It was all...

Something about the bright yellow paint job and the slick grey asphalt/building just makes my eyes happy.

The end

...of Floriade that is! Well, only until next year. Here's hoping it's a bit warmer!

& turn into gold in the sunlight

More floral loveliness from Floriade.

You spin me right round

Giant Ferris Wheels like this actually freak me out, but all the kiddies and their parents seemed to be having a grand old time up there seeing the flowers from a different angle. It's lit up at night, but unfortunately camera-phones are useless after dark!

Rainbow connection

One of the many colourful stalls.

I see red

This looks a bit scary and hurts my eyes, but I still like it for some reason.

Bright Grey

This week is the final week of Floriade 2009, so I thought I would celebrate it by posting a few pictures from the festival over the coming days. The last time I visited was for a school excursion goodness knows how many years ago, so it was interesting to come back and see it from a fresh perspective. I was going to write a spiel about Floriade, but their website does a much better job, so I pinched something from there:

Floriade began in 1988 as a spectacular commemoration of Australia's Bicentenary and Canberra's 75th birthday. Floriade blossomed for the first time with a stunning floral display of exotic bulbs and annuals, which grow beautifully in Canberra's climate. The community embraced the inaugural Floriade, making it such a success that it became an annual event - Australia's celebration of spring. Since its beginnings in 1988 Floriade has been held in the city, in Canberra's Commonwealth Park.

Floriade is Australia's premier spring festival and a world-class floral spectacular. More than one million blooms create a stunning backdrop to a month-long festival filled with music, cultural celebrations, horticultural workshops, artistic displays, entertainment and recreational activities. Floriade runs from mid-September to mid-October and attracts more than 400,000 attendees.

Check out the Floraide website here.

Angular

Corner of Alinga and Mort Street, Civic

A matter of perspective

Putting yesterday's sign into (a much larger) context. Giant insect/plant mural found in the city near Garema Place.

FYI

This no standing sign in the city has become something of a haven for stickers and general randomness on an otherwise mural-ised wall. Confined to the sign only, I like the respect shown to the artwork.

Through the looking-glass

City Daily Photo theme day this month is contrast. Natural meets man-made at Floriade in Canberra.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Facades

Outside the NGA

Pre-loved

Indeed, Kim's Chinese Grocery was immediately to the right of this picture. Garema Place, Civic.

Mixed Messages

Alinga Street, Civic

Awesome Chips!

This weekend just past I was visited by my fellow Photo-Blogger, French Sydneysider of My Down Under. Of course Canberra, as usual took a break from some lovely balmy spring weather to welcome her with lots of rain and cold wind. In conversation she made passing mention of experiencing something "exclusive to Canberra," so when we took refuge from the cold in the Canberra Centre while waiting for her bus home, we stumbled upon an exclusive Canberra experience: Kingsley's Chicken. Though a chain, it is located exclusively in Canberra.

A fast food institution of sorts, Kingsley's does all the regular chicken fare, as well as "salads, delicious Chicken Gravy and, of course, Kingsley's Awesome Chips - which many customers claim are the best in Canebrra, if not the world!" Wow!

Gimme shelter

Discovered these two pigeons huddled on a tool box in a vacant shop space at the Jolimont Travel Centre in the city this afternoon. I can't blame them - it was bitterly cold outside. How they got in? Another eternal mystery...

24/7

24 Hour Carwash, Weston.

The eternal question...

For those of you still bothering with this little photoblog, my deepest apologies for the massive and unannounced halt in proceedings. A fortnight ago I was knocked well and truly for six by what was apparently a nasty bladder infection which also entailed 4 sleepless and rather desperate nights in a row due to nausea or unbearable stomach cramps or a joyous combination of the two. At one point I honestly thought I would have to be propped up by buscopan and maxolon for the foreseeable futue. Such was my delerium. Not fun.

In the meantime I have recovered (and learnt how to sleep properly again!), but am still without a car! Maybe I need to bite the bullet and take a bus into the city one Saturday. Anyway, here we plunge back into the routine.

Complementary Opposites

Who knew a giant pile of gravel could be so aesthetically pleasing?

Running the angles

Because I have found myself habitually taking pictures of powerlines and the like, I usually employ a bit of self-censorship and avoid them all together. This beautiful mass of angles, however, I could not resist. Found up the quiet end of Hindmarsh Drive.

Hiatus (sort of)

I'm heading for the hills this weekend, far away from my laptop and magical wireless USB, which is probably a good thing! As such, there wont be any posts until Monday the 7th of September. I think you'll cope.

Primary Colours

These wonderfully co-ordinated pallette's and lifter out the back of a local nursery caught my eye the other day, not hard to see why. You may or may not have noticed that the majority of my posts in the last few weeks have come from a very limited area. I'm in the process of switching my registration between states and have been essentially without a car. This has forced to pay closer attention to my local area, to look beneath the seemingly mundane for an interesting image or story, and given me a greater appreciation for my little slice of the Canberra pie.

On the menu

Found behind Domino's Pizza at Weston.

Big

First day of the month means theme day at City Daily Photo. This month's theme is 'big'. Ah! The glare! This is why I love book shops - coming to my rescue at the last minute with randomly appropriate covers and titles! I really wanted to post a picture of Mr. Big from Sex and the City, is that a bad thing?

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

I heart Parliament House

Ok, so by now it's pretty obvious that I love taking photos of Parliament House! It's such a photogenic building, and there are so many different architectural and historical facets that make it so interesting to study. This little abstract is from one of the viewing rooms for The Senate. I'll let the government website explain:

"The Senate is one of the two houses of the Australian Federal Parliament. It consists of 76 Senators, twelve from each of the six states and two from each of the mainland territories. It has virtually equal power to make laws with the other House of Parliament, the House of Representatives. It is elected by proportional representation, so that its composition closely reflects the voting pattern of the electors...

...Proportional representation also makes it easier for independents and the candidates of the smaller parties to be elected. In recent decades this has meant that the government party usually does not have a majority of votes in the Senate and the non-government senators are able to use their combined voting power to reject or amend government legislation. The Senate's large and active committee system also enables senators to inquire into policy issues in depth and to scrutinise the way laws and policies are administered by ministers and public servants. The Senate is thus a house of review and a powerful check on the government of the day. Detailed analysis of election results makes it clear that many Australians deliberately cast their votes in Senate elections with this review role in mind."

Yee-haw, I do so love the machinery of politics!

Cool-hand Luke

Every day on my way to work I pass this inscription and wonder who are you? where do you come from from? Ok, sometimes I just walk right past without even noticing, and the inscription does answer my first question. I find it curious nonetheless.

Climbing up the walls

Crazy cloud frog in context. I think it's meant to be an Australian landscape of some sort.

The Frog King?

Or maybe the patron saint of rain clouds? Found as part of a large mural in a laneway off Brierly Street in Weston.

There's a destination a little up the road...

...Well just clap your hands, just clap your hands

(Sorry! I couldn't help the Beck reference, it was calling to me!)

I passed by a thousand signs

So much love, so little time.

Blossom for me, Rose...

Despite the biting winds, spring is just around the corner, I can smell it. (Argh! My finger! This occurs frequently, it's amazing I don't do it all the time!)

Woof!

Doggie vandalism is alive and well in Canberra!

Good Day Sunshine

Watching the sun rise on the way to work.

Reduce, re-use, recycle!

Doing their bit for the environment on the Queen's Terrace, Parliament House.

Third dimension

Three dimensional graffiti, Salvation Army carpark, Phillip

Fresh?

The other side of a shopfront, near Woden Bus Interchange.

Blossom

Nursery days, Pialligo

Going down down down

Continuing with staircases/steps, this is the Grand Staircase in the Entrance Foyer at Parliament House.

Deeper and deeper

When I took this shot, a friend who was with me at the time said it looked sad and forlorn. I prefer to see it as an interesting detail, a quiet moment in the hurly-burly and rush of life. Pictured are the steps which lead to the subterranean depths of Beyond Q Books in Curtin.

Before Sunset

Looking from Duffy, back across Holder towards Weston with the sunset behind me.

Curvature

I like finding (hopefully) interesting shapes in the ordinarily mundane. This is the entrance to the underground carpark out the front of Parliament House.

It was all yellow...

Now we're reaching overkill!

Tower of light (part 2)

Colour variations

Tower of light (part 1)

Usually lit in plain white, over the last 6 weeks or so, Telstra/Black Mountain Tower has been transitioning between every colour under the sun, and causing me to veer off the road in wonderment more than once! Apparently they are testing out a lighting rig to use on special occasions, but here's hoping the last few weeks can be replicated long term. I have to agree with poster #20 here, when they say, "I love the old space needle, it looks awesome on slightly foggy winter nights."

Please excuse my lack of posting the last few days. I've been drifting in and out of an atrocious cold which I just can't seem to shake, and if I'm not at work, or out (which is infrequent), I'm curled up in bed trying to get some kind of recovery happening!