Bart Bear's Blog

Yay!!! After 2 years when our flower festivals were closed due to the dreaded virus, they are back. The big one is Floriade, in Commonwealth Park, but I prefer the one at Tulip Tops, just over the border into NSW. Because there is a small entry fee to the garden the crowds are smaller. This means that the Oldies can get photos without having to wait for gaps in the people traffic. Another big advantage is that the garden is flat so my ageing Oldies find it much easier to walk around. As well as flowers there are lots of trees in blossom. I like to smell the blossoms but have to be wary of the hordes of bees that are busy harvesting the pollen. There is a cafe with good snacks and free tea and coffee. And yes, there are lots of trees for small bears to climb.

Labels: Canberra, climbing, gardens

For the second year in a row Canberra's flower festival, Floriade, has had to be cancelled. Lots of the plantings have been taken out to suburban centres but there are lots of large flower beds still in Commonwealth Park where Floriade is usually held. The big difference is that the festival displays, stalls and rides are not here. Many Canberrans are making use of the fine days we are having and walking and picknicking in the park, making sure that outdoor COVID rules are being followed. I love tiptoeing through the tulips and hiding in the hyacinths, in fact I just love flowers. And yes, that squirtey thing in the first image is the Captain Cook Jet.

Labels: Canberra, gardens

Every year Canberra has a big flower festival, called Floriade (you can see pictures from other years if you search the word). Normally it is held in Commonwealth Park and thousands of people visit it during the month it runs. Because of COVID, this year had to be different. People could not be bunched together along narrow paths around the flower beds. The solution; spread smaller flower beds around the city and suburbs where there is room for people to spread out. Here are images from the Gungahlin town centre and the Kingston foreshore. I enjoy hunting small critters among the flower stems and trying to see if I can smell any difference between the different types of flowers (that's hard for small bears like me). My favourites are the tulips with hairy lips, Mum's are the yellow and orange poppies. Hopefully by next September the world will have the virus under control and the main part of Floriade can be back in Commonwealth Park, but I hope there will also be flowers in the suburbs like this year. I like it.

Labels: Canberra, gardens

Labels: Canberra, gardens, New South Wales

Once again it is time for Floriade, the Canberra flower festival. We usually go there a couple of times during the month that it runs, so that we can see the flowers at different stages. This year we started by going to Nightfest. The gardens are lit up after dark for a week and there are concerts and light shows as well. I was looking forward to this. Most years I get to check in among the tulip plants to see if I can catch some of the garden gnomes tip-toeing through. I have never seen any in daylight, so thought that they may be more active at night, but I saw no sign of any. They are all concentrated down on the gnome knoll again. I guess it's their once-a-year corroboree and they are busy catching up with gossip. The most spectacular thing this year was the crown thingy in the main pond. Every 15 minutes it flashed laser beams and puffed smoke in time to songs. I couldn't get close enough to get a photo of the lasers and smoke; big people just don't give small bears any room. One bear that did get room was the giant Dream Bear. You can see how huge he is compared to me. And in case you are wondering if his lady friend is a giant, she is actually on stilts. What a pair - a giant, glowing, dreamtime-painted bear and a lady who is clever enough to walk on stilts in the dark. Always something interesting to see at Floriade.

Labels: Canberra, gardens

Here's some more photos from our visit to the Chinese tribute Garden at Lambing Flat a month ago. Actually, the first photo is of a thing that you pass on the way from Canberra to Young. You go through a small town called Wombat, and apart from the pub the most obvious thing is a large boulder with a statue of a wombat on it. Naturally, I just had to get a photo with that. The entrance to the formal Chinese garden is through a gate guarded by two stone lions. How could a small bear pass through without climbing on the lions and playing "go on, chew me if you can". Mum says that I should be more careful just in case I pick on a real lion by mistake. One of the things that impressed me was the way that rocks are used in the garden. The arrangements really are art. Mind you, to a small bear they are also great things to climb and play on. Look how high I managed to get on the tallest rock spire; not bad for a short-legged critter like me. It really is great to see a place that saw so much anger and violence back in the gold rush days now a quiet and peaceful garden for all to enjoy.

Labels: gardens, New South Wales

How the time whizzes past. It doesn't seem like a year since I posted photos of last year's Floriade. For those who don't know, Floriade is the big flower show held each Spring in Canberra. The flowers are mostly bulbs and natives. Mum drags Dad and I along each year; I kind of like it, but Dad says that he saw flowers like that last year so why go again? Sometimes I think he is just a natural grouch, but he has his uses. The acres of flowers do look pretty and provide a good place for small bears to hide in. There were other places for small bears and kids to play this year. There were 6 or so cubby houses of different shapes on display, being auctioned at the end of Floriade. I really liked the one like a mushroom. It had 2 storeys and a slide down from the top one. I had to fight off a batch of schoolgirls to get a clear go on the slide. There were also a couple of giant snails. Once again I had to shoo small kids away before I got a chance to ride on one. Actually, if you search back in the blog you will find photos of another giant snail who lives over the border in Queanbeyan. Despite grumpy Dad, I really like our days each year at Floriade.

Labels: Canberra, gardens

Last weekend we went for what Dad calls a "clear the cobwebs from the brain" drive. We ended up in Young in central New South Wales. Young has a rather dark early history. It was here that the worst anti-Chinese riots happened, back in the gold rush days of the 1860s. Alluvial gold was discovered at a place called Lambing Flat and "diggers" rushed in from all over Australia and overseas. Included were lots of Chinese, many of whom had been working on the Victorian goldfields. European diggers hated the competition. They accused the Chinese of wasting water when washing gold out of the soil, and eventually rioting broke out. There were six riots, the worst one in July 1861. About 2000 European diggers attacked the Chinese camps. The Chinese were driven off the goldfield and around 250 were seriously injured. Local police were powerless and NSW government troops were sent to stop the rioting. Eventually the Chinese were allowed back, but only in small segregated areas. Public pressure led to the government passing acts restricting Chinese numbers in the colony. The town of Lambing Flat changed its name to Young. Today the site of the old goldfield is a beautiful recreation area. The centerpiece is the Chinese Tribute Garden. Although the signage does not mention the riots, it does state that the gardens are a tribute to the contribution of Chinese settlers to the growth of Australia. The gardens are lovely at this time of year. Besides the artworks around the grounds and in the lake, the trees are all in bloom and provide great hiding places for small bears.

Labels: gardens, New South Wales

Guess what? It has actually been warm for a couple of days. Maybe our cold, wet winter has started to go away. Canberra celebrates the start of Spring with a flower festival, Floriade. You can see pictures from previous years Floriades if you use the search tool. Since Monday was warm, the Oldies took me to see what this year's show was like. Well, I think it is a lot smaller than last year, but still very pretty. The acres of flowers look great and there are lots of places for a small bear to hide and scare insects; have you spotted me in the pot of yellow flowers? (click on the image for a larger size). There were two special things. In one of the ponds there is a gigantic rubber duck! I wanted to swim out and meet him, but you know what Mum thinks about me getting wet, so Dad took me down to the edge of the pond for a close look. The real surprise was a mother Brush-tail Possum feeding her joey in a tree by the path. Normally possums don't come out until night, but this one was not bothered by the daylight or the hordes of people taking photos. It is a bit hard to see the baby in the photo; it is cuddled up alongside the mother, giving her a smooch. We watched the baby being feed, cleaned and put back to sleep clinging onto the mother possum's back. That's something that you don't get to see everyday.

Labels: animals, Canberra, gardens

Have we ever been busy!! It has been a fortnight of chaos, with no chance to get near the computer. First off, Dad got a letter from the tax office saying he owes them thousands, then we found an error in the way they calculated things, so hopefully that problem has gone away. Then the gardeners cut down some prize callistamons and the Oldies are arguing with the gardeners. Then the garage door motor died and we had a major job clearing storage shelves so that the mechanics could fix it. Then Dad's sister arrived for a quick visit. She headed on to the snow and we just found out that she broke her wrist while skiing. Then Unka Ray and Aunty Libby arrived in town on a surprise trip for Unka Ray (no grizzle about visitors; I love these people). It has been all go. Dad has been working almost non-stop and needing infusions of beer to keep him going. Speaking of beer, "Voyager of the Seas" has a bar where the beer menu is A3 size! Despite valiant efforts, Dad couldn't manage to try all of the different brews during our New Zealand cruise. Do small bears drink? You betcha we do. Every time the Oldies leave a drink unattended we are in like a shot. Mind you, there are better things for small bears to do on cruises. Scruffy and I found this great machine on Voyager that claimed it could produce animal friends. Problem was, we couldn't get enough effort on the handle of the machine to produce anything. Sometimes it's disappointing being small bears.

Labels: boats, cruising, family, gardens, New Zealand

This is a part of Canberra which was burned out by the firestorm of 18 January 2003. It used to be a pine forest, but now it is being turned into lots of small forests in what is called the National Arboretum Canberra. The plan is for 100 forests of rare and symbolic trees from Australia and around the world. Besides being a nice place to visit, it will help save rare trees and generate seed banks for other arboretums (OK, arboreta if you must be pedantic). It may not look like much at present because all the trees are small, but in years to come it will be a beautiful place, especially in autumn when the deciduous trees have coloured leaves. Click on the photo to make it bigger and you will see some of the plantings and the Visitors Centre. Some of the things you can see, even before the trees grow, are a great collection of Bonsai and Penjing, and a lot of sculptures. Now as far as small bears are concerned sculptures are no good if you can't climb on them. Well, the one in the bottom photo is a beauty. It is a wedge-tailed eagle and its nest, made from old tools and bits of old farm machinery. Unlike some sculptures around Canberra, it actually looks like what it is supposed to be and it is also a great place for small bears to climb.

Labels: Canberra, climbing, gardens, trees

Here are some photos taken from the balcony of our hotel room in SingyPaw. The thing that impressed me was the huge number of ships of all sorts and sizes that were anchored offshore in what is called the Singapore Roads. That name sounds strange to me; I expect roads to be full of cars, not ships. Anyhow, all along the south coast of Singapore, as far as you can see, there are ships. If you look carefully at the bottom photo (click on it to make it bigger) you can see right across the roads to one of the islands of Indonesia! The area that the photos show is actually land created by dredging the old harbour. When we were there last year work was almost complete on the last sections of 101 hectares of gardens, called "Gardens By The Bay". This is something that I have to see when we are next in SingyPaw, because there are some things that are very interesting and different. At the left of the bottom photo you can see something that looks like a giant glass armadillo. It is in fact one of a pair of huge cooled conservatories. One conservatory is called the Flower Dome and holds plants from mild, dry climates and the other one, the Cloud Forest, has plants from high, cool areas of the world. The tall red constructions are called Supertrees. They have exotic plants growing on them, but they also light up at night in a spectacular light and music show. Actually, some of them are also the air intakes and exhausts from the conservatories' air-con systems. Lots of things to keep a small bear busy on our next visit.

Labels: boats, gardens, Singapore

It's time once again for Canberra's big flower show, Floriade. Mum likes flowers, so even though she is still pretty sick we took her out for a short look at the show. Of course, I like flowers too. When you are a small bear the flowers are tall enough for you to hide in and scare bugs, beetles, bees and stray photographers. I had fun tunneling through the tulips, dawdling through the daffodils and prancing through the poppies and pansies. There were also a batch of flower towers that were great for climbing, and when I got too tired to run around any more there were wheelbarrows full of soft flowers to flake out on. And I think that Mum enjoyed her outing too.

Labels: Canberra, climbing, gardens

I've often wondered just what Garden gnomes actually do. Whenever I see one it's just sitting there in someone's garden doing nothing at all. Well, Scruffy, Milkshake and I decided to run an experiment to try and get an answer. We picked a beautiful spot near a path in a garden bed near the big duckpond on Hamilton Island and settled down to watch and wait. The only things that we saw were some people going along the path to picnic spots, a couple of lizards sunning themselves on the paving stones, and some small birds hunting insects among the plants. If that is the sort of thing that garden gnomes see they must have a boring life. I will stick to doing the things that our gang of three small critters do.

Labels: gardens, Hamilton Is, Queensland

Did I mention that Leonardo Da Vinci was the first to think of almost every machine? Well, here's another couple. The one on the left is a jack. It is just like the one that Dad had in his old car. The only problem with this model is that the handle is too high for small bears to reach. Dad could reach it and it certainly lifts small bears easily enough. The one on the right is a helicopter! It is not much like a modern chopper, but the basic idea is there. I can see a few problems that Leo would have come up against if he had a useful motor and had built a full-sized machine. For sure, he would have had to put a tail rotor on it to counteract torque, and something to cure the cyclic variation in lift as the blades whiz around (Dad explained about this and I almost understand it). I am sure that a genius like Leo would have sorted these out and we would have had working choppers centuries ago, except that nobody had discovered petrol and light-weight engines then.

Labels: Canberra, gardens, helicopter, heroes

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

Here's another one of the great models of Leonardo Da Vinci's machines in the exhibition at Floriade. This is his version of a tank. Imagine this thing creeping towards your castle or your mob of soldiers. Lots of soldiers inside the tank pushing it along, lots of cannons aiming in all directions, and the whole thing protected from arrows and muskets by layers of sloping wood and leather panels. Of course the section left open on the model would be covered in the real thing. The commander rode on a platform at the top where he could see out and tell the guys which way to push and what cannons to fire. The idea is not so different from modern tanks. No doubt about it, Leonardo was way ahead of his time. You may have noticed that the model is just the right size for a small bear. Now, if I can get Dad interested we could make one of these, put radio control in it and scare the dickens out of stray cats.

Labels: Canberra, engineering, gardens

One of the great things at Floriade this year is an artist called Rudolph. He specializes in things called carry-car-chewers (I think that's the name). These are drawings of people that are very different from normal portraits. Carry-car-chewers are drawings that exaggerate the features of a person to make a funny but very recognizable image. Evidently Mum is best recognized by her blue eyes, big grin and teeth, while Dad is all chins, glasses and wing-mirror ears. You can check out how good a recognition aid these carry-car-chewers are by comparing them with any of the pictures of the Oldies in previous posts. If you would like Rudolph to do one for you, you may find him at a festival somewhere near you, or you can email him a photo to work from. His website is http://www.rhumal.com

Labels: Canberra, family, gardens

Here's another photo of me playing hidies from the Oldies at Floriade. This time I am in one of the beds of hyacinths. I thought that the colours might be better for camouflage than the reds and yellows of the tulips, but the Oldies found me just as quickly and took this picture to prove that they had spotted me. Funny thing is that no matter where I hide all sorts of people start taking pictures of me and that makes it easy for the Oldies to find me, they just go to where all the tourists are clustered with cameras snapping.

Labels: Canberra, gardens

The most fascinating thing at this Floriade, at least for the Oldies and me, is an exhibition of machines designed centuries ago by Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo was a real genius. Most people know about his art works, the Mona Lisa probably being the best known, but he was much more than just one of the best painters ever. He was way ahead of his time in engineering, optics and science in general. The exhibition at Floriade is about his machines, and they are absolutely mind-boggling. Way back in the 15th and early 16th century he designed a tank, a helicopter, siege engines, a calculator, a robot, several flying machines, lots of boats, extension ladders, automatic blacksmith tools, well diggers, automatic wagons, ball bearings, gearboxes, even a jack. If he had a decent engine available he would have really got the world moving. There are models of some of these machines in the exhibition and they are all just the right size for this small bear to try out. Here is one of the ones that I would like to really test on another boat. It is called the Scorpion and the idea is to sink other boats by dropping that big sharp scythe blade into them. You raise the blade with the ropes and windlass, row up to the enemy boat, turn the platform to get the blade over their boat, let the blade go and Wham!! there goes bits of the other boat. Messy, but I would like to try it. Lots of other pictures from this exhibition soon.

Labels: boats, Canberra, gardens