We took a few days off to go back to Canberra.
Since COVID and since my husband no longer works for the Department of Social Services, we haven’t had to travel there. Which is sad, because the place has really grown on me.
This it the reason we went: my son the professional musician scored a gig with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra. It was sold out, amazing and it’s a very good orchestra. Well worth watching.
This picture below sums up Canberra, Australia’s bush capital. It’s spread out, full of bush (green in this time of the year, but more often brown/grey). It’s also at quite high altitude, and it’s COLD.
This picture was taken from the Arboretum.
The Arboretum has a really nice bonsai display, with many native trees.
Now, of course, I have to try to bonsai an Angphora tree, like this one below. Our Angophora was planted in the front yard a year and a half ago and it’s over 5 metres tall. They grow into BIG, BIG trees.
So now I have to go to the native tree nursery to buy a seedling tree to bonsai it.
Here is a paper daisy on Red Hill. Red Hill is a reserve just behind Parliament House.
These trees below grow all over Canberra as street trees. They’re called Ribbon Gums, because they shed their bark in ribbons that adhere to the tree year to year (gum trees shed their bark annually as well as their leaves) and this results in very messy tree trunks. It’s a very distinct look.
In the Arboretum is an old Cork Oak forest:
And it’s full of these beautiful mushrooms:
Here is a hairy plant that’s very common on road verges:
At Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, the Grey Kangaroos are everywhere (as they are all over Canberra)
We saw a Platypus in these ponds, but it was too far away for a picture.
