Roaming the capital

After the distant sight of snow last week, it’s been shorts and cold beers all the way as temperatures nudge into the 30s. Throughout this time I’ve been hanging around Canberra, with two consecutive 5am Sunday morning starts for the rugby leaving me at times exuberant, disorientated, grumpy and annoyed with the number of Subway adverts shown during the matches.

Last Sunday I took some time out with a blanket and a book at the Botanic Gardens, lazing on the Eucalypt Lawn and watching the Rosellas battle for supremacy. The Botanic Garden never fail to impress me and I found more hidden corners to explore the spring blooms.



This weekend I have lived in my shorts, which is always a good sign! On Saturday morning, before it heated up too much, I explored a place called Cooleman Ridge, which is on the western side of Canberra. One side of the ridge is fairly suburban, albeit presenting a less manicured look, with new homes sprouting up amongst the bushland. The other direction is another matter, with the dry pasture weaving its ways alongside the rising Brindabella ranges.

Just five minutes from here is the delightful town centre of Woden, where there seems to be a sizeable population of large people (or vice versa), mostly hanging around one of the three donut outlets and / or Big W. On what was I guess a typical this is what most people do on a weekend weekend, I picked up a few bits, like a mallet. The mallet was to help erect my new tent which I got for my birthday (thanks, Plymouth family!)…a test run in the garden which passed successfully – it could be harder in a couple of weeks down on the South Coast, no doubt watched by experienced tent people sitting in their fold up chairs with a stubbie holder in hand, mocking the Englishman. The hardest part was rolling it up and fitting it back into its bag. Four attempts later, it’s bulging the zipper (oo-er) but packed away.

I also bought a flan dish as I craved bakewell tart and ending up making one. It turned out pretty good, but not the same as Mums (must pinch that recipe). Domesticity continued, interrupted by a certain early morning viewing of egg chase, into Sunday, with a trip to Bunnings Whorehouse for a banana bed (a sunbed to you and me) and of course the obligatory sizzle on the barbie later in the day. Hoi Sin marinated pork loin was superb.

With light still lingering, it was ideal to go walk off the meat feast up in Red Hill Nature Reserve, which provided a serenely charming end to the day. The grass is long and wildflowers in abundance up here, the time of day just fantastic for the light, nature in abundance either packing up for the day or just starting out. And over the delightfully charming shopping village of Woden and into the ranges beyond, the sun sank like the hopes of the England rugby team, only far more beautiful.