Quilts, birds and walks in Canberra

 For the last few days Kerrie and I have travelled to Canberra to see the Quilt exhibition at the National Art Gallery. But that was not all we did. On the drive in to Canberra we veered off to the Walk in Aviary and had a great time with the birds there. Lots of greedy lorikeets ...

... and a tiny brightly coloured Painted Finch...

Kerrie had booked us in at the Kurrajong Hotel Canberra which was a lovely, comfortable hotel with a restaurant. 

After we settled in we went for a walk along the lake path but unfortunately we did not find anywhere open for afternoon tea in the section we walked along so we returned to the hotel and just had a room based cuppa.

Dinner at the restaurant was fantastic. We shared a risotto for mains and then had our own choice of dessert.

The next morning we drove to the National Gallery (a very short distance) so that we could check out of the hotel then walked along a different section of the lake walk. It was fun then trying to find our way back to the gallery along all the circuitous walkways under and over main roads.

Before we went into the Gallery we spent time in the surrounding garden. There has been a lot of wattle out all the way along the highway so we were able to look more closely at some of them in the garden.

While we were walking it must have been practice time at the Carillon on the lake. It was lovely to have the lovely gentle music in the background.

If you click on the picture you'll see Kerrie peeking over the sculpture.

I loved the Japanese sculpture in the pond. Kerrie even tried it out.

Then for the quilts. I was impressed by two of them...

... a lacy one...

... and a Log Cabin using 1/4" strips...

Of course we saw the Rajah quilt which was fascinating in its history.

When I saw these beautiful artworks of painted transparency I thought of Desley and her current projects...

Another exhibit I found fascinating included this one, especially for its layout.

Our drive home was relatively easy. We had lunch at the Lazy George at Marulan both on our way down and back. Good food just when you need it.

Thank you Kerrie for our time away.