At noon today I drove to beautiful downtown Tuggeranong (for Alessandro to go to the orthodontist.)

I parked in the Maccers carpark and, using my 1 megapixel digital video camera, took some 'snaps' to share. Then, driving home, I pulled over twice to shoot some more.

I don't have access to my 2 great work cameras at the moment, so what they are, is what they are. And it was a grey day. Nine of the pictures are right outside the Tuggeranong Maccers, there is a photo at Fadden (a suburb), all the cockatoo pics are at Gowrie (another suburb) and one is in my front yard.

Being on vacation, I have some spare time and want to start a Canberra album. We have whacking great big sulphur crested cockatoos that sit on our front lawns, silly pink and grey galahs, black swans, wallabies, kangaroos, pine forests and more.

So, this is just a start. I will use the 5 or 6.3 megapixel cameras when I add to it, but I thought it would make a fun holiday project for me. Remember, these are just snaps.

Oh, that's torn it! I no longer have the travel bug - such astonishing natural beauty in my own back yard PLUS a Maccas !!! - who needs London, Edinburgh and Dublin when I can just get in the car and tootle down to the throbbing metropolis of Tuggers.

I actually CHOSE that orthodontist (all my friends went to Manuka) because it is next to that Maccers.

Are you over in Belco or where?

Are the cockatoo's tame? Or are they just like ordinary wild birds? Is this a dumb ???.

Ginger

Cockatoos let you walk up really close to them. I was about four feet away. They are quite bright. They are really big!

You often see them in cages here as pets. There is one I see outside the Phillip pet store all the time and one of my sisters once had one. Sometimes they'll all sit on one tree and they look like oversized Christmas tree ornaments!

I see these birds every single day. They make a real racket as they call out to each other. They hang out in packs and are all over Canberra.