Always remember that the future comes one day at a time.

Brown bear, brown bear what do you see? Melbourne Zoo, April 2011.

The brown bear can weigh from 300 to 780 kilograms – that’s more than eight times me – and at its largest rivals the polar bear as the largest land-based predator in the world!

I see Henry and Ezra and some bloke with a camera. Melbourne Zoo, April 2011.

This one is a handsome beast that particularly caught Ezra’s eye. While Ez marvelled at its bulk and dexterity on those rocks, Henry was more taken by the fact that it was eating carrots and lettuce!

Ursus arctos, Ursus arctos quis operor vos animadverto? Melbourne Zoo, April 2011.

Comments

ratatouille's archives said…

Hi! Kris...
Wonderful pictures all Of a brown bear that..."can weigh from 300 to 780 kilograms – that’s more than eight times me..."
It's so cute and yet at the same time can "rip" your head off in one quick..."swope!"

"I see Henry and Ezra and some bloke with a camera."
(Laughter!)

"While Ez marvelled at its bulk and dexterity on those rocks, Henry was more taken by the fact that it was eating carrots and lettuce!"
Interesting!

The quote "rings" so true!
Thanks, for sharing!
DeeDee ;-D

11 May 2011 at 03:57

Carola said…

Wonderful writing? Laugh, laugh.
Great, these creatures are so awesome.

Try to imaging seeing one in the wild. I know you Australians can, because you live with so many dangorous animals.

In the Yellowstone National Park we did. On a backpacking hike, in two walking days distance. On a meadow, the grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) was bussy surching for ground squirrel on one end of a meadow. We stood on the other end, opp. 50 meters away. This bear could not smell us, the wind was coming from him. For sure we were afraid. All four we stood together, thought about what to do if he would come. Climb a tree? Who first?
Even to know that you could see one, (you prepare your camp for the night, make noise (bell) while hiking), it is a rare possibility. They are shy, don't like the smell from humans or theire noise.
The bear waked away.
And we did too. From time to time we turned our heads?

12 May 2011 at 00:55

Kris McCracken said…

At least the Blogger thieves haven’t stolen these comments! Maybe the bear scared them off…?

DeeDee, they are wonderful beasties!

Carola, I’m not sure that I’d sleep too comfortably with great big bears roaming about!

16 May 2011 at 10:33

Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it...

I still have the robot on the job. Here you can see the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery . And here is a poem: Soliloquy for One Dead Bruce Dawe Ah, no, Joe, you never knew the whole of it, the whistling which is only the wind in the chimney's smoking belly, the footsteps on the muddy path that are always somebody else's. I think of your limbs down there, softly becoming mineral, the life of grasses, and the old love of you thrusts the tears up into my eyes, with the family aware and looking everywhere else. Sometimes when summer is over the land, when the heat quickens the deaf timbers, and birds are thick in the plumbs again, my heart sickens, Joe, calling for the water of your voice and the gone agony of your nearness. I try hard to forget, saying: If God wills, it must be so, because of His goodness, because- but the grasshopper memory leaps in the long thicket, knowing no ease. Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it... I like Bruce Dawe. He just my be my favourite Austral...

There was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding; even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong.

Here is a self portrait. I’m calling it Portrait of a lady in a dirty window . Shocking, isn’t it? However, it is apt! Samhain , Nos Galan Gaeaf , Hop-tu-Naa , All Saints , All Hallows , Hallowmas , Hallowe'en or HALLOWEEN . It’s Theme Thursday and we’re talking about the festivals traditionally held at the end of the harvest season. Huh? No wonder Australians have trouble with the concept of HALLOWEEN. For the record, in my thirty-two L O N G years on the planet, I can’t say I’ve ever seen ghosts ‘n goblins, trick ‘n treaters or Michael Myers stalking Tasmania’s streets at the end of October. [That said, I did once see a woman as pale as a ghost turning tricks that looked like Michael Myers in late November one time.] Despite the best efforts of Hollywood, sitcoms, and innumerable companies; it seems Australians are impervious to the [ahem] charms of a corporatized variant of a celebration of the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darke...

Hold me now, oh hold me now, until this hour has gone around. And I'm gone on the rising tide, to face Van Dieman's Land

Theme Thursday again, and this one is rather easy. I am Tasmanian, you see, and aside from being all around general geniuses - as I have amply described previously - we are also very familiar with the concept of WATER. Tasmania is the ONLY island state of an ISLAND continent. That means, we're surrounded by WATER. That should help explain why I take so many photographs of water . Tasmania was for a long time the place where the British (an island race terrified of water) sent their poor people most vile and horrid criminals. The sort of folk who would face the stark choice of a death sentence , or transportation to the other end of the world. Their catalogue of crimes is horrifying : stealing bread assault stealing gentlemen's handkerchiefs drunken assault being poor affray ladies being overly friendly with gentlemen for money hitting people having a drink and a laugh public drunkenness being Irish Fenian terrorist activities being Catholic religious subversion. ...

This will hurt me...

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