Approaching the huge water tank from the trail side, it’s a nondescript green.

​Called the Narrabundah reservoir, it holds 18 million liters and supplies water to southern neighborhoods like mine. It’s important. But utterly unremarkable … unless you see the opposite side, from the highway. 

​The mural explodes with color. I can pick out native flowers like banksia, grevillea, and wax flower. A goanna climbs a tree above a kangaroo family.

​And the birds! Many fly across the mural or populate the ground and trees, including a pelican, yellow-tailed black cockatoo, a gang-gang couple, and a purple swamp hen.

Something that I have always appreciated about Canberra is the effort to make the mundane quirky, colorful, and even beautiful. Local artist Geoff Filmer has played a big role. He’s known as Canberra’s “mural man.” The water tank mural is one of many projects he’s tackled.  

This artist is now one of my personal heroes; I was delighted to discover that he was the one who transformed a pump station into the famous TARDIS on Red Hill.

I admire Canberra too, for supporting local artists in their quest to make the everyday into something extraordinary.

We don’t normally have white winters where I live in Australia, although snow has been part of our forecast this year. Still, I searched the nearby wetlands in this last bit of winter to see what white I could find.

No snow on the landscape, but clouds and trees and a ghostly moon contributed some winter white.

Birds provided some fleeting white splashes.

​And humans have made their own additions.

​While my home in Australia may not have the snowy seasons of my childhood, I can still find lots of winter white if I look.

Australia is known for its parrots. Of the more than 300 different species of parrots around the world, Australia has 56 of them, not counting sub-species. Twenty minutes north of Canberra’s city center is a spot to get up close and personal to many of Australia’s parrots: the Canberra Walk-in Aviary

Planted with suitable habitat for birds, this privately-owned aviary stretches over 3300 square feet and up nearly 30 feet high. It houses around 500 birds from 55 species, including more than 20 types of parrots.

​The admission price includes a plate of apple slices and a bowl of live meal worms. The birds flock to visitors (and more importantly, to the food they’re carrying). It is not the place for people who are squeamish about birds perching on them. One determined bird landed on me repeatedly, running his beak through my hair, as if grooming me.  

I made the acquaintance of the lorikeets, particularly the rainbow type. These small parrots are cheeky, social, and persistent. Although they are often a pest in the wild, there is no denying their charm here.

These lorikeets figured early in Australia's history: a rainbow lorikeet was the first parrot to travel back to England with Captain Cook.

I thoroughly enjoyed my morning here and look forward to the next time. I’ll return with a better zoom—the camera loves these birds. 

​I grew up outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and whenever I feel a little homesick, I just go to my local Australian grocery store. The rows of Heinz products soon remind me of my hometown.

How did the H.J. Heinz company get all the way from Pittsburgh to Australia?

In 1869, using his mother’s recipe, H.J. Heinz started selling bottled horseradish from a pushcart on the streets of Pittsburgh. Other products soon followed, including sauerkraut, vinegar and pickles. Most famously, bottled ketchup and baked beans came a little later.

Those baked beans were Heinz’s entrée to the rest of the world. London’s famous store, Fortnum and Mason, became the first overseas sellers of Heinz products. The Heinz company introduced baked beans to England and marketed them heavily, eventually succeeding in making baked beans a staple of the British diet.

Heinz products came to Australia via American miners working in the goldfields in the 1880s. They shared Heinz foods with their Australian counterparts. Heinz representatives also held in-store demonstrations to introduce unfamiliar products like baked beans or India relish (a sweet mixture of pickles, celery, and spices).

​In 1935, Heinz’ Victoria factory began producing bottled horseradish, followed by baked beans and canned spaghetti.

​Heinz quickly learned to adapt to local tastes and change their products accordingly. The famous ketchup formula has different variations across the world. 

Heinz also purchased Wattie’s, a venerable New Zealand company, in 1992. 

​Today, Heinz products are sold in more than 50 countries, including Australia. Traveling around the world can still remind me of my hometown.

My thumb is the opposite of green. I can kill any houseplant, failing to keep even ivy or kitchen herbs alive. Imagine my boundless admiration when I visited the National Bonsai and Penjing Collection of Australia and saw what a combination of artistry and patience can do.

Bonsai is the art of growing miniature trees in pots, and it started around sixth century AD in Japan. Penjing means “pot scenery” in Chinese and goes back to the first dynasty of imperial China (around 221 BC to 220 AD). While the oldest bonsai and penjing are more than 1200 years old, this impressive collection is not that ancient. The oldest tree here dates to 1880.

About 80 trees are usually on display, and all the Australian or exotic trees have been donated or loaned by artists and their families or friends. The trees have been lovingly sculpted over time to create natural landscapes that evoke calm and tranquility. 

​Volunteers knit scarves for some of the trees, to keep them warm in Canberra’s chilly winters.

This lovely collection is located at the National Arboretum Canberra, and the website includes a 3D tour.