Passionfruit Thieves

Thought you might enjoy these photo's of very naughty Cockatoo's who regularly pop into our garden to steal passionfruit and mandarins.  Actually they just waste it in the end and we currently have the ground littered under the passionvine with half eaten green fruit. So we've put a net over the whole thing in the hope we might actually get a few passions for ourselves.

 

This is our Christmas Tree which our young grandaughters decorated all on their own this year

and here our Tobi and Daisy, another couple of 'Parti Animals' all ready for the big day!

Merry Christmas

Really Over the Top!

We had an unexpected interruption at home to family life and that took me away from everything bear for a while. But as the saying goes all is well that ends well, which it has, so here I am back again at last. I was very astonished and surprised when Ruth Bowman (Flutter-by-Bears and Friends) and Linda Benson (Benson Bears) both passed on this fun Over The Top Award to me and then home life went over the top at the same time! Anyway a very belated thanks to Ruth and Linda and will do my best now to pass on and answer the questions in ONE word! mmm a bit of a challenge that!

Rules :-
1. Use only 1 word answers.
2. Pass along to 6 of you favourite bloggers.
3. Tell them you've given them the award.
4. Have Fun !!


1. Where is your cell phone?  Kitchen 
2. Your hair? Short
3. Your mother? Passed
4. Your father? Passed
5. Your favorite food? Salad
6. Your dream last night? Silly
7. Your favorite drink? Limesoda
8. Your dream/goal? Understanding
9. What room are you in? Spare
10. Your hobby ? Bromliads
11. Your fear? Crocodiles
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Able
13. Where were you last night? Home
14. Something that you aren’t? Flash
15. Muffins? No
16. Wish list item? Mulcher
17. Where did you grow up? NSW
18. Last thing you did? Teeth
19. What are you wearing? PJ's
20. Your TV? ABC
21. Your pets? Wonderful
22. Friends? Special
23. Your life? Busy
24. Your mood? Optermistic
25. Missing someone? Sar
26. Vehicle? Rav
27. Something you’re not wearing? Bra
28. Your favorite store? Allcraftcairns
29. Your favorite color? Yellow
30. When was the last time you laughed? Morning
31. Last time you cried? Friday
32. Your best friend? Adrian
33. One place that I go to over and over? Garden
34. One person who emails me regularly? Katherine
35. Favorite place to eat? Home

I'll pass on the award/tags to:

Linda @ Lombard Bears Australia
Margaret @ Nikkel Bears
Karen @ Rufnut Teddys
Lesley @ Les Bears
Susan @ Bearleigh Bears
Wendy @ Dragonfly Creations

Please visit them soon, cheerio for now,

Robyn.

Time Flies

Well I can't believe how quickly a month has flown by since I last wrote here !  We have had the computer down for a couple of weeks ... and still not working to full capacity while we wait for a new part ... but thankfully able to operate in a limited way.  'Not Often Seen Family' came visiting too which was very jolli !  On to teds ... I thought I would show you my latest Nanuk  with an open mouth.   I followed Linda Bensons instructions for open mouth design which was a great article in Australian Bear Creations magazine (volume 14/number 1, 2008).  I played around with a few different head mouth combinations but this last one seemed to work best.  Linda's step by step instructions in the magazine article are clear and well written and I'm looking forward to the next open mouth ted who is all cut out and ready to sew.

It is still a very dry tropic here at the moment ... a little teaser of good tropic rain in the last couple of weeks then swirly drying wind and so back to square one. However the gardenias are flowering like mad and giving the most wonderful perfume ... wafting through the place ... but the ground has that awful crunchy sound underfoot which would'nt be unfamiliar to many in Aus.  I did hear a frog last week when we had a big heavy down pour ... but ofcourse they are not fools and won't start to party unless they are sure the rain will be an on going thing.  I've taken some shots of flowers in my garden at the moment that you may enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I type I can hear the Fruit Bats (Flying Foxes) squabbling over the ripe fruit of a native fig growing in our front garden.  I 'm very fond of Flying Foxes ... and have been a carer of injured and orphaned bats for many years.  Of course the mangoes are getting ready to ripen here so there will be a war between the Flying Foxes and the farmers as to who gets what !  The birds left us with 4 mangoes in our tree this year ! generous of them but we reckon those pesky bats will probably clean those up as they did last year and the year before that !

Spectacled Flying Fox mothers and babies in rehab at Batreach

Next time I will have to tell you about our naughty Cockatoos and the passionfruit ! Have a happy week :o)

Baby Sunbirds

Just an update on the baby sunbirds.  They left the nest as predicted ... last Monday actually ...gosh over a week has 'flown' by already !  I haven't seen them for the last couple of days which could be a good sign.  Mum and Dad are still coming in around the house garden feeding on nectar but the babies need little spiders and other small stuff at this stage.  Hopefully the babies are out there somewhere, safely camouflarged, waiting for mum or dad to bring back yet another a tasty treat!

 

 Here are the dear babies on day one ... so much fatter than poor mum and dad !

and here is the house they came from.  It takes the parents (90% from mum) about10 days to build and very particular attention is given to the little verandah roof directly over the opening.  The foundation of the nest is spider web silk. The birds here use the soft papery bark underlay from the common native paper bark tree growing nearby, that's what the white flaky stuff is in the photo, but strangely caterpillar droppings seem to also be an important feature in the construction ? !. The nest is lined with feathers but some of these are sometimes chucked out by mum if the weather gets too warm. It takes about 7 weeks from the beginning of nest building to fledge, but they work really hard especially mum ... dad pops by now and then to inspect and give his criticism of the building job or to check how well fed the babies are.  These little birds like to recycle so they will either use the nest as is again or salvage what they want out of it for an entirely new nest.

  
Our Monsoon hasn't started yet, but the humidity is beginning to build up and that gives a sign the season is changeing for us.  When the rain starts we will no doubt have some good stories about crocs and frogs and mould to share, but until then we are a very dry tropic with nary a croak to be heard!
Bear wise I haven't been idle this week and have been working on a new head design, finishing a sweet little Panda, learning about my new camera (a never ending story), and thinking of BoBo our very special bear ...look here to find out more

Cheers for now Robyn.

At last my first post!  It seems to have taken me forever to get this far but at least it is a start!  Spring has certainly sprung up here in the Far North. We have a nesting pair of  beautiful Sunbirds on our verandah and today their babies were putting their little heads out of the nest all ready to take off and will probably be off and away by the weekend.  They are the dearest little birds and wonderful parents to their babies.  We have been lucky to have them nest at our place on a regular basis over the years.
 

 
Fingers crossed their babies do well and fly fast because there are some very hungry Butcher birds around at the moment too!