Tuesday, December 31, 2013

 

Santa Came Again

Well, Santa managed to get through all of my Santa detectors and leave me some things that I couldn't talk the Oldies into buying for me. How does he manage that every year? There was a big present and a little one, so naturally I opened the big one first. Wow! A Bart-size drum kit. Dad had it assembled for me very soon and I could start playing. Look out neighbours, the Little Drummer Bear is here. Now to find other small bear musicians and form a rock group.  After all, if chipmunks can do it small bears should be ever so much better. Then it was time for the little present. A pirate movie and pirate costume: sword, hook, eye patch, hat, sash and badge of rank that says I am second in command of Black Bear the Pirate's ship. Aargh, avast there me hearties, splice the mainbrace, Black Bart is aboard.

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Monday, December 23, 2013

 

Ready !

The tree is up and decorated. Christmas-type things are on almost every cupboard top.  My wish list has been emailed to Santa. Reindeer traps have been set. Recording motion sensors are lined up ready to be activated before I go to bed tomorrow night. I am ready for the old whiskery fellow to drop something interesting in the way of presents under my tree.

A Very Beary and Happy Christmas to all of my readers and their families. I hope that Santa will treat you properly and that the holiday season is a time of peace and happiness for you all.





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Saturday, December 21, 2013

 

More Lava

Lava makes interesting patterns as it cools and sets. Here's a couple of photos that show what I mean. The top one is of the crater of Kilauea Iki (Little Kilauea). This is a secondary crater to the main Kilauea crater. You can see where the lava broke through the wall of the main crater during the last eruption in November 1959. In the background you can see gases coming from the active vent of Kilaeua. The crater of Kilaeua Iki is around 130m deep. From the rim where I am you can see different colours in the lava on the crater floor, meaning different minerals in the mix. You can also see interesting crinkly  patterns in the lava. You can actually walk a trail that takes you right down to the old vent of Kilaeua Iki. I wouldn't like to do that, just in case the volcano decided to erupt while I was down there. The bottom photo is of a place where lava flowed through a forest. Of course it burnt the trees, but if you look carefully you can see the way that the lava has remained in the shape of the tree stumps (for larger photo, just click on it). I need more time at the lava fields of Hawaii, there are so many interesting things to see there.

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Tuesday, December 17, 2013

 

Watching For Wildlife

When I am at the beach I like to see all of the critters that live there. Most of them are much smaller than me, so I feel safe looking for them. Any big ones I leave for the Oldies to deal with. Here are photos of me stalking the (small) denizens of Mollymook beach, just like my wildlife hero Sir David Attenbearough. You can find lots of small critters living in and under seaweed. My favourites are sand fleas. These aren't bitey fleas, they are called fleas because they can jump huge distances for such tiny things. They live in the sand and eat the washed up seaweed and dead things. Of course, it is wise to have a large rock nearby so that you can quickly climb up out of the way of bigger waves. My long-time readers will remember that I don't like crabs. Well, I have reached the stage where small ones don't worry me so much. After all, I am bigger than they are and can run faster. I find that the best way to get them to come out of their hole so that you can see them is to poke a stick down the hole and sometimes they will grab it and you can haul them out. It is kind of like crab-fishing. The little ones at Mollymook are almost the same colour as the sand and are much more scared of me than I am of them. You can spend hours investigating beach and rock pool critters.

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

 

On Top Of The World

One place that we just HAD to see during our time in Hawaii was Mauna Kea Observatory. This is one of the best sites in the world for telescopes. It is high above most clouds and is dry and usually calm. At 13,800 ft altitude it is one of the highest observatory sites in the world. It is certainly the highest this small bear has been without flying. The telescopes in the picture (from left to right) are the Japanese 8.2m Subaru, the twin 10m Kecks (the largest telescopes in the world at present) and the NASA 3m Infra-red telescope. Note that the NASA 'scope is operating; at this altitude the daytime sky is quite black at I-R wavelengths. There are lots of other telescopes at the Observatory, so expect more photos.
On the way up the road to the telescopes you have to stop at the visitors' centre. In fact you can only go higher if you have a driver with a permit. At the centre is one of the funniest signs I have ever read. We didn't see any cows on the way to the top, so I guess they must really be invisible. I didn't see any grass either, so maybe the invisible cows eat invisible grass. Evidently funny things live at high altitude.

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Back to the Beach !!

We spent the weekend at Mollymook, down on the south coast. The Oldies needed a mini-break and the beach is always the best for that. Now, just look at the beach. It is high tide and at low tide the sand is over twice as wide between the grass and the water. The sand is fine and deep. Makes Waikiki look a bit second-rate doesn't it ? The beach here is over 2 Km long and has rocky headlands at each end. There is a large rock platform at the southern end and it has lots of pretty rock pools full of sea life. Unfortunately it is under those waves you can see breaking at the end of the beach and you can only get there at low tide so I didn't make it this trip. Next time I will check the tide tables before the Oldies book accommodation. However, Mum actually let me get almost wet. She carried me down to just past the edge of the area where the waves were coming to and let me bounce over the waves. Maybe next trip she will let me go in on my own, or maybe she might drop me. I really would like to swim in the surf like Dad does.

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Friday, December 06, 2013

 

Hawaii Hotel

While we were in Hawaii we stayed at the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel. This hotel is the last one along the beachfront at the Diamond Head end of the beach. Diamond Head is a big volcanic crater and we had great views of it from our balcony on the 24th floor. Scruffy, Milkshake and I spent hours watching the colours and shadows on the crater walls change as the Sun moved across the sky. At sunset, Diamond Head looks really spectacular. We could also look down into the Honolulu Zoo and check out the animals there. The best part of the hotel for us small critters was a water feature and garden on the ground floor. During the hot part of the days we could rest up on the little seat near the waterfall and stay cool. Even the Oldies liked where we stayed and we would recommend it to anybody going to Hawaii.

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Tuesday, December 03, 2013

 

Volcano and Lava Flow

One of the things that I wanted to see in Hawai'i was the volcanoes. Well, as luck would have it, none of them were very active while I was there. The most active one is Kilauea and the active crater , Halema'uma'a, was puffing gas and a bit of fine ash, but no lava. You can get fairly close to the edge of the crater of Kilauea and it is much bigger than you would expect. Click on the photo and look carefully. The smoke is coming from an obvious crater, but the main crater starts just in front of where I am sitting and covers most of the picture. The far edge is the line of cliffs just below the horizon. When the lava is flowing this huge area is full. The little plumes are coming from steam vents. There are thousands of these vents over hundreds of acres near Kilauea. I would love to see the volcano when it is more active, but you can't get as close then. You can get an idea of the amount of lava that flows in the bottom picture. This was taken on a lava flow that covers thousands of acres. It came from Makaopuhi crater, on the horizon behind me, and goes from the crater right down for 10 Km into the sea. You aren't allowed to take any lava away with you, or move it around, but somebody had made this small altar, obviously for the use of visiting small bears. This lava flowed about 25 years ago and you can see that plants are starting to grow in the cracks. Eventually, over centuries, they will break the lava down into very rich soil. More volcano photos to come :)

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