Home again

It was a perfect day to drive back to Sydney. We stopped off in Exeter for a cuppa with Suzy on her new terrace. In typical Suzy style, the paving looks like it has been there forever.

Her dog, Charlie didn't appreciate visitors. She barked and backed off. But she looks ferocious which is reassuring for Suzy living at the end of a village street.

We got home without too much traffic or making too many odd turns. Puffy was very pleased to see us home. She even wanted a longer cuddle than I did!

Canberra wine

We first visited Clonakilla, a winery established 40 years ago by a group of enthusiasts from CSIRO. I imagine they skied in the winter and "farmed" in the summer. The wines made here regularly fool the French experts in blind trials and are placed in the top shiraz class. They are horrified when they discover that they loved an Australian wine.

Then we next next door (but had to drive 5 K to get there) to Eden Road Wines which was also established 40 years ago. It wasn't planted as well so that the current wine maker (who has a very high reputation) plans to pull out most of the vines and replant shiraz grapes. Bruno greets all guests.

As an interesting aside, one of the sources of grapes that this winemaker has sourced in the last couple of years in his attempt to make good shiraz from the Gundagai region, just happens to be a former president of the World Bank. The retirees had a lovely gossip about him but had to admit that his grapes made superior wine. Tim, the winemaker, lead the tasting from barrels that had just been filled with this year's grape juice to wine blended and ready to be bottles. It was very interesting.

Then we went to Shaw Vinyard Estate for lunch in their very handsome restaurant overlooking these vines:

Back in Canberra we visited the Asia Bookshop which is a treasure trove of books about China, Japan, SE Asia etc. It nestles in the back of a shopping centre off Belconnen Way. Who'd have thunk it!

1818 meeting in Canberra

We left on Monday to come to this meeting of retirees in Canberra. As soon as I arrived I realised that I had left the cord that connects my camera to a computer. Today I had the time to go into Civic to buy a replacement. A sensible lady in Jay-what'it sent me downstairs to Ted's to buy a $5 USB card reader rather than sell me a $45 something from her shop. The $5 thingo works fine (so far.)


We stopped in Goulburn for lunch at the Paragon Cafe. It is amazing how different Australian towns are from Australian cities.

Lake George has some water in it . . . . way over on the other side.

We are staying at University House which is charming as usual. The atmosphere is unlike a hotel. Everybody is friendly and relaxed because they assume that you are here for the same meeting (Academy of Science meeting this week.) And the ducks are entertaining. They don't get into the water at night. Perhaps their toes get coi-ly nibbled.

On Tuesday we visited the National Museum. It is a silly building especially in the entry area where the furniture doesn't fit and the walls are useless but the area of the permanent exhibits is great as are they: all so well presented, clean, telling stories. We spent time in the Silk Road exhibition which was bought in from the US. The content is good (they even explain how an astrolab works) but the installation is flimsy. An event organiser could have done it better. I kept being distracted by the looming black of the ceiling peppered with wires and beams. The draw loom was interesting.

ANU seems to have a love affair with courtyards. Many are eating places nowdays. This one had a resident wattlebird who flew down to pick up the crumbs when people moved away from the tables. I thought they were wild birds!

Today we went, with the other retirees, to the National Gallery to the Von Geurard exhibition. (Why did they choose the only painting that was done in New Zealand to publicize this exhibition of his Australian paintings?) Lots and lots of paintings with lovely middle grounds and mountains but rather wrong coloured, formulaic foregrounds and his sky's aren't Australian (see Goulburn above.) Our docent whisked us off to the aboriginal art galleries in the new extension. They have natural light which is great and lots of space and overlook wonderful gardens. The new entry is a great improvement on the previous entry area. Of course, you aren't allowed to take photos.