Sculpture by the sea

Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2009, the 13th annual exhibition, is on from 29 October - 15 November 2009.It is staged along the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk.In the exibition, there are over 100 sculptures produced by artists from Australia and other countries across the world.

Actually,the original creater of sculture by the sea,David Handly,wished to create a major free to the public arts event for Sdyney.After over 10 years developing,Sculpture by the sea is not only showed on Bondi beach,but also on Aarhus beach and Cottesloe Beach.Meanwhile, by developing school education program ,Sculture by the sea makes sculpture accesible to a wide range audiences.

Coinciding to the outdoor exibition, Sculpture inside is held at the same time.It is an indoor exibition of sculpture which made by selected invited artists.Sculture inside is well respected and popular with collectors and the general public who has good opportunity to buy works showed on the exibition.

Now,Sculture by the sea has become a big event just like "Opera in the Park" in Sdyney, and it attracts more and more artists and people who love art to visit it from all of the world.

Platypus

The platypus is an egg-laying, semi-aquatic mammal that lives in Tasmania and along the eastern coast of mainland Australia. Platypus and echidnas are the only existing species of egg-laying animals on earth.
The body of the platypus is 30 to 45 cm (12 to 18 in) long; the flattened tail measures 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 in) in length. The feet are webbed. The body and tail are covered with a thick, soft, woolly layer of fur, from which long, flat hairs protrude. The platypus has three layers of fur: 1. an inside layer to trap air and keep the animal warm 2. a middle layer which works like a wet suit 3 .an outer layer to feel if it is close to objects. A Platypus grows to a maximum weight of 1 to 2.4 kg (2.2 to 5.3 lb).
The Platypus is semi-aquatic and requires access to freshwater habitats to forage, and earth banks to dig their burrows. Platypus is a solitary animal that only lives together to mate, although several individuals may be found living in the same section of habitat.

The Platypus usually feeds at night on aquatic insect larvae, shrimps and worms by dabbling in mud or silt on the bottom of rivers and freshwater lakes with its sensitive, flexible, duck-like snout, aided by electroreceptors on its bill. These are stored in the cheek pouches and will be chewed after returning to the surface. Platypus has no teeth, but instead has small horny pads which it uses to hold and grind its prey. The Platypus can eat its own body weight in food in one night.
Male platypus are larger than the female. They reproduce by mating which occurs once a year, between June - October. The female lays between 2 - 4 eggs and incubates these for a two week period. Newborn platypuses are helpless. They are blind and hairless .They feed on their mother's milk, which is expelled through pores on her body. The babies suckle on milk for 3-4 months.
Platypuses have a lifespan of over 10 years in the wild, but they do face a few threats. They have several natural predators, such as snakes, foxes, and birds of prey. Platypuses are also susceptible to habitat destruction, but that is at a minimum. They are protected from being hunted. As such, their populations are stable and they are listed as low risk for extinction.

Featherdale Wildlife Park

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

My class went on an excursion to Featherdale Wildlife Park on Tuesday 20th October. Unfortunately,because it was too late to get to the bus stop when I dropped my two daughters off the childcare,I couldn't go to the excursion with my teachers and classmates.I felt so disappointed to give up this opportunity whole day!

It is very lucky that my teacher,Rosa,shares a lot of animal's photos and videos which was taken in Featherdale Wildlife Park on Tuesday ,and I can get some information about this park and some animals.Meanwhile I transfer some related photos from her blog to my blog and let my friend who is intresting in learning Australia to appriciate.

My favorite belonging

Now I am going to introduce this necklace to you, although it is not quite expensive, it is my favorite. My husband gave the gift to me on this year’s father’s day. Although I received it just for only two months, the necklace has special meaning for me. My husband and I were classmates when we were postgraduate students studying in Northern Jiaotong University in China. Time goes so quickly, it has been ten years since we fell in love. Because I came from a small city which is a little bit far away from Beijing, while my husband was born in Beijing which is the capital of China, his parents thought we might have different culture and living customs, therefore they insisted in their opinions and opposed us to be married. Finally, after keeping an effort we came together and we were married in four years. In my opinion, it was a very hard journey, but we didn’t give up and we have been able to live together happily until now. I have been married for six years and lived in Australia nearly for four years. In these years, we faced a lot of difficulties, especially when we just arrived in Australia. Now, we have already got two beautiful daughters and my husband has a relatively stable job. We believe that we will make our family better and better so long as we work hard shoulder to shoulder. To some extend, this necklace is a landmark of our love, meanwhile, it is also an important award to us for running our marriage and family attentively.

SUNNY'S ART PHOTO

This is my oder daughter sunny.How beautiful she is!It was taken in last spring festval in Beijing when she was 2 years old.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Hi everybody,

I have made four cloud faces on the site which is provided by Rosa. I find it is very interesting to make it.If your are available ,click the picture and look my daugher's cloudy photo.Of course you could make your own cloud face.Try it!

My hometown

My hometown is JinChang,which is a small city in China and has 470,000 people .JinChang is located in the north-west of China, and belongs to GANSU province. Because it lies at the edge of TENGGELI desert ,and at the bottomof the QILIAN mountain ,the climate of JinChang is typically contimental , in winter it is very cold and windy , but in summer it is very dry and cool.

Although my hometown is a small city in China, it is very important . The first reason is that JinChang has the biggest nickel mine in China and it’s reserves are the second largest in the world. So people give my hometown another name “NieDu”. In fact, JinChang is a young city. When geologists found the nickel mine in my hometown in 1969, many people who have plentiful experience in digging mine immigrated to my hometown. In order to provide better service and management to these people and original residents ,the government built up a new city named JinChang in 1981. New city included one CBD and two suburbs .The second reason is that JinChang area is one of the stops along theSilk Road. As well known,the Silk Road was a trade route that went across Asia to the Mediterranean Sea that let China trade with other places. It was named the silk road because there was a lot of silk traded along it. Today, a plenty of historians and tourists have paid more attention on researching and discovering the Silk Road, and it makes my hometown get more reputation. The last reason is that JinChang is an important place for the staple food supply. It is one part of HeXi Hall which is famous for the farming industry. As a result JinChang is the richest city in GanSu province. At the same time it has become one of the top 100 richest cities in China.

I have left my hometown many years since I went to college in 1991. The last time I returned to JinChang was in 2006 before I came to Australia. I found this young city had developed very well and quickly. I love my hometown,.. I hope more and more people would like to travel to JinChang. And it will become a more popular city.

SHARE MY LOVELY DAUGHTERS