Visit the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

I have visited the National Gallery of Australia on several occasions.  Tagging along after a volunteer guide, carrying my stool, as a sullen high school student; as a young university student with boyfriend, and late last year to celebrate my tenth anniversary with my husband (yes, the same boyfriend).  The National Gallery rocks.

You cannot get bored at the gallery.  You can spend minutes staring at Jackson Pollock's "Blue Poles", for example.  I was upset that I could not find the square block of black painting that mesmerised me as a teenager.  I tell you, there were shapes in that seeming simple block of black.  I am not being facetious here.

Highlights of my recent visit with hubby were the colonial art, and the brilliant photographic exhibition tucked away at the back by an Australian woman, Carol Jerrems.  There is a lot of post-modernism and pop art that can be a little tiresome.  However the Aboriginal art is compulsory.

The gallery is large enough that you can look over everything thoroughly in several visits, or flit through and see everything that catches your eye in one.  There is also a delightful sculpture garden between the gallery and Lake Burley Griffin.  Facing out to the gardens and onto a pond with disconcerting heads poking up out of it (purposely so to bring about an emotional response to a massacre that occurred in Indonesia), is the restaurant.

Fittingly, the gardens are native and are designed around a four seasons theme, although I couldn't pick it.  The kids are free to roam, but not touch or climb on the sculptures.  The experience was stimulating for the KTNM, who don't really need any more stimulation - but what the heck, it is art. The native gardens are a superb example of how attractive and sustainable an Australian native garden can be.  The resident flocks of blue wrens have to be seen to be believed.  I also saw several groups picnicking on the lawns, which is an idea I have tucked away for future reference.

Do visit the NGA.

PS - Toulouse-Lautrec has just arrived and OMG Turner is coming in 2013!!!

Visit Floriade, Canberra

Aaaaah fantastic, funky, flowery, Floriade!  By glistening Lake Burley Griffin, under the bluest of Australian skies grow the pampered floral beds of Floriade.  Located in Commonwealth Park, Canberra, Floriade is Canberra's premier festival. 

The stiff Canberra cold must be the perfect breeding ground for bulbs, because the flowers of Floriade were just perfect when I visited on Thursday.  I visited again today, and some of the heads were a little less vital after the weekend wind and rain.  Nevertheless, the flowers were brilliant.  Not quite as spectacular as the Dutch tulip fields, but pretty great all the same.

Free entry to the festival means you can come and go as you please.  There is plenty of parking available off Corranderk Street, or you can catch a free shuttle bus from the city.  There is disability parking adjacent to Commonwealth Park.  We parked in the CIT carpark off Constitution Avenue, where a couple of dollars in the parking meter is all it takes to secure a worry free outing to Floriade.

Budget-conscious as ever, we took our own lunch.  There are many wonderful spots for a picnic lunch and many other families appeared to be taking advantage of the perfect weather and picturesque locale to do the same.  There is an assortment of food choices available, in kiosks scattered throughout the gardens.  There are coffee vans and a wine garden too. 

Kids are well catered for with a small selection of carnival rides, including the must-do attraction, the Ferris Wheel.  Atop the Ferris Wheel one can appreciate the full extent of Floriade.  Only from this point of view can one make out the pictures and patterns created in the floral arrangements.  This year there are shoes, lips and top hats to reflect the inspirational spring style and fashion theme.

For kids there is also an area that has craft activities, spray-on tattoos and face-painting, reptiles and a circus. 

Free entertainment on the Big Stage is high quality.  We saw a children's choir and an orchestra performing.  There was also an old fashioned organ that was pumping out well-know tunes.  "The Day We Went to Bangor" had me singing along enthusiastically. 

The crowds at Floriade were perfectly behaved and I didn't see a single person having a bad time.  Our group consisted of a couple of women and a bunch of little kids, yet getting around was no problem. 

Meander the flower beds, revel in mother nature's glory, and just try and keep your hayfever at bay at Floriade.  Visit Floriade's website here