Mulligans Flat

To celebrate Mother's Day we left the children at home and went for a nice long walk around Mulligan's Flat. It's a woodland reserve in the north of Canberra - so about a half hour's drive which was exciting in itself! We could look at all the different things. And it was a beautiful day; sunny, clear with a bit of a cold wind but nothing a scarf couldn't keep away.



The woodland sanctuary is 984 hectares, with a variety of landscape, all boring and scrappy and Australian. Great to walk through, and plenty to look at, but it's never going to make the top ten list of the world's natural beauties. There was an old woolshed, which was apparently still in use up until the 1990s.



And the old coach road runs through it, that used to be the main route from the various settlements around the region to Bungendore and on to Sydney. It was built in 1880, so perhaps not super old, but still heritage listed. It looks like it would be a long and bumpy trip to Sydney.



Here is a big dam with dead trees in it. It is quite startling (and it's also one of the only spots where you can see houses - most of the walk we felt a million miles from anywhere).



There were a few people out and about but not heaps, mostly families and they dwindled the further we got from the gate. We did about a two-hour loop which was just right to then go home for lunch and laze about all afternoon knowing we've had our exercise. And for me to eat my Mother's Day chocolates! Perfect.

The rest of the weekend has been quiet. I pinned up the circus quilt, with the dog not helping - as you can see I went with an all-colours piano key border just to give it a bit of oomph. Still not convinced. There were forays by the rest of the family to shops. Apparently the shopping malls were crazy busy, with shops trying for adequate distancing and mostly failing, so I'm glad I didn't go. Parliament is sitting again this week so that will be my ration of germy people travelling into Canberra and touching the door handles.