FROM THE SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS of NEW SOUTH WALES

Last week Laurie and I spent four days in Canberra, Australia’s national capital. We visited the National Gallery of Australia to see the exhibition of paintings by Jeffrey Smart. The exhibition is to celebrate the centenary of his birth and is the most comprehensive retrospective of his work ever put together. It is a ‘must see’ if you are interested in Australian art and have the opportunity to visit Canberra.

The first two days were beautifully sunny and I took this photo of this large spherical sculpture that is suspended between the Art Gallery and the High Court of Australia.

Later we walked up to Parliament House. I took this interesting view of the axis from the parliament to the National War Memorial on the opposite side of Lake Burley Griffin.

Here is Laurie in the forecourt of Parliament House…

…and again overlooking Canberra from the Black Mountain lookout.

We then travelled on to the Southern Highlands where the colours of autumn are becoming apparent. These following photographs were taken in the garden of the guest house we stayed at in Bundanoon.

The flowerbed in the middle of the turning circle was an abundance of colourful autumn leaves and Japanese anemones, Eriocapitella hupehensis.

  

The Anemones were both the white variety..

...and pink.

The pendulous bell of this small flower was particularly enchanting.

Again “from the archives” this week's ikebana is one I made some years ago. 

It was an early experiment in the then new exercise a "Vertical Ikebana". The materials were some gathered stems of Corky Elm and Ornamental Grape, Vitis, leaves from the garden. The black ceramic vessel is from Seto City in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Seto is one of the Six Ancient Kilns in Japan where pottery has been made for 800 years.  

Belated greetings from

Christopher

11th April 2022