Category Archives: Photography

Canberra Zoo

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I visited the Canberra Zoo with some of my family to celebrate my great nephew’s 3rd birthday. It was a beautiful day and everyone had a great time, especially the three year old. I was able to see several familiar Australian animals but a good selection of foreigners as well! Above is a snow leopard and below are the lions we could hear roaring from all over the park.

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The wallabies and fairy penguins were cute as always.dsc_3367fairypenguinssc

The fur of the dingoes was surprisingly soft and a beautiful colour

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The giraffe was the favourite of the birthday boy and one of the animals we were able to see up really close.

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There is also a reptile area and aquarium.

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‘New’ Parliament House

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When I lived in Canberra, the current Parliament House was being built. I remember touring the old parliament house as a student and as a teacher. I remember when designs were submitted for a new parliament house and when construction began. The photo below is taken from the new looking over the old towards the War Memorial and Mt Ainslie, site of cross country runs when I was in highschool.

from parliament house

Parliament house is now 26 years old and its modern design is very different to the old parliament house opened in 1927 and the Canadian houses of parliament rebuilt and opened in 1926. Today I walked around inside for the first time. It is an amazing building filled with beautiful wood, stone and architectural features.

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Above is the members hall featuring marble pillars designed to look like gum trees.

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The colours in the senate and house of representatives are the traditional red and green also seen in Britain and Canada but the Australian red is more of a red-ochre and the green a grey-green seen in the plants and rock of the Australian bush.

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I didn’t take a photo of the outside but you can see several views on the education site here.

Colours of Australia

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kookaburras

I’m in Australia visiting my family and enjoying sights and sounds I haven’t seen for a while. Three kookaburras posed briefly for me.

colours of australia

The sky is still blue; the grass is green but the tones are a little different. And of course gum trees are everywhere.

Dressember 9

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Days 1-9We are almost one third of the way through Dressember and I am happy to report that I have reached over a third of my fundraising goal. My goal is $1240 which is $40 a day for the month of December. Thank you to those of you who have checked out the sites I linked to at the beginning of the month and thank you to those who have already donated.

Last year the Dressember campaign raised $165,000; this year’s campaign has already past that milestone. As of today, 2,510 Dressember advocates around the world have raised $170,144.

I have to admit it has not been too much of a challenge wearing a dress for the last nine days. The biggest thing is of course keeping warm as the temperature has ranged from +5°C to -16°C. Most of my time has been spent inside but even when I’m outside I have a collection of warm boots and cosy tights to keep the chill off! Both my girls and a couple of friends have allowed me to raid their closets.  I didn’t set out to wear a different dress every day in December but it has been fun to have such variety.

The point is to make a difference and to make change possible for women, men and children living against their will in desperate, illegal and hopeless circumstances. The money raised for the International Justice Mission funds rescue missions and system reform as well as programs to equip and support those who have been rescued. Read some of the stories of hope here.

If you would like to the work of the International Justice Mission please visit my fundraising page. For updates check back here on my blog; to see the daily dress visit my  Pinterest board or my Instagram

Thanks for caring.

Lake Placid

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A month or so ago Andrew and I spent a weekend in Lake Placid. It is only three hours away from Ottawa and is a very pretty little town. We were there as the colours were changing  and saw some hills blanketed in autumn tones as we drove there and back home. Town of Lake Placid across Mirror Lake Heather Telford
The colours were not all golden as you can see in these photos of Mirror lake at dusk. The town of Lake Placid surrounds this little lake and many stunning homes and businesses such as the restaurant below have lake side views.

Mirror Lake Heather Telford
Lake Placid has hosted two winter olympics so there are sporting venues and historic sites everywhere you look. We were impressed by the front of Lake Placid Highschool (it looks a little fancier than our children’s highschool!) but we thought the concrete running track could use a little work. After walking a bit further we were able to read the sign explaining that it was the olympic speed skating track! Lake Placid High School Heather Telford
We spent several hours hiking up Round Mountain hoping that maybe the sun would break through by the time we reached the top. It did not.
View from Round Mountain NY Heather Telford
On the way back from our hike we stopped to stare at the Olympic Jumping Complex. Olympic Jumping Complex Heather Telford

 

Olympic Jumping complex Heather Telford
After we were back in Ottawa I was reading an article listing the most attractive towns in the US in autumn and not surprisingly Lake Placid was one of them. It would be fun to go back and see it in another season.
Chubb River Heather Telford

Frozen bubbles

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snow bubbles Heather Telford

It is bitterly cold here again so I tried a trick I had seen and heard about, freezing bubbles. I made bubble mix then braved the -20°C temperature for a few minutes at a time to blow bubbles in our snow and ice covered back yard.

snow bubble Heather Telford

Most bubbles shatter while they are in the air or as soon as they hit a surface. Some float in the air long enough to freeze before they land on the snow. 

broken bubble Heather Telford