We often get accused, here at The Canberra Times, of focusing too much on the negative - of complaining too often about things, or being too ready to give others (our valued readers) a platform to complain even more loudly.

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It's actually what's known in the business as "keeping the government / the corporate sector / the tech bros / landlords etc to account", so I'll happily wear it.

But today's column isn't going to be a whinge or a rant, but an ode instead.

It's an ode to Canberra in the sleepy summer, and more specifically the shores of Lake Burley Griffin.

Canberra in the summer is a secret most of us are well and truly in on by now, that it's actually the best place to be over the Christmas break.

It's empty, quiet and tranquil and, in this, it comes into its own.

Obviously - obviously - it's always nice to get away. To Canberra's summer playground (the South Coast) or your hometown in some other state (if you're not a trueborn Canberran, poor you) or even overseas, where you can fork out untold thousands for overpriced flights and hotels and have tremendous fun braving the endless hordes of tourists. Go ahead!

Or, you could find yourself in a state of pure, uncomplicated bliss, walking with the dog and the kids along Lake Burley Griffin, smiling benignly to the cyclists, laughing indulgently as your dog's lead gets tangled in that of another much-less-well-behaved dog, and imagining what Canberra's early planners would think if they could time travel over from the distant past.

Think of it - those planners and designers and builders and believers back in the 1940s, 50s and 60s,........

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