Mima's Bear Tales

Mango Time

2011-11-23T14:48:00.000+10:00

It is very warm and still here today and the humidity has been slowly building over the last couple of weeks towards our wet season ... but it also means our mangoes are nearly ready to pick ... that is if those pesky flying foxes leave some for us !

We've had a pretty good crop set this year and their beautiful pink blush just makes your mouth water. I enjoyed a successful Christmas Treasures on line show last weekend, with 2 teds off to the US and the other two here in Aus. Daphne Blau of Teddies Worldwide did a great job in presenting this show and it was a real pleasure to take part in it! The Sydney Teddy Bear Fair in March 2012 is the next date on my calender and I've already got some plans and work in progress for that. My work space was in such a shamozzle after last minute finishing for the Treasures show that I had to spend a day getting things back in some sort of order. The doggies love keeping me company there and can generally be found all asleep under my sewing desk so they were quite surprised by all the cleaning up. As I type our resident Green Tree Frogs have started to call so it must be going to rain again soon ... last night they were so loud we couldn't hear the news on the telly! In a couple of weeks some of our family are heading south for Christmas, so we are having our Christmas get together before they go ... which means I better get busy with Christmas fare pronto!!!

Cheers for now and happy bearing, Robyn.

Christmas Treasures Preview

2011-11-06T10:08:00.001+10:00

As the saying goes 'time flies when your having fun' which is just what I've been doing while getting ready for this online show !

Merri

Merri is my Christmas Treasures preview bear and she's wearing a two tone red hand dyed mohair suit and Santa hat in readiness for the festive season, so pop over to www.teddiesworldwide.com where you can view all the fantastic preview bears and vote for your favourite too from each category!

The show opens on 18th November 4pm New York time with 75 artists from around the world participating and is definitely something special to look forward to!

Beautiful and Busy Days

2011-09-11T15:47:00.017+10:00

Just realised there has been a long gap between posts here! Bears, garden and family things have been keeping me pretty busy.

We've had a glorious couple of months weather wise and typically dry for this time of year, so it's all hands on deck in the garden getting things in order before the start of our wet season. Lots of mulching, plant feeding, pruning and so on, the things we can't do in the wet.

I don't put food out for the wild birds but I do make sure there is plenty of water for them, especially now in the dry, and so we have five bird baths in various spots around our two acre garden.

It's such a pleasure to see the birds these baths attract and late in the afternoon just last week, we counted 10 different bird species enjoying themselves, either in the Grevilleas for nectar, or having a drink and a freshen up in a bird bath.

There have been some unusual bird sightings too of late and one that is not usually found here is the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo. They are fascinating birds to watch and there has been a big mob of them hanging around the Cairns district for a few months now.

Of course our resident Sulphur-Crested White Cockatoos are totally put out by these beautiful black interlopers and let them know in no uncertain terms, dive bombing them as a last resort to get them to move on! The Black Cockatoos are not fazed by this, they are real laid back bushies and take their time, much to the white cockies disgust!

However it hasn't been all birds and garden, I have been working on three new bear designs, one of which is a sweet little panda, and also getting ready for my next bear show, now only SEVEN days away! Eeeek!

I'll be travelling down south next weekend forThe Brisbane Bear Fair which will be held next Sunday 18th September between 10am and 4pm at the Holiday Inn , Roma Street, Brisbane.

This will be the first Brisbane Bear Fair organised by Melissa Kemp of Bear Fairs Australia, so looking forward to a successful event that hopefully becomes a regular date on our bear calender here in Queensland.

And here are a couple of teds that will be coming along to the show with me,as you can see they are still bare bears, but not for long though as they are both a work in progress!

I'm looking forward to catching up with my bear friends at the show !

Last but not least we are thinking of our American friends today and remembering.

Beary best wishes,

Robyn.

Happy Days

2011-07-05T11:06:00.008+10:00

My grand daughters are in the middle of a two week school holiday break, so it has been good to spend some time with them and catch up. Early last Friday morning we set off to Rusty's Markets, this is an icon in Cairns CBD, which sells beautiful fresh local fruit, veg., produce, and all manner of things from Friday through to Sunday. We like to get our supplies there as opposed to the supermarket so it's a weekly pleasure to go and shop.

After Rusty's we headed off to visit HMB Endeavour which is a replica of Captain James Cook's iconic ship of discovery. Endeavour is making it's first circumnavigation around Australia and is currently visiting Cairns. We had a fascinating time exploring the ship and we were amazed how small it is considering it accommodated a total of 94 sailors, not to mention sheep, pigs and poultry as well !!

Then off to find a yummy late lunch on the Cairns Pier, a lovely end to the day.

The Gold Coast Teddy Bear Fair I attended 3 weeks ago was a very happy event even though we had unusual cool and rainy weather for the first day. For some reason the photos I took have not come up clear enough for me to post but Kympatti will be posting photo's of the event soon. I'm also happy to report two adoptions this last week that were a direct result of the show, so that was a nice post-script.

During the week following the show I attended two workshops held in the Kympatti Studio at Broadbeach. The first was a terrific one day felting workshop with Geri Williams, entitled a Bunny in a Shoe ! and the second a two day workshop with Linda Benson. This was a wonderful workshop creating Linda's 'Gregore' who has open mouth, with tongue, open shut eyes, leather nose and leather trapunto paws detail, as well as extra neck and wrist joints. 'Gregore' kept us very busy indeed but Linda, in her inimitable easy going style, created a calm and very happy atmosphere. Needless to say I haven't finished my pieces but as soon as I do I will show you here.

The girls are off in a swimming camp today, the weather is just right for that sort of thing here at the moment. We'll have a couple of days to do things together at the end of this week, then its back to school for them.

Wishing you a beary good week,

Robyn.

Don't miss out

2011-06-29T08:59:00.000+10:00

Linda Benson is having a giveaway ! So don't miss out, visit Linda's blog and name this cute little fellow to be in with a chance.

What a cutey !

Almost Ready

2011-06-09T07:41:00.002+10:00

My bags are almost packed and ready to fly south early tomorrow morning, heading for Brisbane and then on to the Gold Coast to attend the Gold Coast International Teddy Bear Fair. The show starts on Saturday 11th and continues to Sunday12th, from 10am to 4pm both days. I'm really looking forward to seeing all my 'bear friends' there and catching up in person, we were away in the UK last year so I missed attending the show. I love a 'hands on' show, as I'm sure collectors do too, and the Gold Coast International always has a happy and friendly atmosphere. I have 12 orphan Teds for the show, that's about all I can fit into my baggage allowance, so fingers crossed they find new homes.

By the way this is HBT (Hand-Bag-Ted) or HB for short ! He is the first small ted I made back in 1998 and he has lived in my hand bag ever since. HB reckons he loves it there 'cause he gets to travel around and he's managed to go to Africa, UK and Paris too, in his bag house. He's looking forward to the Gold Coast but he's definitely no orphan, after all he'll be at home in the bag !

And this is Blue Bobby who will be at the show and looking for a new home ! Beary good wishes to you for a happy weekend coming up, I'll be sure to post pics when I get back home.

Hugs for now, Robyn.

WOW News

2011-06-06T10:10:00.006+10:00

I'm very happy and honoured to let you know that my Ms.Musky-Roo has won the 2011 Australian Creative Design Award for High Achievement in Design and Workmanship Excellence. The theme this year was to celebrate Beatrix Potter and I tried to find an Australian character but in the Potter spirit .... this tiny tropical Kangaroo who lives in the rain forest ... a bit rat like but definitely a roo with a pouch, was the perfect candidate for me to imagine through Ms. Potters eyes ! I'm very proud to receive this award and appreciate it is a result of hands-on-judging ... with many thanks to Sandi Smith for creating and setting the high standards for these challenging awards.! Congratulations to Linda Down (Lombard Bears) and Ruth Bowman (Flutter-By-Bears and Friends) and Ina Smirnova (Bears and Roses) for their awards, and to all the participants !

And to finish off, looking forward to next years 2012 ACD awards entitled Under the Big Top, it's bound to be fabulous, click on the banner below to find out more !

Stepping out

2011-06-02T17:09:00.001+10:00

I have been repairing and cleaning this charming old leather baby boot in readiness for a Geri Williams workshop being held at the Kympatti Studio Broadbeach on the Gold Coast the week following The Gold Coast International Teddy Bear Fair on 11th and 12th June. I've been sewing madly in preparation for the show, which is always a lot of fun but so are the workshops held over the week after the show. Geri's workshop is about creating a felted rabbit or bear who lives in a shoe and I'll be sure to post a photo of my efforts here when I get back home.

Time is running out for voting on The Peoples Choice Award in the Australian Creative Design Awards, so do hop over if you haven't already done so and vote for your favourite piece just click on the bunny below.

Beary best wishes, Robyn.

Don't forget to Vote!!

2011-05-28T09:17:00.004+10:00

Click on the bunny to vote and find out more about this special online show !

Happy News

2011-05-07T17:34:00.000+10:00

I'm very very happy and honoured to be able to announce that my entry was one of ten nominated for hands on judging in this years Australasian Creative Design Awards and the theme for this years awards were 'Celebrating Beatrix Potter'.
Although, like so many, I'm ever-so-fond of Beatrix Potters wonderful characters and their stories I had decided from the out set to try and create an Australian character but in the Potter spirit.

As we live in Tropical North Queensland the rainforest was a good place to investigate and low and behold I discovered there lives a diminutive little creature known as The Musky Rat Kangaroo.

This little mammal is the smallest and most primitive kangaroo in the world and has several features that reflect lifestyle and body form of their tree-dwelling ancestors. Most kangaroos are active at dawn and dusk, resting during the day, however Musky Rat Kangaroos are only active during daylight. At night they retire to a nest made from leafy twigs which they gather and transport in their short prehensile tails. Rain forest fruits are their favourite food. In good times these seeds and fruit are often scatter- hoarded or buried haphazardly, then later dug up and eaten. Of course not all seeds are recovered by the Musky so this actually aids in seed dispersal and contributes to maintenance of the rain forest ecosystem.

Musky Rat Kangaroos are unique in the kangaroo world because they give birth to twins and sometimes triplets, the young joeys spend about 21 weeks in the pouch after which they are evicted and spend more time in the nest where they are suckled by their mother when she returns from foraging. Musky Rat Kangaroos are only found in large remnant patches of tropical rainforest, and today their populations are believed to be vulnerable but secure. They have a distinct musky scent and go about their business on the rainforest floor gathering fruit and seed that lie among the leaf litter.

So I imagined my Ms.Musky-Roo dashing about, very busy indeed, wearing her best hat of course, and dashing back to all those children with a large basket full of favourite rainforest fruits.
Ms.Musky-Roo is 9 1/2" (24cm) tall (a true life size). I hope you like her, I had a lot of fun.

Ms. Musky-Roo

All the entries are now available for you to view and to vote for your favourite in the Peoples Photographic Choice, voting continues until June 1st, so please visit here to vote and see a wonderful collection of work. All the entries will be available for purchase from June 1st and winners of the hands on judging will be announced on June 5th.

The Australasian Creative Design Awards always offer a wonderful challenge for artists. Many thanks and congratulations must go to Sandi Smith for creating these awards and her diligent care in ensuring their integrity.

Congratulations to everyone,

And a thank you to Martin Cohen and Julia Cooper for their great little book Rainforest Animals (Created, published and printed in Cairns)

Beary happy hugs,

Robyn.

Friends hop in for a snack

2011-04-19T10:52:00.011+10:00

These young wallabies hopped into our front garden this morning for a bit of a snack. After all our wet weather over this last rainy season our trees and shrubs in the front garden have just gone wild and so are providing good camouflage and habitat for all sorts !

And speaking of All Sorts I've got my dye pots out and planning some colourful sessions for some petite bears heading off to The Gold Coast International Teddy Bear Fair in June.

I haven't been idle over the last few weeks though and managed to finish and meet the photo deadline for the Australian Creative Design Awards 2011.
This is a very exciting event and the chosen nominees are subject to hands on judging of their work by three independent judges who each write a critique on the piece for the benefit of the artist.
The ACD Awards have attracted entries from around the world and I'm so looking forward to seeing what every one has come up with following this years theme, in honour and celebration of, Beatrix Potter. All the entries will be up for sale at the 3rd Annual Online Ball starting on June 1st.

Click on the banner below to find out more about this wonderful event.

Trust you are having a happy and creative week so far!

cheerio for now,

Robyn.

In my garden this morning

2011-03-05T14:12:00.004+10:00

It's a beautiful morning here, 30 degrees C or 85 degrees F depending on your location, a little bit cloudy and a gentle breeze so I took a little stroll around and found we have some lovely flowers blooming even though it is the start of autumn here!

Ixora, the little Sunbirds and butterflys love this

Spider Lily

Golden Penda, this is Cairns floral emblem

Grevillea Fire Fly - more Sunbird food

Native Lilly Pilly

Bromliad - the little lizards enjoy the water well in the center

Another beautiful Bromliad

Ground Orchid

Bush Allamanda

Which has brought me around to reminding you about the up-coming 'Blooming Bear Show',

there are seventy five Teddy Bear Artists from around the world taking part so it's bound to be a great show for collectors, have a look at the show preview at http://www.teddiesworldwide.com/.

Meet Buttercup who will be at the show too
' with bells on' !!!

Enjoy your weekend!!!

Beary hugs, Robyn.

After the Valentine

2011-02-15T00:53:00.002+10:00

A big thank you to Sandi Smith, Ess D' Ess, for organising another successful TBACA Be My Valentine On-Line Show ( the third). I have this little person still waiting for her lover ... maybe it's you ? You can see her on my web-site now.

Cherie

Thanks Sandi , this was a lot of fun and your hard work, to pull it off, is well appreciated !!!

Be My Valentine a Sneek Peek

2011-02-08T18:03:00.001+10:00

Here is a sneek peek of my three bears who will be ready for adoption at this years third annual TBACA Be My Valentine Online Show. There will be 32 International and Australian artists participating and definitely a show NOT to be missed! The show will open on Friday 11th February at 8pm Australian Eastern Daylight Saving time, and closes Monday 14th February at 8pm Australian Daylight Saving time.

A little footnote about Cyclone Yasi

Our garden has taken a bruising, but other than that everything else here is intact after cyclone Yasi belted into the Queensland coast with the eye crossing the coast about 150 to 200 kilometers south of us last Wednesday night and rated a category five as it did so. It is heart breaking to see the damage so many have suffered who were in the direct path of Yasi and it will certainly be a very long recovery road, and some may never recover. We were very well informed about Yasi and were preparing three days before the cyclone arrived but nothing can really prepare you for the incredible power a system like that has. Here's hoping there are no more like that in the pipeline but we have been told we could expect another within the next two months. Miraculously all the little birds are back in business in our garden and the bad weather has brought on a flush of beautiful Birdwing and Ulysses Butterflies !!! Amazing ! we have their caterpillar food plants growing in our garden.

Cairns Birdwing

Ulysses

and thank you to my friends for their kind thoughts and words of support during our Yasi experience.

Beary best wishes, Robyn.

A little bit of Cheer

2011-01-15T16:06:00.001+10:00

Here are some pics I took this morning while visiting our wonderful Cairns Botanical Gardens, where we enjoyed a delicious breakfast in the little restaurant there to celebrate our wedding anniversary. It is always such a pleasure to walk around there and enjoy the beautiful gardens and environment. We needed a cheer up too, as the last few weeks have been devastating for Queenslanders in the path of the flood waters, and it seems Queensland is not alone as flood waters now also create havoc in the southern states, Victoria and Tasmania. We have been very lucky here so far and only experienced plenty of rain in Cairns, but our hearts go out to those down south who are feeling the full force of mother nature.

Footpath leading into the gardens

This little swamp hen came flying out of the garden in a great flurry so I'm surprised the shot isn't more blurry!

Time to head home.

Hope you enjoyed the flowers, beary best wishes till next time, Robyn.

A Very Close Call

2010-12-21T07:55:00.001+10:00

We are having the perfect tick season here in Far North Queensland, to the point where vets here warned of a shortage of anti tick medication and that pet owners need to be very diligent indeed and check their animals daily.

Female paralysis ticks one fully engorged

These tiny dangerous parasites can be very hard to find on an animal sometimes, as happened to our poor Cavalier, Tobi. After a brushing and searching session last Thursday afternoon we noticed he had an ever so slight waiver in his gait so we immediately took him off to the vet. After intense examination by two vets, a vet nurse and myself nothing was found so home we went.

By Friday morning though he was clearly having difficulty and we rushed him back to the vet surgery. While giving him a tick wash a young vet nurse found the tick implanted in the very top edge of his ear. He started to go down very fast and we were warned he might not pull through. Our vet said it would probably take up to 72 hours before we would know for sure that he would survive.

After 2 days of worrying and feeling very sad that we might loose the little fellow, on Sunday, mid-day, we had a call from our vet to say Tobi had turned the corner and was definitely rallying ...what a relief !!!.

Tobi was allowed to come home yesterday afternoon, so it was with great joy that we went and picked him up from the vet, he is rather weak of course but clearly happy to be home again!!!

Tobi this morning, Tuesday, and looking a lot better !

All is well that ends well as the saying goes and it will indeed be a very Happy Christmas here in the Roe household!!! Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday time and a very good New Year,

with beary hugs and best wishes,

Robyn.

Charming Fellows

2010-12-19T09:20:00.001+10:00

Thanks to Sandi Smith for organising our TBACA 2010 Christmas Swap and to my delight my swap partner was Linda Benson from Benson Bears, so when the postie delivered a package from Tasmania last week I knew it was from Linda!!!. What a lovely surprise to find inside Rollo and Dink ! Rollo is made from a dense short alpaca and he has beautifully detailed paw pads and a little leather nose. He is 10cm (4") high in a sitting position. Rollo's friend Dink is a great little penguin standing at just 7cm (2 3/4") with wonderful webbed leather feet and a leather beak. He has a fine white detail around his little eyes which gives him a most charming expression. Both are wearing a red leather hat, Dink's at a very rakish angle, complete with a rusty bell on the end. They are just the cutest pair!

My swap to Linda was a little bear called Greentwinky Jnr. who is pulling along his Christmas tree cart. He's made from silk plush and has handpainted eyes. I had a lot of fun creating him and his little cart especially for Linda B.

Meet Daisy and Ivan

2010-09-08T13:59:00.002+10:00

Daisy

Ivan

We had a wonderful holiday and along the way came across sweet little Daisy a 1930's Chiltern. She decided she needed a sea change and now resides with the rest of the gang here in Queensland, which is a long way from Lewes in the UK.

She didn't travel alone however but was in the good company of Ivan, a Pat Murphy 12" gently aged reproduction Ted who also made the journey to warmer climes.

We've had plenty to do here in the garden after six weeks away, but it did feel good to be home again. The doggies had a great time with their carer while we were away and got a bit spoilt too with extra treats! and the doggie family has grown since we returned with the addition of a beautiful Black and Tan Cavalier pup, who has been happily causing havoc around the place chewing all manner of things. Our elderly Cav, also a Daisy, was no longer interested in playing games with poor Tobi, a young Tri Cavalier, so now Tobi has a pal and the two boys are having a great time together. Daisy dear can now enjoy relaxing just as every princess should !

Daisy, Barnaby and Tobi

Just after we returned our computer gave up the ghost, yet again, and was out of action for several weeks and after a new mother board seems to be behaving ok now. We think the high humidity and those pesky little Gekkos cause havoc with computers here. I've upgraded my website too since we came home and you might like to take a look, I'd love you to leave a comment for me in my guest book there and finally I'm back in my workroom and working on some new designs.

Cheers till next time, Robyn.

OOPS!

2010-05-11T10:45:00.002+10:00

Well I am sad to say I made a complete mess of my little panda's black eye patches. I decided to use fabric pens to colour them and ofcourse when the pen slipped on one eye and I tried to rectify the mark it left, all went askew !!!

Whoops indeed ! Needless to say after my efforts to remove the colour from the cotton backing the poor fellow has ended up with two big ' bruised blue' looking eye stains! So I have cut out another head but this time I'm going to sew his patches in...even though his head is rather small I'm hoping it will work. In my efforts I discovered that Copic Colorless Blender used straight from the refill bottle with a small paint brush caused the black ink to disperse through the cotton backing in a rather nice way so am going to play around with his poor little head, so to speak, and see what other colours etc. might do.

Another OOPS! moment happened this last week when my husband took some visitors out fishing. They couldn't go out to the Reef because of very rough seas so they chose to do a spot of fishing in the rivers. As they drifted along Moon Creek fishing close to the bank one of the fellows spotted a Cocodile. The Croc was around 7 foot long (2.1m) and ofcourse perfectly still with it's mouth agape enjoying a bit of sunshine, as you do, if your a croc and the season is cooling down.

The trouble was the visitors didn't believe he was real and thought he was a plastic Croc put there to scare the tourists ! ROFL !!! It just so happened as they drifted closer to him one of the fellows in the boat caught a fish and in the process of landing the fish ended up about 5 feet (1.5m) from the Croc who promptly charged in with it's eye on the fish and possibly the fishers too! Well that put and end to any plastic Croc stories and made them realize just how careful you need to be when messing about in boats in Croc country !

And last but not least another OOPS moment as time is fast running out before we leave next Tuesday for a far flung five week holiday. I have a few teds cut out ready to sew along the way and a very new and natty little notebook laptop so I can keep in touch with home AND also join in and enjoy the ACD Awards and the TBACA online Fantasy Ball don't miss it.

Enjoy your week

Going Bananas

2010-04-30T13:43:00.002+10:00

Well it's certainly banana heaven here at the moment! We planted our banana plot over a year ago and as time went by and no fruit appeared we thought we had wasted our time. Then suddenly out of the blue we've had 3 beautiful bunches appear! The first to ripen were the small sugar bananas and they were just delicious, there were about 100 bananas in that first bunch, way too many for us so our neighbours helped us out.

Now the Lady Fingers are just about ready. It is very satisfying growing your own food and with some to share. Now the cyclone season is over and the humidity has dropped it is the ideal time to be out in the garden and the perfect time to grow vegies here in the tropics.

It's also great for sewing teds so here is my latest panda, a work in progress.

I hope you enjoy your weekend

Posties Been

2010-02-22T15:36:00.000+10:00

It is still raining here in North Queensland and rather grey but the day sure brightened up when I discovered a package in the letterbox all the way from Tasmania! Here are pictures of the little treasure I found inside !

I am one of the lucky winners of Linda Benson's give away ! Thank you Linda for this sweet Benson Bear ! His little face has the most charming expression and his tiny leather nose is perfect. I love him!

and here he is sitting on the bookcase in my sewing room with another couple of Benson Pals! Hope your Monday has been a happy one too!

After the Valentine

2010-02-16T15:11:00.000+10:00

A big THANK YOU to Sandi Smith of Bearly Sane for another successful TBACA Valentine online show last weekend. Sandi's close attention to detail and organising skills are what make the show such a pleasure for both collectors and artists alike. The Valentine show is also a fund raiser for the Free the Bears Fund. Artists donate a bear for Bobo's Booth and all proceeds from the sale of the donated bears go directly to the Fund to help support rescued Sun Bears in Cambodia. Bobo's Booth is still open so do drop by to see some great bears waiting for adoption.

This was my 'Bear for Bobo' his name is DinDin. I really had fun creating him along with his cart full of fruit! He has been adopted by Leslie.

and this is Stefano, a rather happy chap at 6 inches (15cm) tall carrying his Valentine Rose and still looking for his special someone!
Cherrio for now,
Robyn.

Lots Of Rain

2010-02-10T05:05:00.001+10:00

Heres a photo of a corner of our front garden in a very wet state ... waiting to see what low rated cyclone Olga was going to do ! Lot's of people in the supermarkets here buying noodles and such like food ...being prepared ? ! Our power did go out for a short time ... but not long enough for the fridge to defrost ! (we did buy a generator after Larry so we were feeling pretty independant until we discovered we didn't have enough fuel to run the b..... thing!). Well she moved south and caused a lot of havoc there too, good havoc generally with a lot of rain, maybe too much in some places because some people lost their lives, swept away in sudden flood waters while enjoying a simple picnic in a perceived safe spot and in contrast a year to the day of the terrible fires in Victoria which no Australian will ever forget ! What an amazing and beautiful country we live in!!!

Valentine Sneek - Peek

2010-01-25T01:10:00.000+10:00

Here's my Sneek - Peek for our online Valentine Show coming up on February 13 ! Another great opportunity for collectors and bear lovers to enjoy and also support Bobo and the Free The Bears Fund who have been working so hard and achieving great things, to the betterment of the lives of bears, for over the last 14 years.

All proceeds from Bobo's Booth will be sent to Free The Bears Fund. Thanyou to Linda of Lombard Bears Australia for sharing that wonderful Pi Zap site to help with the SP ... it drove me crazy ... but what a lottt of FUN !

Passionfruit Thieves

2009-12-24T15:56:00.000+10:00

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!

2009-12-22T16:58:00.000+10:00

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

2009-10-25T10:34:00.000+10:00

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

2009-09-22T00:31:00.000+10:00

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.

2009-09-10T21:27:00.000+10:00

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!