Odds and Ends on a Monday

I'm thinking that I might not have much time to be blogging over the next couple of days, and since I know how long it can take me to put a post together when I get behind and have too many things to share,  I'm going to get another, short, post done tonight.

I was picked up by a dear friend of mine after leaving the War Memorial this afternoon and she took me up to the top of Mt. Ainslie for a look-out over the city of Canberra and surrounding countryside.

Mount Ainslie marks the northernmost point of a land axis, planned by Walter Burley Giffin, that stretches through North and South Canberra. This axis takes in the Australian War Memorial, Anzac Parade, the two Parliament Houses, and actually stretches straight back through the mountains to the highest peak in the range about 200 kms south.  Unfortunately the weather was a bit overcast today, but from here you get a good view of Lake Burley Griffin, many of the national buildings and institutions, and also much of the city of Canberra.

You can also see just how close the Brindabella Ranges are to Canberra - and what pretty country it is!

And then at the end of the day today I had the opportunity to go out to the school I worked at the year I lived here (2002).  The school isn't actually located in Canberra, or even in the A.C.T..  It's just across the border in New South Wales, in a little community called Sutton.  As it should, some things have changed but at the same time it was still very familiar - and I'm glad I had the opportunity to go back for a quick look.

This is the school yard (here it's called the school oval), where I encountered the cow at the end of my first day of work.  Not having the foggiest idea what I was supposed to do with a cow I decided I'd just go home and if it was still there the next morning I'd worry about it then.  Thankfully it had gone!  I never saw another cow on the school oval, but I did see kangaroos on a couple of occasions.

As you can see, a small, rural school in New South Wales is a lot different from an urban, inner-city school in Toronto!