Oliver of Otterburn goes South (in Australia)

I am continuing my travels around Australia with Ray and we have just visited the furthest south point of the mainland. This is the lighthouse which is dramatically situated on a rocky headland on Wilsons Promontory.

The only access is by walking track so not too many people get there, let alone sheep.

Wilsons Promontory has been retained as a large national park. It has a dramatic granite structure with hills getting up to almost 600 meters.

The wildlife is protected and at the Tidal River Camp I met Willie the Wombat and we had a very friendly chat.

He told me that he mostly sleeps during the day and comes out in the late afternoon to
start munching grass and other herbage.

For a moment I thought that he was going to eat me, but he just munched off into the distance.

So, off I went with Ray on a three day bushwalk and that wasn’t easy

on my poor feet.

On the first day we walked twenty kilometers to reach

the lighthouse.

It is quite a sight. On this day the wind was blowing very strongly and the lighthouse stands high above the large waves battering the promontory.

We stayed the night in one of the cottages
previously used by the families of lighthouse keepers.

On day two we walked up and over a large hill, then down into beautiful Waterloo Bay. It is still untouched by humanity except for bushwalkers.

We camped for the night there in a small tent.

Then on the third day we were walking back to

civilisation when I received quite a shock – right in front of me on the track was a coiled up snake – these things can kill you!

Fortunately he only wanted to be left alone, and I was very happy to do just that.

So there it is, I am probably the very first, very tired, Northumbrian sheep to visit the southern point of continental Australia.

Precious and Catherine at the English speaking school in South Korea

Kindergarten Graduation

This week has been busy, we have been helping the 7 years practice for their Kindergarten graduation. (In Korea when you are born you turn one immediately, so most of the class were actually 6 years old). Its a milestone for many children and an honour for their parents that their kids have graduated from an English speaking school!

Picture 1- This is me with my Graduating class 'Cambridge' (Ophelia, Richard, Denny, Alice and Sam). I'm so pleased they all have English names, it makes it so much easier! They are super smart and we had lots of fun over the past month learning and playing games. They have enjoyed Catherine hiding me in the classroom and then everybody shouting 'Where are you Precious?' before running to find me; I sometimes got squeezed a little too hard and dropped a few times but it was fun.

Picture 2- This is me with some of my junior kindergarten class 'Oxford'. They are 5 years old and speak great English, they have also been trying to teach me Korean but we have to be quiet as there is NO korean to be spoken at school, Sssssshhh!!
Picture 3- 'MIT' class in their full graduation outfit. They were so cute.

It was a great day!!

Flying Jay lands in Oz

Just to let you know that we have had a delightful visit here in Australia from our wee friend Flying Jay and he is now heading to .. SANFRANSICO!

My brother lives there with his family
and who knows.. Flying Jay might get to meet Shrek.. cos my brother is
the head of department for DREAMWORKS..

HMM.. maybe Flying Jay might
get a starring roll in the next animation movie.. (sheep will fly...!)

Flying Jay had fun visiting the famous Dinisaur Dreaming Paelontogy project, looking for his ancestors - joined a singing quoir and went to visit the marino sheep on our family farm.

Here is Jay checking the farm out just before he met the 2000 marinos at the
shearing shed this morning..(he was a little hesitant cos he thought he
might loose his coat.)

Really delighted to be part of Jamie's adventures and will look forward

to hearing all about his travels.

Pip Cleeland

Lance the Piper visits an Artist

Lance the piper took eggs to Ivan Webley the Northumbrian Artist. Ivan was working on a commission for a new restaurant, painting the river Wansbeck from the bridge by the Leisure Centre in Morpeth, surrounded by his advisers, daughters Cloe" and Esme'.

Among his paintings, Lance the Piper found a print of Keilder Castle the birth place of some of Lance's ancestors,

another painting of the river in Morpeth

and an interior of The Joiner's Arms.

Ivan has been painting local scenes for more than 30 years and has been commissioned to paint a mural in one of the streets in Morpeth.

You can see lots more of Ivan's lovely paintings on his new website: http://www.northumbrian-morpeth-art.co.uk/home/slideshow

Oliver of Otterburn meets the Big Merino

Oliver of Otterburn meets the Big Merino

Wednesday 16 February,2011

My big news is that I am off travelling , I am going on a motor trip
with Ray. We will start from Sydney and drive right around Australia
and we plan to visit the southern, western, northern and eastern
points of the continent. Its a big country so this will take some
months. Along the way I am hoping to meet lots of the locals.

Our first stop was the town of Goulburn, to the south west of Sydney.
It was here that I came face to face with the Big Merino. Well, I had
always thought of myself as a pretty flash stud ram, with my gorgeous
blue horns. Certainly none of the pretty little ewes around Otterburn
had ever complained about my services. But here in Goulburn my
superiority complex took a bit of a shock.
The Big Merino is just HUGE. In fact he is the biggest sheep in the
world and I am sure this will give me bragging rights when all we
globetrotting sheep meet up back in Northumbria at the end of the
year.

Mind you, he doesn’t say much and he is not very nimble on his feet.
Actually, he is there to remind people that Australia was often said
to be “riding on the sheep’s back” because export of fine Merino wool
was the biggest foreign currency earner and the basis for the
prosperity of the country. And many of the best Merino stud rams were
bred in farms in the Goulburn district.

Esther of Elsdon flys to the USA and meets Pippa and Mickey Mouse

Here I am at Derek and Esther Browne's home, in Brockenhurst, Hampshire waiting to fly out to Los Angeles with them to visit Martin, Brooke and their Granddaughter Pippa.

I enjoyed walking with Pippa along the Gray Squirrel trail near Granny Esther son's house in La Habra Heights near Los Angeles. I saw several wild animals including Kayode. I was really frightened but Pippa looked after me.

I spent a day at Knottsberry farm and went on several roundabouts, swings and carousel rides. I felt giddy but Pippa and Granny Esther looked after me.

We met Mickey Mouse at Disneyland. He was so kind to me and offered me a chocolate ice-cream. Lovely, but very cold.

After two weeks at la Habra heights I was sent by airmail to Colorado Springs to see Granny Esther's friend, Chris Treneer.

Maybe I shall get to meet some of my Welsh cousins who also live in Colorado Springs.

I am really looking forward to this trip.

Lance the Piper visits his namesake in his museum in Hartburn

Lance the Piper visits his namesake in the amazing bagpipe museum he has created in his home in Hartburn.

Lance is passionate about the Northumbrian Pipes and won lots of awards for his playing when his fingers were young and supple. He taught many of the best Northumbrian Pipers to play this sweet sounding bellows blown Instrument.

Having found all the pipe bellows too big for him to use, the little sheep spied some old books, brass buttons, navigation instruments and some mounted medals in a glass case, along with a little dog wearing an army hat.

Lance told the little sheep how he had trained as an Astro Navigator and Pilot in Canada and the States during World War 2. He showed him his Training and Flying Log books with details of every Course and flight he made; his first aid triangular bandage printed with pictures showing how to bandage different injuries; his magnetic brass buttons which could be cut off in an emergency and placed one on top of the other to show magnetic north. Lance told how he also had a special pencil which could be broken in half to reveal a compass to help them find their way home if they were shot down behind enemy lines.

The little dog was his mascot, a gift from a friend, who went everywhere with him throughout his time in the RAF.

Lance had many amazing stories to tell.

When he was 23, Lance and his Crew were on a Metorological sortie over the Atlantic when the Pilot suddenly realized their plane was out of fuel.

Because he had trained on Catalina flying boats, Lance was able to talk the young pilot down, enabling him to land the aircraft safely on the sea but as the Halifax landed on the water all the batteries blew up and fire began to rage through the aircraft.

The little dog was on his navigation table when they ditched in the Halifax. As they hastily left the aircraft Lance grabbed his little friend and put him in his pocket.

As he and the Crew crawled along the wing to get into the life raft, Lance realized the Met Observer was missing. He went back into the aircraft now filled with black smoke. Groping around in the dark, Lance felt the Met Observer's hair and shouted to the Engineer who was still on the wing. Together they were just able to pull the unconscious Met Observer out of the burning plane by his hair.

The Crew of seven floated around in their life raft
in the middle of the Atlantic for eight hours before they were rescued.

They had plenty of time to talk about what they
would do when they got back to base. They concluded it was only birds and fools that flew and all agreed they would ask for a discharge as soon as they got home.

They were rescued by the Beyano, a Fyfe's banana boat which had steamed for eight hours to reach them.

When they got back to England, Lance asked the pilot who had been sent from Tiree in Scotland to collect them, to fly three times round the Blackpool Tower at 16 meters, in celebration of their safe return.

They were all awarded Membership of the Goldfish Club and Lance is especially proud of his badge with a golden goldfish signifying that he and his crew had survived both fire and water.

Of the 44 young men who were drafted with Lance, only 6 survived the war.

Lady Maairy of Corridge en Paris

Lady Maairy enjoyed lunch by the Seinne last week and visited the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre - studying the history of sheep in Pre-Impressionist French art.

She is now en route to New York to visit the Rockefeller Institute of Animal Intelligence and has added Mexico to her list of planned ventures later in the year.

Best wishes to the flock,

Dick

We wonder if she met up with her cousin Gunnerton Baar who is also staying in Paris?

Zoe" in High River. 'Can you believe the animals I met?'

After a short drive from Calgary, I found myself in High River, Alberta.

I was so looking forward to a country visit.

I was invited to explore the sights and sounds of the farm yard.

Only to find myself confronted by the strangest of creatures....something I had never seen before.

He seemed like a nice enough fellow....but not much on conversation. He said his namewas "Bandit"...something to do with the mask he seemed to wear.

These folks are much more like what I am accustomed to.

Very nice folks...easy to talk to and full of stories about humans. Apparently humans live here as well. They take care of my new friends and I think I could get to like it here!

Moving on from my new sheep friends, I found these creatures.

They sure are big!

....and they have a peculiar odour------yeck!!!

I stayed on my side of the fence. Something that big and odourous could not be good for me.

After the "stinkies" I was taken to town to see the sights.

My new human friend strapped me into something called a seatbelt in a very noisey form of transportation. He said it was a diesel.

In the town of High River he took me to see a very large cowboy. Apparently this was a statue of a pioneer from the area. He was known to have killed wolves in a great fight.

I couldn't imagine what wolves were....but figured he was big enough to take care of himself.

My human said he would take me to see

some wolves.

I asked for a closer picture...to show you the detail of the wolves.

Lucky for me they are made of wood!!!!

After that we returned to the farmhouse.

I very much enjoyed the sights

and sounds....all new to me, but I must confess this warm blanket, soft couch, and my newest friend 'Tri', are much more to my liking.

No other creatures will mess with me with Tri at my side, so I thought I could have a good nap.

This was a great day!

Bye from High River.

Later,

Zoe"

Zoe" of Hartburn goes skiing in Banff

“Whew…skiing is not for the faint of heart. My new friends Debbie, Albert and Madi took me for a drive through Banff National Park all the way to Sunshine Mountain.

I’ve never seen sooo much snow.

Here I am having a ride on Madi's crash helmet.

We checked out the trail map then we boarded the tram and soared up into the clouds to the very top.

Thank heavens my friends kept a close eye on me. Mastering two skis is hard enough….but I need four.

Fortunately Madi kept hold of me all the way down the mountain.

I went up in the gondola with Albert and Madi.

Albert was trying to learn Japanese from tourists we shared the gondola with. They taught me to say "Konnichiwa".

I'm still not sure what it means but it sounds good!

Wow! London, (that big city somewhere south of the Tyne back in England), is 7112 kilometers away.

This is where I temporarily lost my head because of the freezing cold, the wind blowing snow and lack of oxygen at almost 7082 ft above sea level. Luckily my friends were able to fix it on again (or I wouldn't have been able to see where I was going!)

Debbi, Albert and Madi said it was not a picture postcard perfect day as far as panoramic mountain scenery is concerned, and that skiing anywhere in Banff National Park is awesome on a blue sky day.

I didn't mind at all. It was all new and exciting for me and I had a great day skiing with them anyway!

This is a picture of me standing on the cairn at the top of Standish Mountain. This is the spot where Banff National Park, Alberta and Mt. Assiniboine Provincial Park, B.C. meet.

I think Mount Robson is the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies. My Grandpa and my Mum are Robsons. I guess that makes me half a Robson.

More news soon -

Zoe of Hartburn