Bart Bear's Blog

While she was digging into the goodies at the Bredbo Christmas Barn, Mum found this glitzy mask, just the right size to fit me. So naturally, without any consulting with me, she bought it. Yep, it fits OK but what sort of small boy bear would wear bling like that? Hmmm, now what critters wear masks? Crime-fighting superheroes and villains, that's who. Thinks: I have this glitzy mask, Unka Paddy made me a starry cape and hood for the Astrobears' Teddy Bears Picnic last year, and Santa gave me this souped-up racing car a couple of years ago. Mask + Cape + Speedster = Small Bear Superhero!! Now for a name.... I've got it! The Crystal Avenger is born. Now, is the Crystal Avenger a hero or a villain? I think it's too dangerous to be a villain around our house because Mum would be too severe if she caught one, so hero it is. Look out household vermin and cookie-snitchers, the Crystal Avenger is on the job and retribution is on the way. Hang on a minute, the biggest cookie-snitchers around our house are Dad and me, so it's just "Look out household vermin".

Labels: Canberra, family

Mum, Unka Paddy and Aunty Karen went shopping yesterday. They went to a special Christmas shop at Bredbo, a little town south of Canberra where there is a whole big barn full of Christmas decorations and stuff. Dad stayed home and we watched the cricket. This first Ashes test is turning out to be a great game, even if it ends in a draw. Anyhow, Mum comes home with something that claims to be a Christmas tree. Well, it's the smallest tree I've ever seen. It's made of glass and only has nine branches. It looks kind of pretty, but I have a big worry about it. How on Earth is Santa going to be able to fit my presents on or even under it? Maybe if it gets lots of water and fertilizer over the next few weeks it will grow bigger. Does anybody know what fertilizer works best for glass trees?

Labels: Canberra, Christmas, cricket, Santa

One of the most impressive things at this year's Floriade was this model of Old Parliament House. What made it so special is that it was made entirely from sand. Now, if I was making something that would be out in the open for a month I would make it from wood or plastic or something that would not wash away in the rain. Well, it did rain a bit and some of the little building washed away. And it got fairly warm sometimes and the sand dried out and some of it blew away. That meant that the sand architect had to keep repairing it. I watched him doing it one day and was thoroughly impressed. The sand model was an exact replica of the old Parliament House. I have been there a couple of times and everything that I remember in the real building was in it's right place on the model. I wish I could build things like that in sand. Everything that I have done on the beach so far has fallen down fairly quickly (particularly when Dad's useless big feet are in the vicinity). I guess I will have to stick to building pirate forts, like the one I built with Scruffy and Milkshake on our last trip to Whitehaven Beach.

Labels: Canberra, gardens, models

Sometimes when we are passing through Brisbane airport on our way to the islands we have a couple of hours between flights. One of the ways to fill in the spare time is to hop on the free shuttle bus that takes you around to the factory outlet shops. The coffee is much better there than it is in the airport. While the Oldies are having their usual coffee and muffin I go exploring. Last trip I got a big fright. I went around the corner of one of the shops and was face-to-face with a big silver monster! After a few seconds I realized that it wasn't alive. It was just a bit of crazy sculpture. Actually, there were a couple of other funny-looking sculpture critters there as well. They are great things for small bears to climb on. So if you are filling in time near the coffee place at Brisbane airport DFO and have a small bear with you that you want to keep amused for a while, just find these critters and turn the bear loose.

Labels: climbing, Queensland

Wow, it's hard to believe that I have been writing this blog for 4 whole years! I didn't think that anybody would be all that interested in the doings of a small Aussie bear and his Oldies, but at last count people from 15 different countries were reading my ramblings. Over the four years I have shown you some of my favourite places, like Fiji, Norfolk Island, Hamilton Island, the Great Barrier Reef and lots of places on mainland Australia from the beaches to the central desert. I hope my travels by car, boat, plane and train have been fun to read about, and I hope the Oldies keep us travelling. And of course I haven't been able to resist bragging a bit about the craftwork and models that I help the Oldies with. Thanks for reading my blog; I really do enjoy your emails and occasional comments.

Labels: aircraft, airshow, animals, astronomy, beach, Captain Cook, family, Fiji, fish, Hamilton Is, lighthouse, Norfolk Is, Queensland, Temora, train

We always find interesting things when we are in Sydney, but this find was one of the best. Down in the Rocks area, near where the big liners dock, is a special chocolate shop. It is a Guylian shop. Guylian is a special brand of Belgian chocolate and small bears and Oldies just can't get enough of it. Imagine, a shop full of chocolate in all forms. Not just block chocolate but hundreds of different shaped and flavoured small "nuggets", hot chocolate to drink, chocolate sauce on all sorts of dessert; more than even a huge grizzly bear could gulp down. Here are Dad and I about to tackle some waffles with ice cream smothered in chocolate sauce. You can see which one of us has the better table manners. And guess what? Around the other side of Circular Quay there is another Guylian shop. Now that's planning for you. Top up on choccy at the Rocks, walk a kilometer or so and you can replace the energy you used with another choccy fix (for overseas readers, "choccy" is Australian for "chocolate"). Sydney is really worth visiting.

Labels: New South Wales, Sydney

You can always see swans on Lake Burley Griffin. Here's a family of a mum and four bubs that I saw last weekend. Overseas visitors get a surprise when they first see Australian swans. Ours are black, most of the overseas ones are white. Actually, the little swans, called cygnets, start out being a pale grey colour and get their black feathers as they get older. The adult ones are the only completely black swans in the world (if you don't count the red beak). You can see them just about anywhere in Australia where there is water. I didn't have to go looking for this lot. I just sat on a tree stump near the edge of the lake and they came to me. They were hoping that I would feed them something. I can understand that because their usual food is algae and water weeds. It is not a good idea to feed them other things though. Lots of our local swans get sick because people feed them bread, chips, bits of sausage roll and other bits of picnic food. These guys were disappointed but small bears know how important it is to look after our wildlife.

Labels: birds, Canberra

It's still raining and the dams are still filling up, so we went and had a look at another one. This is Scrivener Dam and it is an important one for Canberra because it is the one that keeps the water in our lake, Lake Burley Griffin. The top photo is taken from the picnic area on the lake side of the dam wall. You can see that the water is right up to the top of the dam wall. The bottom photo is from a car park on the other side of the wall and you can see water spurting out from one of the flood gates. It was a bit more spectacular a couple of days before when more gates were open but the Oldies wouldn't take me out in the rain to see it. It's great to have rain again. Every plant is growing like mad and all the bushes are flowering again. Of course that means that grass is almost head-high in places (and that's Oldie head-high, not small bear head-high). That means problems for people with big lawns but I am safe from being shanghaied into the mowing gang because we live in a town house with a paved courtyard. I just watch the rain and enjoy the change from the dry, brown country of a few months ago.

Labels: Canberra, dam

Guess what you can clamber around at the Sydney Maritime Museum? A full-sized replica of my number 1 hero's ship. Yes, it's Captain Cook's "Endeavour", complete in every detail. Small bears and their Oldies can spend hours looking around this ship. And when they are finished with that, there is a destroyer and a submarine and a patrol boat and lots of other small boats as well as the exhibits inside the museum. And of course there is the lighthouse. This was the lighthouse from Cape Bowling Green, near Townsville in Queensland. It was in use there from 1874 to 1987. When it was replaced by a new light on a steel tower, it was bought to the museum and fitted out with the gear it had in 1913. The museum also has a fleet of historic boats that range from yachts to a big square-rigger ("James Craig") and you can actually go sailing on them. That's something I will talk the Oldies into one of the times we are in Sydney. Check out the museums website and plan a visit or a cruise http://www.anmm.gov.au

Labels: boats, Captain Cook, heroes, lighthouse, New South Wales, Sydney

If there is an emergency on Hamilton Island this special buggy is quickly on the scene. There are all sorts of special buggies on Hammo as well as the hundreds of ordinary ones that everybody uses to zoom around on. This one has all the tools that might be needed to help rescue a tourist in trouble. I like the spotlight best. Just the right size for a small bear to swivel around and light up unsuspecting things. It would be great to have a go with this at night and spot and scare the wallabies that live in the scrub on the side of the hill. You could play "sailor at the Battle of Jutland" and light up "enemy boats" coming up the passage between the islands. Maybe I need a spotlight like this on our car.I had a chance to climb all over this special buggy when it parked next to us at One Tree Hill. If you wait for a while on One Tree you will see and meet everything and everybody on Hamilton, so it is one of my favourite spots.

Labels: Hamilton Is, Queensland