Cockington Green

While Mum was down in Canberra we took the opportuntiy to visit Cockington Green.  This is a model village on the outskirts of Canberra that I haven't been to in maybe 20 years.  We went there regularly when we first moved to Canberra to show visitors, but then we just stopped going when they'd all seen it.

I was surprised at how much it had grown and in some ways hadn't changed from how I remembered it.

I took the wrong lens for my camera (the 50-250mm one) so I was limited to photos that I could take from a distance.  But maybe the photos worked out anyway.

The big challenge was to take photos without someone standing in the shot to upset the sense of size.

We really enjoyed the place and would recommend it to people of all ages.  There were a lot of families there on the day that we went, and the kids really seemed to enjoy it.

Floriade

Mum came down for the weekend, so we took the opportunity to visit Floriade, the annual Canberra flower show.  It was a good time to see the flower display as nearly everything was in bloom.  In previous years, by the time we've got there, there had usually been a big storm, or torrential rain, or some other natural disaster that damaged the flowers - but this year everything was ok.  The weather was good too - the temperature had climbed enough that I could get around in shorts.  Mum, however, was covered up to avoid any more skin cancers.

I realised now that I must have a thing for flowers with a red/orange/coral colouring as I can see that most of the photos that I took were of tulips of these colours.

There were a group of people in traditional Polish dress that put on a display of Polish dancing and music, and some hung around for photographs afterwoods.

We were just turning back to the entrance when we looked into a little glade that had interesting decoration.

Spa awning

Last month we decided to replace the old pergola at the lower back side of the house with something actually useable.

I've never quite worked out the purpose of pergolas - those strange wooden frameworks that just sit there and do nothing.  Except need painting.  Ours was also dangerous.  You see, Karyn liked to hang plants from it.  Big ones. Right at head height.  Right where the the unwary face could walk straight into them. 

So we decided to get rid of it and replace it with a clear perspex roof that extended outwards in an "L" shape to cover the outdoor spa as well.  I hate sitting in the spa and getting rained on.

So we had someone come and measure it all up and install a roof.  The only problem was that the roof they constructed didn't actually cover the spa.  You can see from the following picture how the roof misses about a foot of the spa.

 When I rang them up, they said that there was no problem because they had built what we asked for.  I said "it doesn't cover the spa".  "But it was supposed to be 2.6 metres wide" they said.  I replied that the measurement was theirs and that I had asked them for a roof to cover the spa.  They claimed that they had no idea why we wanted the roof, so how could they know it was supposed to cover the spa?  They were desperate for any excuse by now.

Anyway, I insisted, so they came out and fixed it, and now it covers the spa properly.  And to be fair to them, they replaced the whole spa roof at no extra charge. Even though it was now several square metres larger than what they had quoted for.  Karyn offered them extra for it, but the boss turned her down.  I reckon they knew that they'd measured it wrong as soon as they started erecting it.
 

The roof is nice and high and I can sit in the spa and watch the stars at night.  And not worry about getting wet in the rain.

And no, that's not the same washing on the clothes line.

How could they claim that they didn't know that the roof was supposed to cover the spa?