In the mist

Welcome to Canberra, where every other morning we're shrouded in mist.

Littlewing

This image begs a story, and I have been toying with many throughout the day. It is the discarded wing which I assume once belonged to a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo. When I took it this morning, frost still crisp on the grass it rested on, I felt as though I had stumbled onto a crime scene, a private and violent happening of which I was a post mortem witness.

Good day sunshine

Walking to work yesterday at 7am.

From the sidelines

Supported the Hall Bushrangers again on a Saturday, that despite a pleasant and sunny enough start, quickly dissipated into a cold overcast afternoon. When we arrived at the ground in Woden, we mused over the fact that there seemed to be a whole lot more people here than the last time we were here. Turns out they were there for a clash between 'Aussie Legends' and the Canberra Royals. Anyway, despite not having a scoreboard we're pretty sure that Hall won, despite a gutsy second half from the opposition.

A different perspective

Target carpark, Canberra Centre

Birdwatching

A couple of monogamous (? I like to think so!) pigeons at the Kingston Powerhouse.

Head in the Clouds

Walking through a tunnel of plastic shopping bags at the Soft Sculpture exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia. It possessed a surprisingly ethereal beauty.

Burnished

Jardine Street, Kingston

Peachy Keen

Inspired lighting, NGA gift shop

Intergalactic, planetary (part 2)

In more detail. Two today because I forgot yesterday!

Intergalactic, planetary (part 1) (Monday)

Supersonic graffiti art, Salvation Army carpark, Phillip

Lucky?

Horseshoe sculpture spied on previously mentioned aborted breakfast journey to Pialligo. I'd be buying myself a lottery ticket if I had that many horseshoes!

Memory Lane

School children on a guided tour of Parliament House.

A slightly awkward composition, I know, but one I am strangely drawn to. On the day we were there we kept bumping into this group and I couldn't resist the urge for a voyeuristic happy snap.

The sky lit up

Driving home on a stormy day

Subterranean

Beyond Q Books in Curtin is less of a book shop than an experience. Housed beneath the unprepossessing Curtin shops, Beyond Q is a book lovers dream, filled with 3km worth of second hand books as well as ephemera so random it's cool - I picked up a daggy 80s style Wagga Wagga postcard for my flatmate the first time I visited. They also make surprisingly delicious coffee which is served to you in tankards while you sit on a Victorian chaise lounge. Add live jazz on weekends into the mix and it really is about two or three slices of heaven, not to mention their impressive display of original Popular Penguins which lines a full wall of the cafe. Only 10 minutes drive from my door, this is definitely my favourite Canberra haunt so far.

At the hop

Lunch, Queen's Terrace Cafe, Parliament House

Take it easy

Ottomans (?), Canberra Centre

Abstraction

Foyer, National Gallery of Australia

Designed in the Brutalist architectural style, the angular structure of the NGA is based around the triangular form. This manifests itself most strikingly in the triangular grids of the gallery's ceilings. I'm not a big one for monotonous patterns, but whenever I'm at the NGA I always find myself looking up.

Hanging by a thread

Foyer, National Gallery of Australia

Woden Bus Interchange (part 2)

Little Mallrats hanging out at the interchange.

Woden Bus Interchange (part1)

Community-friendly graffiti out the back of Westfield Woden at the bus interchange (that is a "Chewy disposal board" you can see to the left of the tree).

Koko is the new black

For lovers of chocolate, Kokoblack on Bunda Street in the City is probably the ultimate experience, for those with somewhat less of a sweet tooth (myself included) it induces thoughts of disastrous sugar-comas past. Founded in Melbourne in 2003, Kokoblack embodies the style and substance of the European chocolate making it aims to emulate. I didn't have a chocolate breakfast in mind when I stumbled across this place last week, but was just happy that I was able to order a coffee and take refuge from the winter wind. Coffee wasn't spectacular, but the cake plate we ordered was surprisingly good and not as rich as I had feared. I'd stay purely for the old-world, dark-wood, slightly stuffy decor!

Caught in the headlights?

Pialligo Plant Farm, Pialligo

Last Wednesday I set off early-ish in the morning to take a friend of mine to my (current) favourite eatery: Podfood. However, on the way there we went through a number of traffic lights which had blacked out. When we arrived we were told that a blackout had wiped out power to the entire Pialligo area and we would have to forgo (an extremely delicious) breakfast. Wandering into the gallery next door (the name of which I did not have the presence of mind to enquire of), I spied these awesome, demented looking ceramic rabbits I thought would be equally at home in Donnie Darko. Pity I couldn't take them home!

Everything old is new again

Having the distinguished honour of being the oldest building in Canberra (being built in 1913), the now refurbished Kingston Powerhouse is home to a dedicated contemporary glass arts centre. The strikingly atmospheric building ebbs seamlessly between its historic industrial architectural features and the contemporary art it houses. Especially comforting on cold, windy winter mornings!

Turn on the bright lights

Groovy lighting, Canberra Centre

Stranger in a strange land

The spectacular foyer of Parliament House is designed, through use of materials and architectural concept, to represent the European arrival in Australia (this sense of symbolism permeates the entire building). Using white, grey-green and black marble sourced from Italy, and flooded with natural light, the 48 pillars in the foyer represent the once vast eucalypt forests which greeted the first European arrivals to this land. If you look closesly, fossilised crustaceans can be seen in the surfaces of the black marble.

Point the way

Parliament House (Good to know!)

Through the side streets and the alleyway

Off Jardine Street, Kingston

Far to Here

Far to Here exhibition, Parliament House

from the exhibition website: "How do refugees bridge the divide between memories of conflict and loss, knowledge of ongoing violence in their homeland, and beginning a new life in Australia? How has the journey from Africa to Australia affected them? And what do they think of their new home?

Far To Here is a photographic exhibition that attempts to answer some of these questions. In part one Kabir Dhanji documents the lives of Darfuri people who fled the conflict in Sudan and are now residing in Australia. In part two, Darfuri youth capture their own experiences, photographing their day to day surroundings. The result is a suite of images that spans the chasms between continents, cultures and generations."

Brides stripped bare

Green Square, Kingston

(back to Kingston Grind for more delicious mugs of coffee)