Mostly dead
This weekend a friend visited Canberra - she'd been sent to Sydney for a two week course and dropped by for a visit before flying home to New Zealand.
She's been a friend since our days in Africa, and grew up with my sister. Since my sister had to study, the friend and I went to Floriade, a month long festival of flowers and handmade crafts in the centre of the city. The tulips were pretty, as were all the flowers. They organise the flowerbeds into various shapes and decorations which I'm sure are very impressive, but are a little difficult to see when you're stuck at ground level.
There was a bonsai exhibit - this one had berries that looked like tiny fruit! Off to the side you can also see all the white fluffy stuff that was drifting all over the city yesterday. Good thing I'm pretty much constantly on anti-histamines nowadays.
A garden full of edible plants (parsley, radishes, lettuce, beetroots etc.)
All the tulips in the world.
In any case, we both took lots of photos (her camera is much more impressive than mine is), and then we went to the Gnome Knoll - where people had painted terracotta gnomes and entered them into competition. There were quite a few Santa gnomes, and Smurf gnomes.
They were mostly separated out into age categories, but there were group competitions as well. My favourite were the art gallery gnomes, where each was painted in the style of a painting -
My favourite was this, though I had not known the reference at the time. It is based on Martin Morububuna's print 'A child who cries a lot'.
Sidney Nolan's 'Ned Kelly' was pretty recognisable -
And then! We decided to make our own gnome masterpieces (not for the competition, though)!
Meet zombie Dread Pirate Roberta-gnome!
My friend made an All-Blacks gnome, in honour of the rugby tournament that's going on at the moment.
And once they were dried and varnished, we took them on a (mini) photo shoot before the rain set in. More photos are on Flickr.
I've yet to decide where Roberta shall hang out - we have a balcony but I'd rather not get her in the line of bird damage. On the other hand it's a little pointless to have an indoor gnome...
She's been a friend since our days in Africa, and grew up with my sister. Since my sister had to study, the friend and I went to Floriade, a month long festival of flowers and handmade crafts in the centre of the city. The tulips were pretty, as were all the flowers. They organise the flowerbeds into various shapes and decorations which I'm sure are very impressive, but are a little difficult to see when you're stuck at ground level.
There was a bonsai exhibit - this one had berries that looked like tiny fruit! Off to the side you can also see all the white fluffy stuff that was drifting all over the city yesterday. Good thing I'm pretty much constantly on anti-histamines nowadays.
A garden full of edible plants (parsley, radishes, lettuce, beetroots etc.)
All the tulips in the world.
In any case, we both took lots of photos (her camera is much more impressive than mine is), and then we went to the Gnome Knoll - where people had painted terracotta gnomes and entered them into competition. There were quite a few Santa gnomes, and Smurf gnomes.
They were mostly separated out into age categories, but there were group competitions as well. My favourite were the art gallery gnomes, where each was painted in the style of a painting -
My favourite was this, though I had not known the reference at the time. It is based on Martin Morububuna's print 'A child who cries a lot'.
Sidney Nolan's 'Ned Kelly' was pretty recognisable -
And then! We decided to make our own gnome masterpieces (not for the competition, though)!
Meet zombie Dread Pirate Roberta-gnome!
My friend made an All-Blacks gnome, in honour of the rugby tournament that's going on at the moment.
And once they were dried and varnished, we took them on a (mini) photo shoot before the rain set in. More photos are on Flickr.
I've yet to decide where Roberta shall hang out - we have a balcony but I'd rather not get her in the line of bird damage. On the other hand it's a little pointless to have an indoor gnome...