shana10212@gmail.com
Posted Jul 29, 2007, 4:15 am
My name is Mel and I am a cute little Koula bear who lives in Florida, USA. I was saved from a store about a year ago. I have never traveled before and I think it is about time. I am now hoping to travel all around the world! Please keep me safe and show me around town.
Here is my itinerary:
1.sararingham(Australia-Currently in America, then South Korea)ARRIVED
2.gingermuggins(Australia)
3.Yillup(Australia)
Please fill out my map so I will have a great one. If you want to send souviners or postcards, please send them directly to Andrea so it wont burden the weight of the package.
Thanks,
Mel
sara.ringham@gmail.com
Posted Feb 25, 2008, 11:37 pm
I was greeted almost straight away by some of the other toyvoyagers that Sara is currently hosting! Here's a picture of all of us together...
From left to right, there's Charity Bear, Fuzz, who isn't a toyvoyager just yet... Cronus, Benni, Leo Lion, who is one of Sara's TV's and Kooka... who would have known I would meet up with a Kookaburra in Washington! They all seem pretty friendly and were more than happy to show me around... :-)
I had a look out the window and it's not too bad outside! Sara said it was raining all morning so I came out just at the right time. Tomorrow we might all be going somewhere, lets see where we go! :-) I'm so excited to really start my travels! :-)
sara.ringham@gmail.com
Posted Feb 29, 2008, 12:18 am
First the one cube of butter needed to be chopped up and put in...
We melted all the butter in the oven at 325'F until all the butter was melted and we then sprinkled graham cracker crumbs all over the top of it... yummy!
...and even more graham cracker crumbs!...
Then it was about time to pour the sweet condensed milk over the top...
All done... it's starting to look so yummy... but looks even more yummy very soon! :-)
Then we sprinkled the chocolate chips, and coconut over the top... mmm!
Then sprinkled walnuts over 2/3 of it, because Sara's brother doesn't like nuts, oh well, looks so yummy already though!
...22-25 minutes later...
Out of the oven, still very hot but looks SO yummy! This is a desert tonight after dinner... yum yum yummy! Sara said she wanted to give everyone the recipe too incase they wanted to make it too... so here it is:
SEVEN LAYER MAGIC COOKIE BARS
1/2 c. butter
1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 pkg. semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 pkg. (6 oz.) butterscotch chips
1 1/3 c. flaked coconut
1 c. chopped nuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees for glass dish). In a 13 x 9 inch baking pan melt butter in oven. Sprinkle crumbs over it. Mix together and press into pan. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumbs. Top evenly with remaining ingredients. Press down firmly. Bake 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool before cutting.
That's not all we did, because we're leaving soon we helped Sara put together her bags for leaving, she reorganizes them a lot, so we we're seeing how everything fit, we'll be on the carry on so we won't be like these other poor saps...
...not sure if you can see, but under Cronus foot kind of is a stuffed toy, a few actually, and the big eye you see is a scarecrow wind sock that Sara got, isn't it cool? This is a huge vaccum seal bag that Sara puts everything in to fit it a lot better than what she'd normally be able to fit...
After all that was done we got a new sitting place for a little bit of time while we're not doing anything... aren't we all just so cute? :-)
Yesterday was our last day in Kirkland, it was all sad goodbyes and everything, but we made it - next stop is Olympia to see some other parts of Sara's family before we head back to Aussie land...
sara.ringham@gmail.com
Posted Mar 4, 2008, 6:04 am
Here's a picture of me standing near one side of the huge centre piece... here are some other photos..
As you can see there we're a LOT of animals on this huge piece, most of them are very old going back as much as 90 years ago for some of them, there was even a huge polar bear and a musk ox!
This is one of the fish that Sara got clearly in a photo in the little aquarium thing they had, this is called a Sun fish and Sara said she used to catch these when she was younger in Wisconsin visiting with her grandparents, kinda pretty aren't they?
... and upstairs, they even had a small African exhibit with some unique and interesting animals...
... the last picture is a White Rhino, which are the less critically endangered of the two Rhino species, it was interesting to see one, kind of sad though seeing all the animals at the same time...
Last but not least we got to see a big cat that resembled Cronus there we're a few of them on the centre piece, it's amazing to think that a cousin of Cronus can be SO big, and so fierce looking!
After we left, we went to a house where Sara spent time with some more of her family, there was a crazy dog so we didn't come out much besides to just be seen and that's about it - we had to stay protected in the bag, there was no time for pictures, the dog was just so crazy! But it was a very busy day! I'm glad I'm back home, more relaxing, we fly out on Saturday morning!
sara.ringham@gmail.com
Posted Mar 8, 2008, 7:46 am
Then we we're off to Seattle - we went inside a few shops on the Seattle waterfront, and there we're a lot of really cool wooden statue things that we're hand carved... here's one of them I particularly liked! :-)
...we took a stroll down the waterfront and we saw this sign - which is a memorial, it's straight in front of the Argosy cruises for the Lake cruises and the Locks cruises that they have in Seattle! It looked exciting, but not today! :-)
...and then after a bit more walking we got to the world famous Ye Olde Curiosity Shop...
This was the entrance to the store, it was already quite interesting... so I wonder what's inside! I've heard a lot about this store from Sara...
...and meet Sylvester... the most famous well preserved mummy in the world!
...and here's some information about our famous Sylvester, we heard a lady talking about the origin of Sylvester... apparently after the cowboys found him they left him standing on the side of the road for people to see, then one day a traveling circus drove by him and covered him in arsenic which caused his preserved state even more so, and then they brought him with them around the United States on the traveling circus. Then eventually a dentist actually got a hold of him and had him in his office and had him occasionally pop out on some people (mean huh? haha). When the dentist died, the wife called the Curiosity Shop and asked if they'd like him for their museum... and of course they agreed! :-)
...and now it's time to meet Sylvia...
...she is a white, female mummy, probably a Spanish immigrant found in the highlands of Central America. Scientists say that she died in her early thirties from tuberculosis, prehaps contracted during the long sea voyage to the New World...
Here's more information again about both Sylvia and Sylvester... very interesting information really... :-)
Here's an interesting thing - in the middle of the closed off area on the waterfront, there was an actual working carousel that was really pretty! I wanted to ride, but I was way too small! :-P
We decided to get some food at Ivars, the famous seafood shop on the Seattle waterfront, they have a lot here, but they were founded and established in Seattle from 1936.
While we were waiting for our food, we saw some seagulls up close!
...in the background of a second one you see a famous and familiar sight of Washington, the ferries!
Sara thought this was cute... the Clam Central Station across from Ivars!
When we got home we we're so tired, but we had to pack and get everything ready, we're about right on the limit for stuff we can bring back to Australia - so how exciting will this be! :-)
So before we decided to travel, we decided to get up to date with the world... :-) Here I am reading the newspapers from the countries I will be visiting... :-) How exciting! <3
...and here I am remembering all my fun times while I've been in Washington... my favourite was baking the wonderful 7 layer magic cookie bars late last month!
...since I wasn't here for most of the trip, Sara showed me other places the other toyvoyagers got to visit from Snoqualmie Falls, to the San Juan Islands and even a little German Bavarian type town called Leavenworth, it all looked like so much fun! :-)
...and now it's time to write up my last entry for America then I'm off to Australia again tomorrow! Wish me luck!
sara.ringham@gmail.com
Posted Mar 11, 2008, 11:58 am
Here I am at the gate where Sara will be boarding the plane... we only have a few hours to wait now since we managed to get through customs, immigration and all the screening pretty quickly...
We had to check the board to make sure our flight was on time...
After about an hour our plane arrived, and we got to watch it be loaded up with everything and pretty soon we were about to board and go on our 11 hour flight to South Korea, I wonder what we'll see now that Sara has a window seat...
Very shortly into our flight we got to see some gorgeous mountains from the air, Sara says these are the mountains on the Washington Peninsula, they're called the Olympics...
We got to take a nap, and next pictures we're in Japan... here's what we saw...
As you can see we saw a lot of mountain ranges and everything, and even a volcano we flew over... we're not sure what it is called but it sure looked pretty!
Even more exciting we even got to see Mt. Fuji, it's in the far distance, and if you look closely behind the lower engine you can see Mt. Fuji in the middle...
We then crossed the sea between Japan and South Korea, and we started to come closer to landing, Sara got some photos of Seoul...
...and now we've landed in South Korea...
When we got to Korea, it was a lot of running around, and a lot of long lines but we stopped for a moment to see the beautiful Korean sunset that was happening right before our eyes...
...and here's our next plane to Sydney...
We've got another long 10 hour flight ahead of us, and then a day in Sydney to plan, we'll see how that goes... we're off to board the plane!... see you in Australia!
sara.ringham@gmail.com
Posted Mar 11, 2008, 12:15 pm
This is a photo just by itself, the little peninsula sticking out is actually the airport runway, so we got to watch some planes landing and taking off it was quite interesting...
What's even more interesting is... this is the plane we all arrived on from South Korea, and now it's going back - not even 2 hours later! It was interesting to watch the plane that had only just arrived, seeing it take off back again... how cool is that?
We took a bit longer on the road and we got to one of the proper beaches, we had to go to the beaches with the shark nets, we stopped at the first one and had a bit of a dip (well I didn't, I don't like the water!) in the Kyeemagh Baths...
Here are all of us on the beach...
...and here I am out in the water, Sara was holding me because she knows I don't like the water, it wouldn't be good for my fur!
Here are some seagulls, there we're quite a lot of them really!..
We took another bit of a drive down the beach to the next bit of the shark nets, and we even got to see the Sydney skyline... as you can see, even for a Monday morning there we're a lot of people at the beach... and this is just where we were...
...another 2'ish hours later we we're on the road to Orange, which most definately is not coastal... so no more pretty beaches, but that doesn't worry me too much... but we stopped off in the Blue Mountains and got to see the famous Three Sisters...
There were lots and lots of people sightseeing there when we all visited there... but we got in and got out pretty quick, we all just were very tired and wanted to get home! But before we did that, I had to have a picture with a famous eucalyptus tree... my favourite kinds of trees!
Doesn't it just look so yummy?
sara.ringham@gmail.com
Posted Mar 11, 2008, 12:23 pm
...and when we got home we met up with another toyvoyager,
Mulalu how exciting, he came all the way from South Africa, so we had a group photo together, now I can also introduce you to everyone, most you've seen before, but there are a few new faces that we met up with when we flew into Sydney...
From left to right it's Mulalu, Luke, me, Cronus, Alpina, Leo Lion, Benni, and Charity Bear... the walrus, lobster and turtle are soon to be toyvoyagers... :-)
Pretty soon we'll be saying goodbye to Benni, Cronus and Charity Bear as they continue their travels around the world! :-) We're going back to Blayney tomorrow so we'll have a bit more of a sight see through the small little town. :-)
sara.ringham@gmail.com
Posted Mar 14, 2008, 6:58 am
We went to Blayney, we've been going everyday to feed the animals at Sara's father-in-law's house... no photos with those animals though they're too crazy. But we stopped to see the local emu, we're not sure if he's a wild one, or someone owns him... but we think he just got stuck in the paddock since he was younger, he comes and goes... he's SO big though...
Next stop, our destination... something kinda unique about this though is - it's one of four Marsden cottages they were built for the workers of the wealthy Marsden family. They're listed on the national trust and heritage as historically important. The house in front of me is the one that's most intact and in best condition of the three of them and has most of the original everything that was originally in the house. The house was built in the mid 1870's. We heard a lot of stories from Sara about some spooky stuff that's happened there, she lived there for 10 months with her father-in-law before moving to Orange in May 2006...
Animals are fed... so next stop... Church Hill...
Church hill is a large hill in the middle of town, so Sara got some photos of Blayney from a bit higher elevation... it was a nice clear and hot day so we didn't spend too much time there before moving on...
We had to also say goodbye to Cronus he's off to Costa Rica, how exciting!...
...and then we had a chance to do a mystery shop with Sara and Daniel... we "shopped" a petrol station... and had to do a report on our findings... there was a lot of information to write down... we all helped how we could...
Then we got to visit a pet store and pick out two little mice, Sara has three other mice that are a little bit bigger so we've been having trouble introducing them together, but slowly but surely they're starting to get introduced one at a time... introducing... Pancake and Waffles...
It's been a long day though, I'll have more to update with what happened on Friday, you'll just have to wait and see, it won't take too long! :-)
sara.ringham@gmail.com
Posted Mar 14, 2008, 7:38 am
Here's a picture of me next to the statue in memory of him...
...and here's the sign from underneath the statue...
The important part of this sign says "The bricks in this plinth are from the original templer's mill that stood on this site during the time of Banjo's birth. The mill was demolished in 1971."
Here's the sign in front of the ruins of the templer's mill:
...and a close up of the sign and what the sign says...
We even then went and saw another sign in memory to Banjo Patterson...
...then last of all before we left, we actually got to sit on the ruins of the mill...
As we left, we all got to learn the words of the famous Australian song... "Waltzing Matilda"...
Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong,
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled
"Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me?"
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"
And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled,
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Down came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong,
Up got the swagman and grabbed him with glee,
And he sang as he stowed that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"
And he sang as he stowed that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Down came the squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred,
Up came the troopers, one, two, three,
"Where's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?"
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"
"Who's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?",
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Up got the swagman and jumped into the billabong,
"You'll never catch me alive," said he,
And his ghost may be heard as you passed by that billabong,
"Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me?"
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me
And his ghost may be heard as you passed by that billabong,
"Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me?"
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled
"Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me?"
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"
And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled,
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Down came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong,
Up got the swagman and grabbed him with glee,
And he sang as he stowed that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"
And he sang as he stowed that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Down came the squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred,
Up came the troopers, one, two, three,
"Where's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?"
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"
"Who's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?",
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Up got the swagman and jumped into the billabong,
"You'll never catch me alive," said he,
And his ghost may be heard as you passed by that billabong,
"Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me?"
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me
And his ghost may be heard as you passed by that billabong,
"Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me?"
...then on the way back from our stop in Blayney we got to see John Lister's grave...
He's the first person to find gold in Australia in 1851... he's buried in Millthorpe, a tiny town 10 minutes towards Orange from Blayney with a population of only around 800 people....
When we got home... Sara showed us a $10. note, it features Banjo Patterson... that shows how famous of an Australian he is... so how cool to see and learn more about him... today was another huge day, and it was again, so hot... we're hoping for a cool down soon since we're almost a month into autumn now... well time to rest for a while... I'll post again very soon! :-)
sara.ringham@gmail.com
Posted Mar 20, 2008, 8:46 am
Have fun Leo Lion!
sara.ringham@gmail.com
Posted Mar 20, 2008, 9:10 am
...and Sara says Easter is coming... :-) How fun! :-)
sara.ringham@gmail.com
Posted Mar 29, 2008, 7:29 am
Here's me with the mice, you can see one of the baby mice (they're all female) on the bottom right hand side of the door, that's Waffles. :-) There's 4 others, another baby called Pancakes, and three adult females called Moo, Charlotte and Little Foot. They're all SO cute!
Here's a close-up of Waffles, I couldn't be in the picture since that would scare her away... she's a very social mouse. :-)
Next stop I got to see the fish, most of the fish are swordtails, platties, one guppy and various danios. Sara also has a huge suckerfish which you can see at the bottom of the tank, he's sucking on the drift wood. There's lots and lots of baby platties that are just big enough to be in the big tank now, it's pretty cool t see them! All the platties look the same though, hehe. :-)
...and last but not least, here is what we've been listening too since we got here... the birds...
I couldn't get photos with all the birds because they're not used to me being this close so they get scared easily... and I'll tell you why a bit later... but here's the type of birds in the cage...
There are three diamond doves, all of which are pictured here... they make sounds like "who-hooo" it's pretty cute and they usually only do it at night time. Sara says they're the smallest dove in the world. There not much bigger than any of these finches. They're names are Silver, Bluey and Gumby.
There are three pairs of Gouldian finches. Most of them are red faced and yellow faced. No black faced gouldians (which are the most common suprisingly)... this is one of the males. They're called Mr. Colors, Tweet, Twiddle, Bunyip, Puggles, Grimey (think the Simpsons).
There's a pair of spice finches, which are also called 'nutmeg' finches. The mating call is almost silent and it is a strange sound towards the end I don't know how to describe it. But they're called Pepper and Paprika.
There's 5 pairs of star finches, this is a red faced male, there's also yellow faced star finches. Sara has a unique one that has an entirely different song than the others, that makes him the head of the whole aviary... they're called Peep, Dotty, Spots, Mr. Peep, Prickles, Goo, Stars, Comet, and two red females which are unnamed as of yet. :-)
I have pairs of zebra finches... this will come into more detail later... but their names are Mr. Zebra, Frank, Squeak, Bell Beep (which was supposed to be a female - but obviously isn't), Meep, and another unnamed female... so obviously not all paired up, but Sara can't get anymore at the moment, and this is why...
...and this is why, you can see Bell Beep (the one that was supposed to be female but obviously a male - his plumage is just coming in)... one of the female yellow stars on the top of the nest, and the unnamed female zebra in the nest... she's "warning" the other birds to get away - because she had 4 eggs she's been sitting on for the last few days... so hopefully we'll have some babies soon! :-)
...and last but not least, the newest addition to the finch family is the owl finches... they're very good birds to adapt into a mixed aviary, as with the spice finches, so they've all bonded quite well with the stars especially, which is good since they're the leading group of finches in the cage... the owl finches are called owlie and owllet. :-)
Hopefully this week we're going to Cook Park and Mount Canobolas, the extinct volcano 20 minutes from here.... :-) We'll see how this next week goes! :-)
Posted Apr 4, 2008, 3:36 am
I arrived safely today at Kylie's house. I was met by some toy voyagers who she already had at home - Charity Bear, Benni and Phillip Grammy. We're having a toy toyager party here!
I hope to have heaps of fun here, and will send another message in the next couple of days!
Posted Apr 5, 2008, 8:54 am
There was a bit of a carnival thing happening while we were there, with 2 HUGE jumping castles, face painting, plaster painting, and lots of yummy food for sale like corn on the cob and fairy floss.
The Entrance is famous in Australia for it's pelican feeding every day. We all went down to the water (not too close!) and had a look at these big funny looking birds!
This is the information about the feeding on the website:
| Quote: |
| Pelican Feeding is the Central Coast's most popular tourist attraction and operates 3.30pm daily, 365 days a year come rain, hail or shine.
The pelican feeding attracts tens of thousands of families back to The Entrance where they get an entertaining and educated commentary about the pelicans, bird and marine life and general information about the area. Just over twenty years ago, the pelican feeding started by accident when staff from a local fish and chip shop would throw out scraps. It became such a ritual that whenever the staff were late in throwing their scraps out, the pelicans would cross the road and come up to the shop to be fed. One of the main objectives of the pelican feed is to keep an eye on the pelican's medical conditions as many have hooks and lines tangles up in their gullets, wings and other parts of their body. The feed is a chance for the co-ordinator to assess their well being. It's certainly an amusing show to come and see. At least 1 or 2 birds a week are removed from the water and sometimes the outcome is bad for the injured birds but most times its just a simple extraction of a hook and they are on their way. The Entrance has now been internationally recognised as 'The Pelican Capital of Australia' and we want you to be part of it. So when you visit us at The Entrance be sure to wander down to the pelican pavilion on the foreshore for an experience you will treasure. The Pelican Feed is proudly sponsored by local businesses within and around the Central Coast and if it wasn't for their support and enthusiasm it wouldn't be as successful as it is today. |
We all got our photo taken in front of a sign showing how far some of the nearest places overseas are! Boy Australia is a long way away from anywhere else!
When we got home we found there was a bush fire on the hill near Kylie's house. Bush fires are very common in Australia Kylie tells me. Even though we've had a good season so far, the fires can still be bad!
Posted Apr 16, 2008, 1:07 pm
Today we got to welcome a new toy voyager into our party! Flutura came for a visit! It's so nice having heaps of us all together.
As you can see, there's Mulalu, me (Mel), Flutura, Alpina is hiding behind Phillip Grammy and then there's Charity Bear. Benni had just been packaged up in his parcel to be sent off, so didn't get to meet Flutura!
Kylie had mother's group at her house today, so we all got to play with the toys after they left!!
Posted Apr 28, 2008, 12:25 am
We were able to get out of the house though to go to The Entrance today. I had yummy fish and chips (although a pelican wanted to eat it first).
We also fed the seagulls. They are very noisy animals! And they get very close!
Posted Jun 26, 2008, 2:05 am
This is me in the car going on the F3 Freeway to Richmond Vale Railway Museum.
There weren't just model trains though, there were REAL steam trains! I got to have a nice close look at one. They are really big and make a lot of noise...
I also got to have a trip on the train with all my friends. It was noisy and dirty but heaps of fun.
Posted Jun 26, 2008, 2:29 am
