Firstly - thank you to everyone who sent lovely emails and comments after my post about my adventures in Tokyo - it was really appreciated. I'm feeling much much better now, and even wondering when I might get the chance to go back to Tokyo and do all the things I didn't manage to do this time round.
In the meantime, I have recently had a lovely laid back couple of days visiting "Our Nation's Capital", Canberra. Which as anyone who has ever been there knows, is a good place to visit museums and galleries, and eat! This visit included a pleasant 40 min drive out into the country (north) to a tiny weeny town called Collector.

It's incredibly quiet here, but in spite of its small population, Collector has two cafes, one corner store, a church (and graveyard) of every Christian denomination, and one pub.


We had just missed the annual pumpkin festival, but there were a few telltale signs of the event.


But we didn't miss out on a very leisurely lunch at the Lynwood Cafe, which is in a beautiful, slightly run down (in a good way) building.

They sell their own home-made jams and relishes.

And they had a big fire going, so we settled in for the afternoon.

