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 Yarramundi Reach - on the far reaches of Lake Burley-Griffin

On Saturday the KTNTM wanted to show Dad the Arboretum.  Unfortunately, the Arboretum was closed to the public as it is still a work in progress.  Instead, we decided to check out the nearby Yarramundi Reach.  Yarramundi Reach is sandwiched between Black Mountain to the North, the National Arboretum to the West, the Scrivener Dam and National Zoo to the South, and Lake Burley-Griffin to the East.  It is simply a spit of land jutting out into what is nearly the westernmost point of 'Lake B-G'.  Accessible off Lady Denham Drive, there is a walking loop and picnic area to explore. 

Firstly we had a look around the 'spooky forest' just to the South of Yarramundi Reach, which is planted out to an unidentified kind of nut tree with burnt-black trunks (note:  I have since found out these are cork trees that have been harvested for cork) and nuts (see pic below) littered everywhere.  It was dark and silent except for when a serious cyclist went whizzing by on the nearby bike path.  We disturbed parrots that were dropping nut shells from the branches above.  We saw green grass-parrots, rosellas and that lovely red/blue variety.  We also saw many ducks on the lake.  The KTNTM collected feathers and pretended a bear was after them.  Run!

There was sign post at Yarramundi Reach explaining that part of Walter Burley-Griffin's vision for Canberra was an arboretum at this site.  Almost 100 years later his vision is being fulfilled in the creation of the National Arboretum.  I found this a touching and encouraging sentiment; that one man's vision for Canberra a century ago had not been forgotten and indeed will come to fruition in the next decade.  Now that will be a legacy to behold.

Yarramundi Reach itself was quite desolate, just a bunch of natives, some naturally occurring and some planted in rows.  There were also a series of pines situated in a windbreak pattern about 20 metres from the shore.  The KTNTM enjoyed climbing on the huge boulders that have been placed along the gravel track and bounding up massive piles of aromatic woodchips, apparently the result of recent mulching of the lower branches of the pines.  When one of the KTNTM got bowled over by an over-friendly bull terrier we decided to head home, admiring the wattle in full blossom lining the main roads on our way home.  A simple but highly enjoyable outing.
           
Above:  Yarramundi reach on the centre right, with Government House visible behind it.

 Acorn on Cork Oak