Some scenes from the Monaro

This is essentially a collection of photographs from the Canberra-Queanbeyan area on our current trip.

In North America a special machine known as a Zamboni is used to groom the surface of ice rinks.  In Canberra a teenager with bad posture fills the role!
 They were getting a fair bit of custom on the Monday morning - although the guy on the left seems to have a 'different' approach to skating, having sensibly de-emphasised the skates.
Small people have penguins to push.  On informal rinks in Canada a garden chair was used in this way for much bigger people.
Later in the trip I took a photo of the fairy lighting in the Ainslie Avenue approach to the rink.
As this was after 2000 hrs the rink had ceased to function apart from a little more HPZ (human powered Zamboni) activity.

Having some time to spare in Queanbeyan I took myself to QE2 Park to see what birds were around.  I wrote down 18 species in 20 minutes including Black Swan ...
 .. Pacific Black Duck ...
 ... Dusky Moorhen ...
 .. and Eurasian Coot.
In the afternoon we visited the National Gallery of Australia, mainly to entertain Granddaughter #1.  I was taken with this wax statue.  It is actually a candle (although the flame isn't visible in this image) and the artistic statement is revealed as it melts.  It is standing on a fridge full of wax fruit which - according to the post-modern onanism on the wall - symbolises something I have forgotten,
 We visited the exhibition of Indonesian works.  I found them quite interesting to look at although the descriptions were again PMO.  The various elements of this neon design flashed on and off but I preferred the "all on" effect.
 A suspended sea monster (?) in a cage made of metal cutouts.  I'm sure the words cut out were symbolic but as it was rather dark I couldn't even tell whether they were in English or Bahasa! A PMO dream!
We spent quite a bit of time in the NGA Play area where granddaughter, and many other small people and their minders, made crowns.
This seemed to be a very good facility and a great way of luring small people into the Gallery.  So it was very disappointing to hear that its closing at the end of the month.  Possibly the NGA shop is moving back down there for some reason, having moved out of the area a few years back.

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