Bart Bear's Blog

In early November we did a short cruise to complete our year celebrating Dad's 80th birthday. Mum and I took him on a cruise up the Queensland coast from Brisbane to Cairns. Since we have visited all of the places the ship called at we didn't need to go ashore at all. The ship was "Quantum of the Seas", the largest ship we have sailed on. The usual crew of Scruffy, Milkshake and Blue tagged along. The weather did not do the right thing, it was cloudy, windy and wet the whole cruise. However, I had the big ship to explore and the ocean to scan from the balcony, searching for whales and flying fish. First stop was at Shute Harbour in the Whitsunday Island group. Transport from ship to shore was by the ship's boats and some local fast catamarans. The Whitsundays are mostly uninhabited except for campers but there are a few resort islands. The one in image 6 is Daydream Island. We visited it a few times some decades ago. In the meantime it has been destroyed by a cyclone, rebuilt and is now owned by a Chinese company. On the way back from Cairns we went past Willis Island, the only inhabited island in the Coral Sea. It's a low coral cay with a weather station on it. Plus a gannet colony; gannets followed the ship most of the day. Inside the ship was very like all other Royal Caribbean ships we have been on. One of things that I liked was a restaurant called Wonderland. It had a huge finger pointing to the entrance and a huge chair outside. The food is spectacular; try it if you get the chance. There was another huge chair near the Pub and a huge red bear near the walking/running track. Outside another great restaurant, Jamie's, is a huge crystal artwork. And there are lots of small statues just the right size for a small bear to ride. The shows are spectacular, the image shows a wall of drummers/acrobats. One fun thing is a robot bar - dial in your mix and the robots make your drink. Mum made a good one, Dad made an almost drinkable experiment... The great thing is now that I am over 21, I can legally drink alcohol even on American ships, no need to sneak some of the Oldies' booze. A good cruise, but I have to admit that I prefer the smaller ships.
 

Labels: boats, cruising, Queensland

 

The Canberra weather has been cold and wet so we haven't been at the zoo for a while, but yesterday we made a special visit to see and photograph two of the new baby animals. My favourite critters are giraffes and zebras and new ones of both were born in the last month. The new giraffe, called Mkali (Swahili for Bright) is already standing proud and acting like she owns the enclosure. The parents are keeping a close eye on her. The zebra herd also has a new member, Ndefu (Long) just three weeks old. Mother zebra is keeping him close and not letting other members of the herd get close enough to bother him. If you look closely at the last image you will spot the latest member of the herd, yes, visiting small bears can join.

Labels: animals, Canberra, zoo

Yikes! It is 3 months since my last post and some of my readers have asked if I am still here.... Well, what with the cold, foggy, wet Canberra winter weather it has not been a good time to do much exploring outside, so the Oldies and I have been busy in our craft rooms. Craft rooms are strange places, usually with a large desk and lots of shelves. The actual useful space on a craft desk is usually just a couple of square metres/feet and most of the desk is covered by tools, plans and materials needed for the current project. The top row shows you some of Mum's craft room. It is fall of stamps, dies, card stock and paper. Finding the item that you actually need can be a major exercise. The bottom row is part of Dad's craft room. The shelves here are full of plastic and paper models of planes, ships, trains, lighthouses and special buildings. Today I am supervising the painting of a Spitfire in Dad's room and water colours in Mum's. I like water colours as I can usually manage to get a bit wet; long-time readers will know that Mum will not let me get wet, so I enjoy this game. So, lots of crafting going on but no travel. This is due to change in early November, we are all paid up and ready to go, watch this space.

Labels: aircraft, boats, card making, card models, models, train

Two of my favourite animals are Giraffe and Zebra. As it happens, there are patterns for card models of both of these on the Canon Creative site so Dad and I just had to make them. The models are fairly large and took us many sessions with scissors, craft knife and glue. The results are great. Our zoo has many life-size statues along the paths and these are good climbing places for small bears. We have just started the cold part of winter here. The trees were at the prettiest stage of leaf colour during our last zoo visit and I collected a few samples of the big pretty ones, just an excuse to climb more trees.
 

Labels: animals, card making, zoo

We go to the zoo often, now that we are all Members. I sometimes cheat and ride in the front of Mum's walker instead of walking. The only downside of that is that I am sometimes lower than the railings and glass. Last trip we had better luck seeing some of the animals. I hadn't seen a tree kangaroo before but this time one was cleaning itself in a clear patch where the Oldies could get photos. I think Rhinos are great; a combination of strength, ugliness and laziness. This one spent most of the time dozing.The tigers had just been fed their lunch and were exercising by walking around their enclosure. One was evidently feeling the heat and had a cool-off in the pool.  Penguins are always fun to watch. I love the way they all run down to the water, then dither around waiting for one to take the plunge then all dive in. Most people think that penguins only live in Antarctica but there are colonies of these Little Penguins in some places all along our southern and south-eastern coast. Dad has snorkeled with these little guys and they are much faster swimmers than he is. At the Penguin Parade on Phillip Island you can watch the penguins coming ashore for the night and heading back to their nest burrows. They waddle uphill much faster than Mum can walk, she was overtaken by streams of penguins. There is lots more zoo to explore, I love it.
 

Labels: animals, zoo

The great thing about having zoo membership is that you don't have to see all of it in one visit. That's important when you are there with two Oldies in tow, they usually run out of energy fairly quickly. However, on our second visit last week they managed to do the longest trail in the zoo, round past the large African animals, some smaller cuties and some big cats. We saw one of the keepers cuddling a Cheetah, getting it ready to meet some visitors. The Tigers were always just moving away from where we were trying to photograph them, so this one going back into his den is the best one we could get. Zebras were moving around, but the White Rhinos were dozing. The best "horns" of the day were definitely the antlers on this Wapiti. Lemurs were hunting food and Meerkats, as usual, had sentries on duty while the rest of their family were busy digging and feeding. My favourites are the Giraffes. There was a new baby in the enclosure, but it never turned around to a good spot for a photo. The male was different, he came right up to the fence to see me. There are several places around the zoo where you can rest for a while in pretty picnic spots, very useful when the Oldies need a break.

Labels: animals, Canberra, zoo

Two weeks ago Dad had his 80th birthday. It is extremely difficult to think of a present for somebody who actually doesn't want anything special, but after much searching and discussion Mum and I had a bright idea - give him membership of the National Zoo and Aquarium right here in Canberra. Naturally we weren't letting him go by himself, so yesterday we also got membership. Now we can visit the zoo any time we like over the next year, just swipe our cards and enter from any of 4 gates. That's great because the zoo is fairly large and the Oldies are fairly slow so we don't have to see everything in just one visit. Yesterday we only saw about a sixth of the total. The zoo is well setup for visitors, the paths are mostly boardwalks and the landscaping provides the right amount of shady trees and open areas for both animals and people.These Squirrel Monkeys are right next to the main entry and cafe, great entertainment while you are downing coffee and ice cream. The zoo has two adult white lions and a small pride of ordinary ones. As usual on hot days the big cats were all either sun baking or snoozing in the shade. One of the Sun Bears was having his daily exercise climbing on the network of logs in the enclosure, his partner was sleeping in their den. The Otters were their usual busy selves, swimming in their pool (usually with the current) and running around their enclosure to find where food may be hidden. This one found a stash in a bamboo container, it was fun watching him trying to get it out and eventually eating the lot of it. There are some gates with signs like in the last image. Naturally, I had to see why. Dad caught me just before I got over the gate. Just as well because that is one of the places they feed the lions from. We will be back to the zoo often.
 

Labels: animals, climbing, family, zoo

Last Sunday the Oldies were welcomed as the 199th and 200th members of the Canberra Jazz Club. The club meets in the Jamison Southern Cross Club once every month. We arrived early and sampled the club menu before the music started; food and drink both OK by this small bear. I was not sure if I would like jazz so I kept a low profile for the first few numbers. The band was called John Smith's Little Big Band, based in Wollongong. All of the musicians were very good, John on guitar was excellent. The two that I thought were absolutely brilliant were the lady playing trumpet and the man playing slide trombone. I always thought trombone was a dull sort of instrument, but this guy made it sing. Guess what! I like jazz, at least the type this band played, and I look forward to hearing lots more.
 

Labels: Canberra

Manly has been a holiday suburb of Sydney since the mid-1850s. There are some great examples of colonial architecture in the suburb, like the council building near the wharf and the police station in nearby Belgrave Street. There are 2 streets where tourists spend most of their time. The Corso runs from the ferry wharf to the beach, and the Esplanade runs along the beachfront. The Corso and some of the side streets are plazas (no cars allowed) and have a good mix of shops. In the afternoons and evenings there are usually buskers performing here. My 2 favourite places are the Ivanhoe Hotel where food and drinks are always available, and Anita's Gelato (the best I have tasted on my trips around Australia). The shops along the Esplanade are a mix of cafes and surf shops. My favourites here are Hemingway's cafe where we had breakfast, and The Pantry (right on the beach) where we had lunch with relatives. Hot weather and beaches = drinks; I have had some comments about my drinking, but this small bear is now 20 (above the Australian drinking age) and know how to hold my liquor.
 

Labels: NSW, Sydney

Last week we had a short trip to Manly, the Sydney suburb where Mum was born. The main reason for the trip was to meet up with special relatives and friends. I had a great morning of travel. It started with bro Trent taking us to the airport in his Tesla. Then we flew to Sydney on a SAAB 340. Then the airport train to the Quay and a trip across the harbour to Manly on a ferry, past huge cruise liners and many RAN ships. So in one morning I travelled by car, plane, train and ship - great stuff for this small bear. Manly has one of the best beaches in Australia, much better than many of the beaches hyped by overseas media. The southern headland holds Shelly Beach, a great spot to teach beginners to snorkel and dive. The northern end goes round to Freshwater beach where Duke Kahanamoku introduced Australia to board surfing in December 1914. My Dad and his Dad didn't use surfboards, they are/were body surfers, known in Australia as "Cork-tops". Mum's Dad board-surfed right on this beach. More photos of Manly coming soon, but you see others by searching older Manly posts in my blog.
 

The weather has been rotten since my last post so we have spent our time in our craft rooms. Even now that the rain has stopped pelting down the inland rivers are still flooding as the water slowly makes its way down the Murray-Darling river system so our planned road trips have had to be postponed. Mum and I have been busy making Christmas cards, after all it is that time of year. We have been making a couple every day. I am glad that we have started to make funny cards again. Dad and I use card very differently, making buildings and animals. Here's 3 of the ones we made recently. Mum loves donkeys so we made her this little guy. I love quokkas so we made a Bart-sized one. The best one is the dragon, the third type we have made (check back posts for images of the others). This one is guarding some treasure. We used some of Mum's glitter glue to make the gems - they sparkle well under artificial light. You can find patterns for all sorts of card models on the web.

 

This week I celebrated 20 years since Mum spotted me on a back shelf in the Teddy Bear Shop and adopted me. Since then I have travelled with the Oldies to 13 countries. I have learned to make cards, bead jewellery, plastic models of aircraft and ships and card models of lighthouses and buildings. It has been an exciting 20 years. I just wish this seemingly never-ending rain would go away so that we could travel again; most of south and east Australia is in flood and has been for weeks. Well, celebrations started with cake and wine at home on Saturday, then moved to my favourite winery, Shaw Wines at Murrumbateman, for lunch on Sunday. Then across to the cellar door for wine and cheese. The top present is a special tin of special Haigh's teddy bear chocolates which I am guarding from a certain Dad.

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

Two weeks ago we had a short stop in Melbourne. The Oldies both caught COVID so I have had to wait until they recovered to get my ghost-writer to post this. Melbourne was hit hard by COVID lock-downs and many of the little shops we used to like are gone. Looking for a new experience, we decided to take the ferry across Port Phillip Bay to Portarlington. The Melbourne ferry terminal is next to Mum's favourite sculpture "Cow Up a Tree". The bay is huge and from Portarlington you can just see the higher towers of the Melbourne CBD (but not in photo 3). Portarlington is a small town that has a large fishing fleet and several mussell farms. We only had time to walk (struggle) up the hill to the main street, take a walk past the shops, have lunch in the historic Grand Hotel, and slowly go back to the jetty to catch the ferry back to Melbourne. My "find of the day" is the Pier St cafe, near the piers. The best coffee, scones and jam of the Melbourne trip. I was also impressed by the trees near the town; the all looked like they had been trimmed across the top. I will get back to Portarlington sometime, there is a lot more to see there.
 

Gungagai is a small town on the Murrumbidgee river in New South Wales, about a 2 hour drive from Canberra. The town was originally built in the early 1800s on the the flat land near the river. On June 25, 1852, a flood completely destroyed the town and killed around 1/3 of the population. The town was rebuilt on higher ground and today contains examples of many types of old architecture, including some good Art-Deco examples in the main street. There are also some of the old buildings that survived the flood. The heroes of the 1852 flood were 4 local Wiradjuri men who used their bark canoes to rescue more than 50 people. A statue of 2 of them, Jackey Jackey and Yarri is in the main street. The other 2 were Long Jimmy and an unknown man.

Labels: buildings, Gundagai, New South Wales

If you have any interest at all in military history, you must visit the Australian Armor and Artillery Museum at Smithfield, just north of Cairns. This is a huge shed full of tanks, mobile artillery, personnel carriers and field guns from around the world. The vehicles are mostly from WW2 or later. Over 100 are on display and many others are being restored. I will not name all of ones in these pictures for you (because I don't know all of them). The second one is important for Australian history. It is the Sentinel, the first tank designed and built in Aus. Only a few were built because tanks from the US were soon available. There are many signs forbidding climbing on the exhibits but we all know that they only apply to people, not small bears.
 

Labels: army, Cairns, museum, tanks

Here are a few more of the fish. The ugly one hiding in the third image is a Stone Fish. If you tread on one of these it is agonizing, so we wear beach boots when wading in tropical waters. In row 2 there is a puffer fish. Scare one of these and it blows up into something that looks like a spiky football.The spotty one in the second row is a Moray eel. The one in the bottom row is a small leopard shark, pretty and harmless. There are some big lobsters and really blue crayfish, also crabs but I don't like them. There is also a section with tropical reptiles. You may not like lizards but I do. The displays in the aquarium are great, but the behaviour of visiting schoolkids was not. Hordes of screaming and yelling munchkins made some of our visit a bit unpleasant. Still worth the visit though.
 

Labels: animals, Cairns, fish

 

Labels: animals, Cairns, fish

There are loads of nice beaches north of Cairns. My favourite is Palm Cove. As the name suggests, there are lots of palm trees planted along the shoreline. Across the road near the beach are lots of cafes/restaurants and apartments. The beach is long, sandy and kept clean. You can see from Double Island almost right down to Cairns. Nice sand, calm water, warm day, so you may be wondering why there is nobody actually in the water. Dad showed me why. The sign he held me up to has warnings about marine stingers, including box jellyfish and irukandji. A sting from either of those can be fatal. There are also lots of other stinging jellyfish that don't kill you, just make you feel like you have been worked over by a maniac swinging a whip coated with acid. Stinger season is October to May so sensible swimmers head for the Barrier Reef, which is far enough offshore to be clear of the stingers, or just swim in resort pools. Oh yes, there is also the possibility of meeting a salt-water crocodile - that is not something to wish for. Some of you will remember that, despite my wish to surf and snorkel, Mum will not let me get wet. She has no trouble keeping me out of the sea when we visit beaches north of the Tropic of Capricorn in summer!!
 

Labels: animals, beach, Cairns

There are 2 ways to return to Cairns from Kuranda. You can go back by the train or you can take the Skyrail. This way you sit in a small gondola that carries you above the dense rain forest and down the range to the station where you can get a shuttle bus back into Cairns. There are 2 stops along the way where you can leave the skyrail and walk some of the trails to scenic lookouts. From the gondola you can see all of the flowers, creepers, vines, and birds that live at the top of the forest trees. There are also great views of some of the waterfalls and gorges. The drop down the range gives you splendid views of the northern beach suburbs of Cairns. I love this trip but the Oldies sometimes get a bit jumpy when the wind makes the gondola sway or when there is an unexpected bump and rumble as it passes one of the support towers. If you visit Cairns you really must do the railway and skyrail trip to Kuranda.
 

Labels: Cairns, Kuranda, Queensland

A must-do thing anytime you visit Cairns is to take a trip on the tourist train to Kuranda. Kuranda is a small village in the rain forest on top of the mountain range inland of Cairns. The railway was built between 1886 and 1891 to provide a link between the mining towns on the Atherton tableland and Cairns. During WW2 it linked the ports of Cairns and Port Douglas with the military camps and hospitals on the tableland, and the railway between Cairns and Brisbane. The line is 75km long and rises to 327m above sea level. It was built entirely by pick, shovel and dynamite, one of the great engineering feats of colonial Australia. Today it is one of the world's great tourist railway trips. Although the engines are now diesel electric the carriages are restored vintage units, including a "luxury" Gold Class carriage (drinks and snacks all during the trip). I bought the Oldies seats in this one from my pocket money.The line passes through 15 tunnels, has 93 sharp curves and passes over dozens of bridges across ravines. From the train you see many waterfalls. The train makes a photo stop at Barron Falls, usually the most spectacular one, but this time the best was Stony Creek. The almost-last image is a view across the Barron Gorge to Stony Creek Falls and the long railway bridge which crosses the ravine here. We have done this trip 4 times now and will definitely do it again if we have the chance. And about those bars across the windows to stop passengers leaning out, well they don't stop determined small bears.

Labels: Cairns, Kuranda, Queensland, train

 

Labels: astronomy, Cairns, Queensland

Our Gold Coast trip was really short and we didn't have much free time between meeting up with relatives, so the only "free time" was a lunch cruise along some of the many canals that thread through the GC. The islands in the canals contain some of the most expensive properties in Australia, you can find images of some of them on posts of our earlier visits. The most noticeable thing since our last trip is the increasing number of really high buildings. Lunch cruises with Mum are fun. She gets excited by the buildings and really hyper when prawns are on the menu. Mum tells me that the best prawns in the world are fresh Gold Coast king prawns and she should know as she has eaten lots of prawns (shrimps to our friends in the USA) in countries around the world. Of course, I have to take her word for it because I can't eat anything at all and Dad is allergic to all shellfish. On our flight back to Canberra we flew close to Lake George and it is now almost completely full.

Labels: Gold Coast

One of the things that I love about travel is the chance to try all sorts of cocktails. Now that I am over 18, I can try the lot. Here's a few from the Gold Coast. At the Garden bar there is a sign that sums my way with the Oldies. It reads "Ready to be led down the garden path?". I do try to lead them there. Anyhow, the cocktails here were OK, but not quite up to the standard I had in Hawaii. The second row is from the Palazzo Versache. Here the cocktail list is much larger and small bears may take some time to make up their mind. The drinks are in fact well up to standard, and the nibbles that come with them are fine. As our GC trip was very short, I wasn't able to sample other establishments' ideas of the best cocktail.
 

There is a new statue in the city centre. The statue is called Big Swoop. It is a bit scary because it is of a giant magpie and for 3 or 4 months every year magpies are a bit of a menace. While the eggs are hatching and the chicks are growing to the stage they can leave the nest, some male magpies go into uber-protective mode. They become nature's dive bombers, screaming down behind unsuspecting people and small bears and sometimes causing bad accidents when the sudden unexpected swoosh and clack of beak makes riders fall off bicycles or people fall or collide with walls or trees. Sometimes they strike with their claws or beak and have put victims into hospital. Other than this worrying time, maggies are fine. They are one of Australia's best songbirds. They have a huge range of notes and sound great to this small bear. Magpies are found all around Australia and live quite happily in city trees and parks.

In other news, now that travel is on again, I needed a bigger suitcase. Mum found this one which looks just like the big ones the Oldies use. Just 8 weeks to wait and it will make its first trip - watch this space.
 

Labels: birds, Canberra

Last week was Canberra Week and there were lots of things happening to celebrate the founding of our city. We missed a lot of them because we were up at the Gold Coast, but there have been balloons in the air most mornings and lots of buildings have been lit up with moving images at night. The thing that I enjoyed most was the bubbles in the city. These were large inflated plastic bubbles with projectors inside that lit them with changing light. By day they looked pretty and at night they were spectacular. No chance of taking one home - believe me, I tried.

Labels: Canberra

At long last, COVID restrictions have been eased, state borders are open and airlines are almost back in full business. The first trip that we just had to make was a quick one up to the Gold Coast to meet family that we hadn't been able to see for over 6 years. My second-oldest brother, Tim (with his family), was on a posting to Ireland when overseas flights paused and when they finally were able to return home to Queensland their borders were closed to the rest of Australia. So it was great to see them again. The Gold Coast has grown a lot since we were last there, I will post some images soon. And guess what? This afternoon I heard the Oldies talking to a Virgin lady about a longer holiday soon. It is fantastic to get back into traveling, this small bear has a lot of the country (and hopefully the world) yet to see.

Labels: aircraft, family, Gold Coast

There has been a great exhibition at the National Museum here in Canberra. It is a collection of ancient Greek artifacts, mainly from their colonies scattered around the Mediterranean rather than from Greece itself. The entry to the museum has been upgraded since I was there last. The paths are lined with native shrubs and the main path from the car park has an inclined wall of mirrors to confuse people like Dad. Actually, I was surprised to see just how many Greek cities there were, all around the Med. No wonder the Romans considered them a threat to their expansion. This is one of the best presented exhibitions I have seen, the lighting is just right to allow clear view of both the exhibits and the captions. The exhibits ranged from large statues to tiny jewellery, but the thing I liked best was the armour. The guy that it belonged to was tiny compared to people today. Naturally, there was a shop so I found a new friend, a duck with an Olympic wreath - I call him Quackimedes.  From Canberra the exhibition goes to Perth and then back to Britain.

Labels: Canberra, museum

Where does the time go? It's over a week since Christmas and my substitute author (Dad) hasn't got away from his hobby desk to update the blog for me. A quick poke with a sharp pencil has got him back to the keyboard. Well, the first thing I did on Christmas Eve was to get a goodies plate ready for Santa and Rudolph. Now I know that reindeer don't eat carrots, but tradition has to be followed. The plate is always empty on Christmas morning anyhow. Then we went over to Bro Trent's place to watch the carols on his ginormous TV, eat pizza, drink wine and swap presents. Of course there were presents and a sizable bit of cash under my tree in the morning. One of the new things I found this Christmas (actually Mum found them) is marzipan fruit. I was not sure that this was suitable small bear food, but one bite and all doubt disappeared - this is wonderful fodder. We met up with many friends, including my favourite, Unka Patrick, who makes me interesting holiday shirts. Actually, the strangest thing about Christmas is the way that the Oldies dress strangely and act even stranger. Christmas is a great time at our house.
 

Labels: Canberra, Christmas

This new shop has opened, just in time for Christmas. It's a genuine LEGO shop. I got my first look at it last week and was both fascinated and slightly disappointed. Fascinated by the great display models but disappointed by the fact that there were no kits in the price range that this small bear could afford, mostly just kits of the display models. In fact the best range of kits was in the toy section of a department store in the same shopping complex. Hopefully the LEGO shop will get a bigger range in time for the Christmas sales. Over to you Santa....
 

Labels: Canberra, Christmas

December 1st has come, time to get the Christmas decorations out and set up to entice Santa to stop here. This year I have concentrated on snow globes, snow lanterns, snowmen and gingerbread houses. There is also a fantastic observatory, too big to fit in with these so it is over with my Christmas tree (you can see photos of tree and observatory in previous years posts). I also have a big star on the window that faces the main roads, it flashes and swirls and can be seen from blocks away. No excuse for the old whiskery fellow this year. I may be 19 in actual years, but it is a well-known fact that small bears are always just 12 years old as far as action and mischief are concerned.
 

Labels: Christmas, Santa

A month since the last post! I blame Dad. The last part of my birthday celebrations was a session at my favourite winery with the Oldies and Unka Chris. I have been to lots of wineries around Australia but Shaw at Murrumbateman is the best of the lot in the opinion of this small bear. Nothing better than great wine, great cheese and great friends. One of my friends, Aunt Judy, crocheted this small buddy for me, I named him Bluey. Then next week the craft shop that Mum and I get lots of our supplies from was actually able to come into Canberra for a few days. Borders are slowly opening and interstate travel is possible again, so maybe big craft shows will happen again. I think supplies, so does Mum, but Dad mumbles about bank balances; sometimes I think he just doesn't get the vibe.

Labels: Canberra, card making

If you search Lake George in my blog, you will see photos of it in many stages between empty and full. The lake is about 25 km long and 10 km wide and is very shallow (particularly when it is almost empty). I have never seen it full, but my grandad once told me that it was actually full enough to splash across the highway that runs along the western side; the Oldies confirm that it was totally full back in the early 1990s. Because it has no rivers or creeks flowing into it, it only fills when we have lots of rain. When there is no rain the water evaporates away. The deepest it ever gets is about 4.5 metres in the south-east section. Over the years it has seen speedboats, ultra-light aircraft, sheep and cows using it, depending on how full/empty it is. That's one of our wind farms that you can see on the far shore. I hope I get to see it full again, it has been mostly empty all the times I have driven past it.
 

Labels: Canberra

This week I had my 19th birthday celebrations; 19 years since Mum found me on a shelf in the TeddyBear Shop looking for a home. It has been a great 19 years and I have seen a lot of the world while travelling with the Oldies. We couldn't go very far away this year but there are mutterings about trips as soon as borders open. So my birthday celebrations were spread out over a week. The border with NSW is now open, so we started by driving to Goulburn on Wednesday for lunch at my favourite cafe, the Paragon. This cafe is like a replica of the way they were in the 1950s and the meals are huge, easily big enough for Dad and I to share. Birthday cards and FaceBook wishes started pouring in for my actual birthday on Friday. The day started with bubbly and small-bear-size cake, and a sizable cash present. It finished with dinner at Olive, another of my favourite restaurants. Final celebration was yesterday at Meat & Wine Co with Unka Chris, Aunt Michane and Unka Piet. You have probably noticed that all the meals are very much those that a 19 year old carnivore enjoys.
 

Labels: family

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

We are still in lockdown here in Canberra but can get out for a couple of hours for exercise. Today is the first calm, warm, sunny day for ages so we headed out for a walk near the lake. Of course we had to wear masks; it makes the Oldies look like escapees from a bad movie set but I look cute. Lots of people were walking or riding on the paths but everybody was being COVID sensible. The trees are full of blossom at present. That means that small bears have to be careful of bees when we get our climbing exercise. The sqirtey thing in the pictures is the Captain Cook Memorial Jet which commemorates the bicentenary of his first sighting of the Australian coast. I like it because when the wind blows the other way it squirts onto cars going across Commonwealth Avenue bridge. Meanwhile, on those miserable days when the weather was foul, Dad and I built stacks of card model lighthouses. Most of them are of UK lights, but there 4 Aussie ones in there as well. Here's to more days like today.
 

Labels: Canberra, Captain Cook, card models, climbing, lighthouse, trees

 

Labels: card making, card models

 

 

Labels: birds, buildings, Canberra

 

Labels: Canberra, ceremony, military

 

Labels: aircraft, airshow, balloons, Canberra

I have been helping Dad with his hobby/craft as well.We have added another aircraft carrier to our fleet of 1/700 scale ships. This is the third Royal Navy ship to be named "Ark Royal". The Ark was the first carrier to have steam catapults to launch aircraft and the first to have the hangars and flight deck as integral parts of the hull (earlier carriers of all navies had them as "add-ons"). She had a fairly short life, launched in 1938 and torpedoed in November 1941, but she served in actions off Norway, the hunt for Bismarck and in the vital Malta convoys. Her aircraft made some of the first aerial U-boat kills. Our model shows her on her last trip,about to launch Sea Hurricanes for Malta and with Fulmars and Swordfish on deck. Another thing we have been working on is our card lighthouse collection. These are 1/250 scale and mostly UK lights. And of course we had to do another dragon. The big green one we made in November left us at Christmas to live with an Asian family, so we made a smaller version to keep our red one company. It is amazing what you can make from sheets of card and a good template.
 

Labels: boats, buildings, card models, lighthouse, models

One sort of compensating thing about having the chance of travel severely restricted - there is a lot more time for craft. We have looked at several possible trips, but each time we are ready to go interstate the borders shut again so craft is a sanity-saver. Mum and I have made dozens of cards since my last post. Here are 4 of my favourites. The top 2 remind me of the Oldies' snorkelling trips. They actually saw some giant jellyfish near one of the Barrier Reef islands. Seahorses are much harder to find because they hide among the seaweed and stay still while snorkellers are nearby. The bottom 2 celebrate special people. They are Charlie Chaplin, who my grandfathers liked, and Frida Kahlo, a Mexican artist that Mum likes a lot. Now I have to go to the other side of the room and see what Mum is working on next. She will no doubt need my help.

Labels: Canberra, cards

Here's one of my favourite lighthouses, Warden Head light near Ulladulla. It was built in 1873 and originally put on the breakwater at the harbour. This turned out to be the wrong location as ships kept hitting the reefs outside Warden Head, 1.5 km south of the harbour, so the lighthouse was moved to the headland in 1879. It is a twin of the lighthouse at Wollongong harbour. These are the only lighthouses in NSW made from riveted iron plates. There is a good sealed road to the lighthouse, so we visit it any time we are in that part of the coast. Our last visit was on a wet, wild day in December and you can see the waves breaking on the shallow reefs. There are deeper reefs further out and these are where ships came to grief. The area is a great whale-watching spot and is packed with people in the season. The cliffs of the headland are full of marine fossils and you can pick samples up where parts of the cliff face have collapsed. Of course you need low tide on a calm day to walk around the rock shelf, not a day like this one.

Labels: lighthouse, New South Wales, south coast

Labels: Bateman's Bay, New South Wales, south coast

Another Christmas has been and gone and we still can't travel far. So it's good that Santa gave me something to fill in all that time stuck at home - LEGO and money to buy more LEGO! We had a quiet Christmas this year. The Oldies took me out for Christmas Lunch at the Yacht Club, but other than that it was craft and TV movies for the holiday week. My Santa LEGO built a super speedboat and semi-trailer truck to haul it. However, Mum was also given LEGO for her birthday (which is just before Christmas) and I could help her build that as well. That was harder because hers was a collection of builds of some of the buildings in Dubai, all of which we have actually visited. These were harder than the boat and truck, lots of tiny bits that my paws had trouble putting in place. The Burj Khalifa was particularly difficult and if anybody else has built this you have my sympathy; but it does look great when finished. Oh yes, the first picture is of the new building in my collection of battery-powered Christmas buildings. It is Santa's workshop, complete with built toys and a small helper and when you turn it on it snows in there. I love these quirky Christmas ornaments. Here's to a much better year, please do your best to stay safe.

A year ago most of the east coast forests and ranges of New South Wales were burning. The roads that we use to travel to our favourite places on the south coast were impassable with fires raging all around them and the towns we most visit. Then COVID hit and travel was forbidden or unwise. So last week we finally had the chance to spend 2 days driving down to Batemans Bay and Mollymook (and back home of course). The forests along the roads are still recovering. Australian trees have evolved to cope with bushfires. Some of them actually need fire to germinate their seeds, so after bushfires you see a burst of these plants, mostly shrubs and wattles. Eucalypts have a different strategy. Under their bark they have loads of what the botanists call epicormic buds. These sprout as soon as growing conditions are right and the burnt tree is covered with what looks like a fuzz of leaves. Eventually normal growth of branches resumes. Most of the trees near the roads we travelled were still in this "fuzzy" stage. Some of the taller trees were almost back to normal. The small, dark plants in the clearer undergrowth are examples of some of the oldest plants on Earth; they are Buddawangs, cycads that date back to dinosaur times. Workmen are still clearing dead trees and repairing damaged roadwork. Let's hope that we now have many summers free of bushfires.
 

Labels: Bateman's Bay, Mollymook, New South Wales, south coast, trees