Hello!
Today I'm going to talk about Edmund Blunden's master piece "The Midnight Skaters".

Below is Edmund Blunden's poem:

The hop-poles stand in cones,
The icy pond lurks under,
The pole-tops steeple to the thrones
Of stars, sound gulfs of wonder;
But not the tallest there, 'tis said,
Could fathom to this pond's black bed.
Then is not death at watch
Within those secret waters?
What wants he but to catch
Earth's heedless sons and daughters?
With but a crystal parapet
Between, he has his engines set.

Then on, blood shouts, on, on,
Twirl, wheel and whip above him,
Dance on this ball-floor thin and wan,
Use him as though you love him;
Court him, elude him, reel and pass,
And let him hate you through the glass.

The meaning of this poem is about how we come close to death throughout our lives.

Here I am going to explain the meanings of some of the verses.

The hop-poles stand in cones,(hop poles are the poles that the hop plant [the plant the use to brew beer] is trained to grow upon)
The icy pond lurks under, (the meaning of this verse is that the pond is frozen over)
The pole-tops steeple to the thrones (the meaning of steeple is that it is a pointed roof or surface)
Of stars, sound gulfs of wonder;
But not the tallest there, 'tis said,
Could fathom to this pond's black bed.(these two verses mean that the tallest person there would not be able to the bottom of the pond)
Then is not death at watch
Within those secret waters?
What wants he but to catch
Earth's heedless sons and daughters? (these verses mean that the ice is thin and that the water below the ice is so cold that it could easily kill a person)
With but a crystal parapet
Between, he has his engines set.

Then on, blood shouts, on, on,
Twirl, wheel and whip above him,
Dance on this ball-floor thin and wan,
Use him as though you love him;
Court him, elude him, reel and pass,
And let him hate you through the glass.(this part means that those who are skating on the ice are courting with death)

That's it for me, but click here if you want to find out more about Edmund Blunden.
See ya later!!!

Hello, today I'm going to talk about the little known facts about*ahem* Macbeth!!!

The reason why I'm going to talk about Macbeth (yes I said it again so sue me) is because Mum has been getting me to read the book about it (and I might add that I like it).
She also wants me to write up about the history of Mac- "The Scottish Play" for my blog.
Before I begin, I might add that I am going to be talking about the real Macbeth, who was a real Scottish King.

Macbeth was the last Celtic king of Scotland and his reign lasted from 1040 to 1057.
It turns out that "Duncan" was also a real person and was the cousin of Macbeth (I'm mostly doing this to stir up any Thespians who might be reading this blog post) and reigned from 1034 to 1040.
Macbeth (every time I say that a Thespian screams) was apparently descended from royalty, and the same for his wife.
Macbeth (hark, music to my ears, I think I hear another Thespian is screaming) made claims that Duncan was not the rightful king of Scotland because he was the grandson of Malcolm II, because "the usual principle of succession required that the crown pass to a collateral of the king, not to heirs of the direct line"(with thanks to Encyclopedia.com) and so Macbeth won the crown after he slayed Duncan Bothgowanan in 1040.
During Macbeths reign, Duncans father, Abbot Crinan, led the one native uprising.
After this, the Scottish kingdom was so peaceful, Macbeth decided to take a pilgrimage to Rome.
An invasion from Northumberland in the name of Duncans son Malcolm (later known as Malcolm the III) was repulsed in 1050.
A second invasion in 1057 was successful; Macbeth fell in battle and Malcolm was able to inaugurate the Canmore dynasty.

Click here if you want to watch Macbeth in 96 seconds.

See ya later!!!

Hello!!!

Today I'm going to talk about how volcanoes have effected people through the ages, from the recent Icelandic volcano to the lesser known facts about the Krakatoa volcano.

First of all I am going to talk about the recently erupted Iceland volcano.
We all know (and I mean those who haven't been under a rock for the last couple of weeks) that the Icelandic volcano has caused havoc all over Europe and the rest of the world with the airports.
What some people may not know ("people" as in those who didn't pay attention to their Geography teachers) is that the volcano is not just spewing lava, but is also sending up tiny particles of ash and volcanic glass.
It is the tiny particles of this volcanic glass that is the reason for all of the planes to be grounded.
The reason for this is that the glass gets sucked into the engines, and then (because of the heat they produce) the glass melts.
Now, you're probably thinking that the glass would then become runny and drip out of the engine, right?
Well, the answer is, no.
This is because the glass then hardens again, and damages the (might I add, EXPENSIVE!) engines by jamming it so that it stops, or braking the (VERY EXPENSIVE!) fins used in the engine to help produce the thrust that is needed to keep the air-plane up in the air (or else these planes would then be known as "ground-planes").
And so that is why the Icelandic volcano is such a headache for airports and airport staff all over the world.

Now I am going to talk about the lesser known facts about Krakatoa.
On the 27th of August, 1883, the Island of Krakatoa experienced a number of blasts that eventually resulted in the famous explosion.
Many volcanoes usually have one form of volcanic activity, weather it be pyroclastic flows, volcanic bombs or tsunamis, etc, etc, etc.
The thing with Krakatoa is that it had all three of the listed things above.
Another thing to remember about Krakatoa is that it wasn't just a volcano, it was also an island.
In fact, the explosion of Krakatoa was the largest that has ever been recorded (though I'm pretty sure my mums farts would be just as powerful).
The remains of Krakatoa lie next to two islands, Lang and Verlaten.
These three islands used to be apart of a super volcanic island until it exploded in 416A.D, which was recorded in Javanese scriptures.
According to these scriptures, most of the volcanic island collapsed into a 7km long caldera ( for those of you who don't know or doesn't pay attention to their geography, this is a volcanic feature formed when land around a volcano collapses after an eruption) beneath Rakata on Krakatoa, thus forming the three present islands (Rakata is a collapsed Indonesian island of Krakatoa).

Well, I'm just about finished for today, so I'll see ya later!!!

Hello!!!

Today I have watched a TV show on the History Channel about the maps from the 15th and 16th century called MAP MAKERS.
In this show they explained about how modern map making came to be and how and why America was named and found.
This also explained about the medieval maps and views about the world.
What I especially loved about this program was that it talked about the maps and the information surrounding these maps in great detail.

The information about the maps also included the map maker and Amerigo Vespucci, who is the man who really discovered America.
This program also explained how the people of that time believed that there was only three continents (Europe, Asia, and Africa).

See ya later!!!

Hello.
Today I'm going to talk about what I did yesterday.

Yesterday morning I got up early to catch the bus to Russian school ( at around 7 o'clock!).
When I got there I realized I had slept in and arrived late.
Edit from Mum -*snort* what gave you that idea...the three wake up calls, the nagging or the sun well over the horizon?
I had watch a 1950's Russian movie for listening and comprehension practice and then after that I had to write down Russian words during dictation.
At lunch break some friends and I went to the basketball stadium and watched some basketball(on the weekends the school hosts basketball matches and training).
After lunch we had to play something like Simon says, but in Russian of course!
When Russian school was finished Dad and I caught the bus back to the local train station then got on another bus to gem (lapidary) club.
I finished off a cabochon made out of volcanic glass and looked at some rocks and collected off-cuts from the cutting room bin.
After we had finished up Dad and I went home in time for tea.

See ya tomorrow!

HELLO!!!!!!!

sorry i haven't been blogging for a while, it's just that I've been busy doing my university assignments lately that i haven't had enough time to blog.
I've got to sign off now, but I'll write up another blog post tomorrow.
Bye.

Hello my fiends.

Lately I've been doing some research for my second unit for my Uni, which is about my local area.

Also, I've been learning the Russian language on Saturdays.
After that, I go to Gem club where I learn about all kinds of rocks.

And ever last friday of ever month I go to Field Naturalists club, where we go out and learn about Animals and plants.

I have also joined some History groups.

See ya soon.

Hello my friends!

I'am back, and I'll first tell you why I hadn't posted for a while.
You see, I was busy doing a University unit.

But I'll tell you what I'm posting.
I'm posting about a lecture I went to last night.
The lecture was called, WHO KILLED THE MEGA FAUNA?

Now, it was at the Melbourne Museum, in the Discovery Center.
The man that hosted it was the same man that discovered the Gogo fish.
He talked about all of the rich Mega Fauna deposits all around Central Australia and around the Southen part of Australia .

He talked about MOUMOTH CAVE, and how whole caverns were filled with Mega Fauna bones.
He also talked about some of the animals that lived in that time.
One of them was a giant flightless bird that was bigger than the 3 meter tall emu that lived in that time.
The giant flightless bird was actually related to ducks, and was nick-named, THE GIANT DEMON DUCK OF DOOM. To see it's skull click HERE.
He also talked about one of my favourite meat-eaters of that time, THE MARSUPIAL LION.
Click HERE.
He then takled about THYLACOLEO cave.

THYLACOLEO cave is on the Nullarbor Plain.
The cave was found by some amateur cave explorers.
At first when they got the Paleontologist's out at the site, they were reluctant to show them because they had found a complete MARSUPIAL LION skeleton.

To cut a long story short, he said that as soon as we came along, the Mega Fauna started to die out, but one of the ideas was that they were dying out because of us, and also because the ice age was ending.

At the end I asked 2 questions, the first was,
  " Could the Mega Fauna have died out because we humans could have spread a disease amongst them?",
and his reply was,
"That's a very good question, and it is possible, but because we haven't been able to get DNA from the bones, we don't know if that happened or not."
I also asked ,
"Could they have died because the Mega Fauna had adapted too much to the Ice Age and couldn't survive in a warmer climate?"
And his reply was,
"From core samples we have from Antarctica the last Ice Age was quite slow and steady in it's decline so the Mega Fauna could have adapted."
I loved the lecture.

That's all from me for now, I'm signing off now.
See ya.

Once upon a time, there was a sheep dog that had been kidnapped.
The dog had been taken to the lip enlargement lab where they took the fat from your bum and put it inside your lips.

They did their strange operation and gave the dog back to its owner saying that they had found it walking along the road.

The next day the owner of the dog, noticed that the dog had lips.
But he thought that it was nothing, and took the dog out to round up the owners big, fat, smelly sheep.
As the dog went out there to round up the big, fat, smelly sheep, the dog started kissing the sheep into a tight ball in the paddock where they had to be rounded up.

When the owner saw this, he almost fell off his motor bike.

And now, years later, he's in a crazy house, where the dog comes in and kisses him an hour everyday.

Hello.

Today I'm going to do the history of Sorrento.

Sorrento is found 112 click's from Melbourne or 90 mins in a car.

Sorrento's founding father was not Lieutenant-Governor David Collins who established a convict Settlement to stop the French settling there, in 1803, at Sullivan Bay.
But the settlement only lasted 8 months because they couldn't find fresh water so they packed up in May 1804 and moved to Tasmania.

Then in 1872, George Selth Coppin made Sorrento into a real seaside town and he was the Founding Father of Sorrento.

But before the English settled the area, Bunurong people were living there, and had a Mr William Buckley, who was a convict who had gone bush, living with the Wathaurung people who lived close by.
Mr Buckley lived with the Wathaurung people for 32 years, and in that time, he forgot how to speak English.

While Mr Coppin was making Sorrento into a real seaside town, he made the Ocean Amphithearte Compny which was in real estate.
Coppin had a paddle steamer that tourists travelled on and a steam tram that went from the pier to the Back Beach.
All of the historic buildings and churches and the jetty were built under his supervision and seaside holiday homes, hotels, and sea baths were built.
Sorrento became a popular tourist resort because of the many things Coppin had built.

The population of Sorrento today is 1,500 and it's still a popular tourist spot.

Now, I'm going  to show you where Sorrento is on a map online HERE

Biblography-
http://www.heritageaustralia.com.au/search.php?state=VIC&region=68&view=299
http://39coppin.com/History/hist_1803.htm
http://www.carmelofsorrento.com.au/sorrento.html