After the wedding

We were in Canberra for a couple of days after the wedding. Home again now, after a long and tiring drive. It feels like I'm getting too old for night driving so I was glad to get home without having had a close encounter with any B-Doubles.

As well as doing a big family birthday lunch for his Uncle Jim, the day before his wedding, generous Nick invited everybody to a BBQ breakfast the day after! As if he didn't have enough to manage in his life, such as getting married, setting off on a honeymoon and one or two other minor things...So David and I stepped up and helped out at the lunch and also did the breakfast, with help from Sandy and Ian. Trouble is, we expected somewhere up to a dozen people, and around 30 came, so we completely ran out of food.  But no-one complained. Everyone seemed blissed out and mellow after such a lovely wedding.

The bride seemed totally relaxed the following morning. They left for their road trip honeymoon shortly after, firstly heading off to Mogo zoo on the south coast then south via the coast road to Victoria, the Great Ocean Road and South Australia, where they will have a houseboat trip on the Murray.

After the breakfast we went for a coffee at the arboretum visitor's centre and also admired the grandly named National Bonsai and Penjing Collection of Australia. A lot of them currently in autumn colours. Wonderful time of year in the national capital. Incendiary tree colours everywhere.

Pistachio on Dryandra Street.

Mae's Italian friend Valeria had never visited Canberra before so we touristed her around for the afternoon. This is the Italian Embassy. "That awful place? That's our embassy?" she exclaimed when she saw it.

But she seemed to like the much more beautiful architecture of Aldo Giurgola, the Italian part of the Parliament House design team. Plus all that Italian marble in the hall columns, floors and staircases.

Parliament House seems to please everyone. We also took Valeria to the National Museum. Not such a universally loved piece of architecture. In fact I rarely hear anything but criticism, some of it vehement. The place and its collection is indeed challenging, but very worthwhile IMHO. Valeria liked it, anyway. She had seen a fair bit of Canberra by the time we put her on the plane.

Another Canberra landmark is the National Portrait Gallery. Again, a much admired building. We went there on Tuesday and saw the National Photographic Portrait Prize. After that, picked up Julian and Keliyah and had the most wonderful afternoon. Grandchildren are pure delight.

Here K is steering David by pulling on his ears. She thought this was hilarious. She loves to go out with us - probably because we give her whatever she wants and we just love her to bits. This time it was feeding the ducks by the lake, then a trip to Questacon complete with icecream.

It was good to stay with Anna and Frank for a few days, and thanks for having Wim to stay as well, you lovely people. As always, their garden was an inspiration.

Back home via Ikea in Tempe on Wednesday and back to work on Thursday. The butcher birds were so pleased to see us home. They are becoming so tame and are now happy to sit on our hands. The downside of this fondness is that they poo all over our outdoor furniture, because they are just so comfortable sitting around close to the house...