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.