A Picnic with Myrene

Hello everyone this is Flat Susan here I am Eliza's little executive PA so you will be hearing from me for the next few weeks, after all Eliza's desk isn't really active she has been out and about with work commitments and then there is me tagging along and I can tell you it has been a really great time so far, Eliza is never in one place very long and it is a struggle to keep up, now I understand why Yoda misses her so much.  So on with my travels, I have been all over the place so get ready to hear some really fun stuff, coz it is lots of fun, fun, fun. 

Myrene, Eliza's daughter had a picnic to go to on Saturday and asked if I could come along, well the interesting part about that was it was a picnic/BBQ for the hearing impaired, yep deaf people, Myrene is getting her interpreters degree in Auslan so I was ok she was filling me in on all the stuff that was happening.  Myrene was wearing her fairy costume to the picnic to celebrate bright colours, more on that later.  This picnic was really up my alley as you all know I really can't hear, I think it has something to do with plastic but never mind that, lets move on.  I will have to show you pictures of the picnic later as they are on Myrene's camera and not Eliza's.  Well after the picnic with Myrene all dressed up in a fairy costume, we went to Fitzroy Gardens in Melbourne these gardens have been here for over 150 years.  These have got to be the best gardens ever as this is where some really magical stuff has happened and where Captain Cooks Cottage is.  Here you can see me at the cottage sitting on the hedge with Eliza.  Then we had a look at the gardens around the back and there was a statue of the man himself 'Captain Cook'  can you believe that the man himself, oh but this is not the best part we went for a wander over to another special part of the gardens to a Miniature Tudor Village just like the ones back in the country where my creator Neet comes from and it was special for me to be apart of this little village. All these little houses were put there just for me in my size to fit too.  This village was build by a man Mr Edgar Wilson a 77 year old who came from Norwood London.  This village has been open since May 1948. 

Just 

across from the village which Eliza & Myrene had to pull me away from was this really magical fairy tree. This tree was comprised of a series of carvings onto the trunk stump of an original red gum tree and the stump was over 300 hundred years old.   Ola Cohn's Fairy tree attracts many visitors from all over the world and was so beautiful.  Here you can see me sitting on the railing that protects the tree from people touching it.  This tree has so many native animals and gnomes 

fairies and other mystical creatures carved into it.   Here is a closer up shot of the tree and a little girl who I meet there who was so fascinated with my story and travels. This was only a little part of my day but I will have to tell you more in the next post so Julia  at the Stamping Ground where you can see more desks, well I don't want her getting upset with me for having a long post.  Yoda he is home whilst I am writing this because we are at a work place getting some culture, more on that later.

Whoo Hoo - I am staying with Yoda

FLAT SUSAN HAS ARRIVED IN MELBOURNE

Susan has arrived safe and sound in Melbourne, she is travelling with loads of paraphernalia too.   She is so cute and so tired from all that travelling, she left the northern parts of Queensland last week.  I can post a letter to America and it could get there faster than her mail did.  Anyway onto other things and I thank the heavens it wasn't yesterday Susan arrived because we had one hell of a storm that caused flooding and damage all around the place.  I am thankful that Susan was safely at the postal office.  Here we had a freak storm that filled the guttering with ice and all the grounds were covered in white.  Horrible weather to be out and about in and we had a broadcast down on the docklands area that missed the storm altogether.  My guttering is overflowing, ice was on the ground everywhere and you could pick it up by the handful.  It was really bad that it hit the back door and that is under a veranda that is covered.  The front area of the house usually does't have much weather hit it but the entrance was over flowing with ice. 





I do hope you realize when I am writing this I am in Melbourne Australia and we don't have weather like this, it is rare indeed. Also it is Spring here.


Here is the ice and rain hitting our back door and the ground part the way through the storm and it was so dark outside too.



 I went and took photos of the grounds and guttering that was chokers full of ice.

Piles of ice everywhere to be seen, I really don't know how people can live in cold snow areas of the world having to deal with ice all the time, it would be horrible. 

I really enjoy the warmer climate but yesterday was weird to say the least.  I went and scooped up ice in a hurry because the next storm was about to hit. 

 Anyway onto the fun stuff, my desk has Susan on it but before that it had, Stamps that my bestie and I had been making last Sunday. Yes we have been having some fun, but lets move onto the important stuff and I know a few of you will be wondering if Yoda is happy to have Susan around or if he would be jealous of her. 

Well they had a little chat and talked it out and they both decided that sleep was far more important and Yoda let Susan snuggle up with him and have a nap. 

I think he likes Susan to be honest here he is thinking about sleeping then here he is hunkering down and then finally they are both asleep.


Wow what a day this is.  I am concerned that Yoda might not let Susan go when she needs to hit the town, but that can be sorted later. 

Susan has survived the freak storm and is still napping with Yoda.

Oh why am I telling you all this, because Julia said so. Julia over at the Stamping Ground hosts the best blog hop of the week where you show your desk to the world and whom ever wants to join in can.

I was fortunate this last week, to visit everyone on the list, yep sneaked in a visit here and there whilst at work and this list was a short one so that helps. 

For all that returned the visit thank you.
So lets go for now and let the little ones sleep.





Hugs to all and thanks for visiting, please leave a comment I love them.




Eliza, Yoda & Flat Susan.

Moving On to Visit Annette in Oz

Julatten in Far North Queensland, Australia-long post and lots of scenery photos

Over a month ago a special little art doll lady arrived here in Julatten, far North Queensland, Australia. Her name is Flat Susan and she has been roaming around the World for over a year. Her adventures started when she left her home at Neet's place in England in her tiny suit case June 21 2013. Susan has been to quiet a few countries and you can read about her venturehere

This is where Julatten is on the Australian map. I live up here with my husband Grant and our 18 year old son Tim. We moved here from the Northern Territory just before Christmas. Julatten is gorgeous and our home is on a hill over looking rain forest covered mountains. You can see and read more about our new house in a past post here. Julatten is part of the World Heritage listed Wet Tropics here in Oz and is very green with luscious rain forests, pristine water ways/beaches and glorious one of a kind animals, birds and plants.  

The day after Susan arrived we took her on a bush walk just ten minutes from our home. Its called the Bump Track and its 6kms long. It  was the old road from the coast up to the Atherton Tablelands where Julatten is located. There's Susan sitting on the signs at the start.

Along the track there are "Wait A While" palms. They have these long tendrils with rear facing spikes. If you brush up near then the spikes dig into your clothes and you have to "wait a while" to get them out. Susn was small enough to sit on the spikes with no problem.

About a third of the way along you come across a gorgeous Creek. It's called Robin Creek now.

At the rear there are some rocky little falls. My hubby Grant took Susan up there for a look. Below she is resting on the rocks to the left of the falls.

We had a small cyclone come thru earlier in the year and there were several trees down with large fungi growing on them. Susan thought they would make a perfect chair for herself to sit on.

3/4 of the way along there is a seat so you can rest at the scenic look out. That's the Pacific Ocean out there. The Mowbray River below winds thru sugar cane farms and has a 2-3meter salt water crocodile visible from the highway bridge which is just before the land meets the ocean in the distance.

Once we got to the bottom we drove over the bridge to show Susan the crocodile.

The nex few days Susan and I hung out in my art room. I'm making an art book with transfers in them. Susan was really interested in them and in particular this one I did using clear embossing enamels onto a skeleton leaf.

Every week I do art classes at a local gallery so Susan climbed on my easel to get a good view of a practice painting I was doing while I learn to use acrylic paints. This is a monochromatic study in reds.

On another day we went up to Mount Lewis which is also near my home. We passed this lovely bubbling creek in the rain forest and saw huge ferns and lots of moss covered logs

One evening we had this cute little visitor on the grass outside the house...its an echidna. Susan wouldn't go near it!

On the 3rd of August Susan helped Grant celebrate his birthday. She loved the Lamington Cake

Over the next few weeks we went sight seeing and saw heaps of waterfalls, a nice island or two and some interesting prehistoric looking birds called Cassowaries....the Dad's raise the chicks!

Over at Mareeba  (35 mins from my house) there are cute rock wallabies that are a little too friendly so Susan stayed in my pocket. From there we went down the Palmerston Highway and stopped at Henrietta Creek

Another place not far from our place is Mount Carbine. There is a rugged dirt track up the mountain. We stopped at a little look out for Susan.

The road ends at the McLeod river. Susan had a rest on a log along the side of thr river...can you see her?

There she is a little closer

I carried Susan as it was a long four hour walk. This is taken near where the river drops to a gorgeous valley below

On the way back we went thru the bush so Susan could get up close to some ancient Aboriginal rock art.

It was nearing the time for me to have knee surgery so we did a last trip with Susan to Undara lava tubes which is 259kms  inland and down from Julatten.

We stopped to look at Millstream falls on the way.

We had a little wait before the lava tubes tour so we climbed to a little lookout above Unadara. Susan is hanging off the tree at left...

here she is in a closer view

The lava tubes were amazing and are the longest known in the World according to the guide. There is Grant and my son Tim as they climbed the stairs down into the lava tubes

This was the view from the top of the tube in...they are very large. The pole you can see was put there 40 years ago for scientists to assess if the tube was straining in any way that may imply an imminent collapse.

Susan stayed with Annette as it gets quite dark inside

There are arches where parts of the tube have collapsed

Susan spent her last day helping Annette make a tag for Eliza who also lives in Australia and is the next person hosting Susan

There is so much more Susan could see here and this was the tip of the ice berg...maybe she will come back. For now though she is on her way to Eliza's tucked away in her little suitcase mid air I suppose. Have fun on your adventure Susan.
hugs
Annette In Oz