Spring has Sprung!

  By Whiting • September 14, 2015 Scotia's Blog, Uncategorized

Like everyone says, Spring has sprung! As far as I know, it’s getting quite warm, and despite that Mum has bought us both a pair of funny knitted socks. Gus’ are light brown, with an upward twirl at the end. They really make him look like a wooden toy.

Mine are brighter, red and white, and the slightest bit bigger. They don’t have the twirl, but are comfy all the same.

IMG_2003

The funny socks come from a funny market, the Maitland Market. Let me tell you my story. Or maybe I should say, the Maitland Market’s story.

Mum and Dad adore going into tiny markets, nowhere near as big as the Queen Victoria one, but they hate hate hate the supermarket. At first, I thought it would have nothing to make it stand out. But I was wrong. It was a couple of stalls in this big shed. Hmm, maybe a bit different. Hardly any of the markets are indoors.images-1

I had a lot of fun trying on those big floppy hats. I guess you could call it a beret. But I already had enough hats, and it was too big for me, anyhow. Then Mum said Gus was trying on some booties. She was talking about the socks, which would later be referred to as ‘Murkies’. I rushed to see these shenanigans, half expecting Gus to be seeing how well he could fit his foot into a sock for a baby, but he was actually wearing light brown knitted socks, fitting him perfectly.

I happily browsed through the sparkly plastic gems and lacey coat hangers and lobster clasps and pretty little boxes and weird scarves with strange things on the end, until…..

Continue in Spring has Sprung 2 to find out what happens next!

List of Characters: Gus. Mum. Me, a.k.a. the rude interrupter.

“Hey!” I shout. “Just kidding!

I did not interrupt. The ‘Continue in Spring has Sprung 2 to find out what happens next!‘ sign is the rude interrupter! Read on now to find what happens next!

I happily browsed through the sparkly plastic gems and lacey coat hangers and lobster clasps and pretty little boxes and weird scarves with strange things on the end, until…..

Until I saw a man in a study, painting something with watercolours. He had lots of paintings in his studio, obviously done by him. Judging by the way Mum was strolling over, she had spotted him too. Mum and the man and Dad chattered away casually. My favourite painting had a dead boab and a family in the Red Centre.

In the end, Mum bought a carton of different coloured eggs, some lemons, and my socks and Gus’.

On the way back, Gus wanted to say something about moccasins. He got all mixed up with Birkenstocks, so it came out Mirkenstocks. That’s how the socks got their nickname.

I am in Streaky Bay now

  By Whiting • September 5, 2015 Fergus' Blog

This is a diary of what I have done in Streaky Bay.

 

2/9/15

I got out of the car just like usual. I had to pull Scotia out to make the bed in the caravan with me. Finally we got in the caravan, but Scotia was so noisy that she was kicked out. She was only allowed to come back in when I finished doing the bedding. What a waste of moving and trying to lift a 25 kilo very annoying sister.

3/9/15

Good morning! I just sat up in my bed but Scotia had not got up. Yet still I decided to get up without her, because I was pretty hungry (I sometimes wait for her to get out of bed, but not this time). I got out of bed and urged Dad to make breakfast. I got on the computer. After quite a while, Scotia got out of bed. Then Dad said to Scotia “go outside” so Scotia obeyed. After quite a while Scotia came back and said “some people invited me to go on one of those go-cart thingies” and Dad said she could go as long as she took her helmet. So she did. After another hour I could hear the go-carts rumbling down the road.

This is a example of the go-carts

This is a example of the go-carts, but this is NOT them and NOT the right caravan park

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I looked out the door at Scotia and one of her friends said “want to go on a go-cart with us?” I said “ok”, and then Dad poked his head out the door and said “your helmet”. I sighed in my head, but still got my helmet out of his hands. The first place we stopped (briefly) was the television room. There was nothing on the television. Because you could only have the go-cart for a certain amount of time, one of the go-carts had to be returned. We went back to the reception to return it, but remember we still had another go-cart. Then I realised that our friends had dummies that had lollies on them and looked like this:

mustacho_1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the last go-cart was returned, we went to the beach. After a while Scotia and Olivia (one of the friends) made a sand castle. After another few minutes I made a second sand castle with Scotia and Olivia because Riley (another one of the friends) had smashed the first one into bits.

4/9/15

Today Dad said we could go net fishing. It is using nets to catch fish.

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I caught two fish that you could call white bait. Nobody got a big one though.

My adventure at Streaky Bay continues…..

We are in South Australia now……

  By Whiting • September 3, 2015 Scotia's Blog

We are in South Australia now.

We have nearly finished this trip now. The Coorabie was our first location in the state coming back to Melbourne, and also really, really good.

Friends

Gus found a friend whose name is forgotten. They kept throwing around big bits of dirt until Dad saw and told Gus and me not to. I found a friend too, whose name is not forgotten.

His name is Bullet.

When I first met him, he was very sleepy. He enjoyed me stroking him, just like a dog. But when I woke up the next morning, he was a completely new person. He was running around, treading in a shed he wasn’t supposed to. This was because he liked chewing on the wool he found on the floor. Now, you’re probably thinking that’s gross, but it isn’t really, because of one of his major characteristics, one that I forgot to tell you.

He’s a dog. That’s why he liked being stroked, that’s why he liked chewing wool, that’s why he was so eager to break the rules and go in the forbidden shed. He’s a dog, part Staffie, part Pug and part King Charles Cavelier.

This is from the Internet, but this dog looks a bit like Bullet. Bullet wears a jacket, though.

This is from the Internet, but this dog looks a bit like Bullet. Bullet wears a jacket, though.

Amenities

The toilets there were super-duper clean. I know what the mens are like, too. That’s because there are no mens. And that doesn’t mean there are no public toilets for the males. They’re unisex toilets. And as I said, very tidy ones.

The Site We Got

Not that great, in my opinion. We were squashed right up to this other ancient little caravan which doesn’t seem to be occupied. But right behind us is a load of trees and the big bits of dirt I mentioned before. Once I stepped in some goo, so I had to sit by the fire. That’s were I met Bullet.

Summary

Here’s a summary of the entire park.

 

  1. Clean Amenities: 9/10
  2. Near a Town: 3/10
  3. People to Play With and Things to Do: 7/10
  4. Positive Comments on WikiCamps: 8/10
  5. The overall rating: 8/10

 

Albany

  By Whiting • August 25, 2015 Fergus' Blog

I went to Albany. It has got to be in my top three of best caravan parks. The top three on our trips are :

  1. Crescent Head (last trip)
  2. Albany
  3. Gold Coast (last trip)

The first interesting thing we did was make up a game. What happened was, we both had four shops and we used the sticks as money. Each stick was worth five dollars. My shops were gardening, electronics, supermarket and sports store. Scotia’s shops were candy, cafe, pet store and pet’s needs.

At this caravan park you could borrow DVDs. We watched the first Harry Potter on the first day we stayed there. It was the Philosopher’s Stone. We did that because they had all the Harry Potters and Scotia and I had already read all of them up to five.

The next day Mum, Scotia and I went for a run on the beach. I ran one lap and then I said to Scotia “do you want to play the playground game but on the beach?” She said yes so we drew boxes in the sand for shops. Scotia also did piggybacks for five dollars each. At the end of the day we watched another Harry Potter. It was the Chamber of Secrets.

The next day we went to the spa. It had heaps of bubbles. Scotia and I made bubble coats and bubble goatees. Scotia once had a really funny goatee even though I did not see it. Mum did and I trust my mum like you trust yours.

Spa

Spa

After that we went to play pool

Walnut_ascot_pool_table

 

I reckon Scotia was better than I was though.
The next day we did scrabble. I won by about 30 points. I was at about 130 points.

 

scrabble

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we watched Star Wars. I thought it wasn’t very scary though.

We did all of the above because we tried to make the best of the rain and wind while we were at Albany.

Grand Tour of Pentland Alpaca Farm

  By Whiting • August 14, 2015 Scotia's Blog

We went to an alpaca farm. There was much, much more though. I’ll give you a grand tour.

We go inside. The gift shop is a shed full of wooden wind chimes and everything to do with Stunned Emu Designs. You won’t know what I mean, so here’s a Stunned Emu Design.556202461533c16857a46ed5bfb7c21c_XL

Here’s another:SHOW2015_Stripey_webtile_151014_02

According to all the signs, the artist is Wendy Binks and she grew up here. Pentland sure is proud of her. Her artwork’s everywhere. The lady at the counter is giving four bags of animal food and saying we can’t give the joeys too much. There are joeys here?

When we get out, there is a cage with three cockatiels. I’d like a cockatiel. Or a cockatoo or a corella. As we continue, there are more birds. There’s a galah that says “Scratch scratch” – literally. Yeah, it talks. Dad really does scratch it, but cautiously. Dad doesn’t want his fingers bitten off. There are bunches of guinea fowls screeching on the floor of the cage. There are two koalas facing in the other direction. Then we get to the alpacas. Two are looking a bit odd. One looks like an Ewok and another has dangerous-looking teeth. Actually I find out later that the toothy one is really a llama.

"Ewok" alpaca

‘Ewok’ alpaca

"Dangerous" alpaca

Toothy llama

There are also a couple of joeys. So that’s the joeys! They’re ever so friendly. They aren’t allowed to have too much food, though, remember!

Oh! A white alpaca just ripped the food bag out of my hand! Mum gives me her bag.

There are ‘racing’ pigeons hooting in a cage. Next is a load of goats. There’s an emu as well. I feed it out of my hand. It isn’t safe, really. The emu grabs the food out my hand, its beak clipping firmly around my palm and immediately unclipping. The goats are a lot gentler, munching contentedly on the food in my hand. Now the emu needs to be distracted to stop it from snapping up the food meant for goats. The emu is greedy.

There are lots of small chickens and roosters squawking in clumps. Then there are the guinea pigs and rabbits. Th Two rabbits are unusually large, but cute all the same. We see two ferrets curled up in a cage. Then there’s a sheep and a pig. They’re really loud because it’s nearly 3.00pm, their feeding time and they’re getting seriously peckish. The pig is squeaking noisily and the sheep are making distinctive ‘maa’ sounds. I suddenly see a cat on the stack of hay bales. I tell Mum and she spots that the cat is wearing what looks like a plastic bib. Strange!

There’s a camel with a face exactly the same as the alpacas, but it doesn’t look as if it’s up for eating food.

We walk on and see a big furry animal. It’s the size of a Shetland Pony, but there’s a sign asking not to feed it as it’s still on milk. Although we don’t know the exact age, Dad is still amazed, saying over and over again how young it must be. It must be quite young. There are some foxes in an enclosure. They’d have to be locked up, otherwise they’d feast royally on the chickens and run wild.

There are two more emus, Em and Mu, and a a real Shetland Pony. There are two fully grown big furry animals and a sign saying they’re Scottish Highland cattle.

It’s almost 3.00pm (feeding time), so we walk back to the area with the chickens, the rabbits and guinea pigs, the alpacas, the camel, the sheep and the pig, the goats and the emu, and the ferrets. After a minute or two there’s a woman in a blue shirt striding up to us. She asks us if we’d like to feed the animals. We say yes. First she unlocks the pigeon cage and the pigeons start racing around – it was their exercise time. She then produces four milk bottles and automatically four joeys come bounding up. We all start happily feeding the joeys. By the time we finish, Mum has three pigeon poos on her head. Yes, the pigeons are still on the loose. We then feed the sheep and the pig. We also spot a week-old lamb and feed that too. We feed the baby Highland cow and find that it is one month old. We discover there is a two month old highland cow with the emu and the goats. The woman in a blue shirt disappears and we wash our hands and depart too.

You like the grand tour?thumbs-300x171

Alpaca farm

  By Whiting • August 11, 2015 Fergus' Blog

We went to a alpaca farm yesterday. I thought it was just going to be a bunch of alpacas, but it had heaps of other stuff. First we saw the birds but because the guinea fowls (a flightless bird) made noise, we did not stay there for long. Next we went to the llamas. We fed one, but the other had weird teeth.

weird teeth

weird teeth

After that, we went into the kangaroo and alpaca enclosure. We were permitted to go into that space. A white alpaca got Scotia’s food and knocked it out of her hand. When we got out of that enclosure, Mum gave Scotia some extra animal food. Scotia then fed the emu. It took the food off her in a surprisingly cheeky way, so we decided to not feed the emu any more. We went down further and there was a crazy piglet and some other baby animals. After that we went even further and Mum did not give us much time at that part.  We started watching the joeys play, and they started getting a bit harsh (play fighting).

IMG_1918

 

So next we fed the baby animals milk. I fed a lamb first. My lamb drank probably the slowest out of all of them. We fed a one-week-old lamb and a Scottish highland calf that was about one week old too. When we looked at the one-week-old lamb, it looked weird with its tail as lambs normally have these cut off. We fed the joeys, and the joeys were probably my favorite out of all the animals.

Scitech

  By Whiting • August 4, 2015 Fergus' Blog

This place I am talking about is kind of like Scienceworks but better.

You could do all sorts of stuff like my favourite. It is like a maze, but harder, because there were four buttons to control its direction in a 3D way.
Cool hey?

Another display was when I was riding a bike, a machine said what I could power. I could power a lamp or an egg beater.

We also went to a show. It was amazing. It showed lots of things, for example when you put fire on a balloon it went crazy, and when you put light on a mirror it reflected, but when you had no light it did not.

That is what Scitech is.

This is another thing I enjoyed

This is another thing I enjoyed

THE END

Ride the world

  By Whiting • August 3, 2015 Fergus' Blog

In the morning I woke up from bed. Nobody was there, but I decided to get up and read my kindle. I read for about half an hour and then Mum came out and dad and Scotia. I stopped and looked at Mum with the computer, Dad reading and Scotia doing well… nothing much really. Then I kept reading and reading and reading for about two hours. After that, Dad announced that we were going on a ride, and we did that. While we were riding I asked where, and he said “nowhere” so we kept riding. I said “watch me do a wheelie”

This is a wheelie example

This is a wheelie example

 

but he ignored me and we kept talking and riding and talking and riding until he finally watched me do a wheelie. He just said nothing much really, then we got to a lake. We stopped there and I ate, and then dad showed me a fireman’s lift. He lifted me up like he was rescuing me.

This is an example

This is an example of a fireman lift

We started talking about what sport Scotia should do when we get back home.          Finally we got back then I did this blog post