Sunday, March 22, 2009

Yankie Doodle Aussie

Back on the eastern side of the country, it’s entering that time of year when the skies seem to be at their clearest, the warmth still abundant but not hot (yeah, a nice pleasant 28-30C for those at home celebrating the spring warmth), with the first tinges of autumn appearing on the suburban streets. Outside of the suburbs, things are dry and yellow (less than 7mm of rain so far this month), and instead of wide streets lined with sun-blushed oak trees we have dusty tracks peppered with death wish kangaroos, all too evident as I dodged and crawled and braked my way to Yankee Hat within Namadgi National Park. This provided a very simple but sufficiently pleasant walk through a broad valley, entering a forest at the base of a small peak known as Yankee Hat where there are some aboriginal rock paintings.






There is also the sense at this time of year that Canberra is winding down a bit (from slumber to comatose), and the last of the big summer events took place on Saturday night, Skyfire, which in common parlance is big fireworks and hoons in utes. This year I took a different vantage point high upon Red Hill rather than lakeside, though the hoons were still out in force at altitude.



After mixing with such riff raff I was due some culture on Sunday and popped along to the fantastic new kid on the block that is the national portrait gallery, where a photographic exhibition of portraits was on parade. Two things to note here – 1) why are most pictures of semi-naked men and 2) why does everyone walk around a gallery with their arms folded? Next time you are in a gallery you’ll walk around gently with your arms folded, I guarantee!



And as arms are now loose and free, it is time to bid goodbye once more from the A.C.T.

No comments: