to be able to walk to these things in Canberra.
During the week we visited the War Memorial library for some research on the Burma railway and nursing, and also watched an interesting film on the Burley Griffins and Canberra at the National Archives. We also went to a talk on Joseph Banks at the National Portrait Gallery where they had a portrait of him on loan from London. More time needs to be spent there. A highlight was a portrait by Florence Fuller. There are not many around, but we think she may have painted the portraits of Ebenezer Davies and his father. We think her connection with the family was through Ebenezer's second wife, Jane Vines.

Tuesday walk

Barbara led our Tuesday walk over the hills at Mt Prosper. It is a lovely remote sort of place but not far south of Toowoomba on the edge of the Main Range. We are lucky that the owner allows us to walk there.

Basket Swamp

We camped at Basket Swamp with Em on Saturday and Sunday nights. After having the place to ourselves on May Day weekend last year, we were surprised to find it full of white Subaru Foresters [as well as people and tents and a couple of other vehicles]. We discovered the group was the Second Wind bushwalkers from Brisbane - all about our age.
It was also quite wet and we initially chose a site in long grass at the rear but soon decided that the leeches were energetic, and moved back to the more open area near the road, which is very quiet. Fortunately we had taken a supply of dry wood so we were able to enjoy the campfire and felt that perhaps the leeches were not so keen on that.
On Sunday we walked around the firetrail, deciding that the side road south, although visible on Google Earth, was too overgrown. We will wait until after fires to explore it. The steep descent to the creek was a bit easier with the damp road and the water was quite high below the falls so we did not swim, but had smoko on top of them before walking back along the road for a later lunch.
In the afternoon we did have a couple of quick dips in the creek which was probably not as cold as last year.
On Monday morning we drove across to Wellington Rock, then back to Timbarra Trig where the low clouds had lifted to reveal the lovely views towards Tenterfield as well as north and east of there.
We drove back through Cullendore Gate to Warwick, stopping for an icecream at Allora.

Singing in the Rain

Our first Empire Theatre outing for the year was their production of Singing in the Rain which we both enjoyed. Although not really a fan of tap dancing, they did a great job of it - Gene Kelly was really great in the movie - and the sets, lighting, acting and singing were all very good.

Bunya Mountains

On Monday we headed out quite early to the Bunya Mountains where we had a nice walk followed by a picnic lunch, and another short walk after dozing in the sun for a while.

Burton's Well

Looking SW to Dalby from Mt Kiangaro

Lost in a Novel

We walked near Grapetree Creek last week, south of Perseverance Dam. It is an old forestry area with nice ridges and dry creeks running into Perseverance Creek. On Wednesday I drove down to Mullum to spend the night with Mum as Dick was away for 2 nights. He collected Em from the airport early on Friday and brought her back to Tba.
Meanwhile Mum had lent me a novel Sole Survivor set on Great Barrier Island. I really enjoyed it as it had a nice feel as well as being a fun yarn.
On Saturday we visited Dad's workmate and collected hay for our fruit trees.
Saturday night was Earth Hour so we had a campfire at our place with Ann and Keith. Ann made a vegetable frittata in her camp oven and I made a zucchini stuffed with pork mince with Asian flavours. To fill the pot I surrounded it with potatoes, sweet potatoes and onion and it all turned out very well.
We celebrated another 60th with our friends on Sunday.