Braniacs!

Congratulations to the BRANIACS from BONDI BEACH -- Dave, Kitty, John, Jeff, Hamish and Kathryn, who rocked it out at the Dwight Libary Trivial Pursuit last night, finishing a very close 2nd behind the reigning champion MASTERMINDS.

The BONDI BRAINWAVES team came in 5th -- an excellent performance out of the 20 teams competing, so cheers to them: Nancy, Ann, Laura B., Laura M., Dan and Shelley.

The one question we all aced was "What is the name of Councillor Tapley's famous cat?"  Easy!!!!  Napster does note that he was thrilled to be included in the list of questions.

This is such a fun night, and just keeps growing in popularity. Teams of 6 have 18 seconds to confer on the answers to 20 questions per round, for five rounds.  Answers are marked, and displayed on the big screen, and it' hilarious to discover what you thought you knew (and didn't) and what you thought you didn't know (and did).

Look out, Masterminds... the Bondi teams are coming after you next summer!!!

Bottoms Up!

Come on in, the water's fine!

Sarah took this picture of one of our juvenile ducklings. 

We've got two families here just now -- these teenagers, and two little fluffy ducklings.

Guests are enjoying having them come in to feed from their hands, and to pose for photos

Stuart's Margarita Signal

Stuart tells us this is how he signals the folks back at the dock that he needs his margarita topped up...

We would believe him, except that he told some passing motorists that he actually had an engine on his raft, which is how he could go so fast...

He thinks they bought it.

33 DEGREES

The forecast indicates it is going to hit 33 degrees celsius today. That's pretty much a Come On Down call to go to the lake, pull up a Muskoka chair in the shade of one of the big willows, catch the breeze off the lake... jump on in...

The Farnmers' Almanac did call for a hot dry summer, after a cool wet spring. Looks like they could be on to something.

We still have some vacancies, both this week and the next week, and we're wondering why anyone would want to be stuck in the city when they could be up at the lake...

So, we're celebrating the summer heat with a super special.  For the next few weeks, where we have vacancies, we'll accept bookings of 4 nights or longer, rather than the usual one week only bookings we take in summertime.

I'm Hiding...

"Mom said you couldn't see me if I hid behind this little frond."

This tiny fawn was found by Louise and Brian today while on their walk. She was curled up, hiding, in one of the gardens, and wasn't as big as Taffy.

She joins the twins and the single older fawn that are already roaming our property.  The twins came, briefly, to check out Evelyn's birthday party on the beach last evening.

The best defence the young fawns have is their ability to disappear into the grass, the white spots breaking up the visual line and making them remarkably hard to spot from any distance.  Lacking scent glands until they are older, provided the babies don't move, it is very hard for a predator to find them.

Louise says they've seen this one often over the past few days.  Hopefully we'll be seeing a lot more of this little Bambi.
They are so beautiful, and such a treat for our guests to see. (provided they are not seen face down in Carol's flower gardens!)

Happy Birthday Evelyn!

Thursday was the night of the Williams' Family Picnic and reunion, right there on the beach, right where Evelyn wanted to be to celebrate her 90th birthday with her friends and family around her.

She got almost the entire family here -- with only one at home renovating the house and just one grandchild off at camp.  Two who are out of the country failed to appear, but they seemed to have an excuse... other than that, it was all hands on board.

On the other hand, mother duck brought her two tiny ducklings along to join the party!

Stuart organized a wonderful banner, to help celebrate the 50 years that Evelyn has been coming to Bondi Village.  He imported it from California, of all places. Enterprising, is our Stuart!

No-one could ever overlook Walter -- a picnic isn't a party unless Walt is there at Evelyn's side.

That 50th year landmark was also celebrated in pastry, in the form of a huge cake.

Not the only cake on offer - there was another, chocolate (although we have no idea what made the lurid colours of the balloons) celebrating birthdays.

Brian shared the day, it being his 60th birthday; and Colin, also about to clock up 60 years, was there to get in on the cake.  Aunt Pat will be, well, let's just say a year older soon too, so she also got her name inscribed.

Family and friends are gifts enough, when you are 90, but Evelyn also received birthday greetings from both the Township of Lake of Bays and from MP Tony Clement.

Here's to you Evelyn... thank you for helping make Bondi a special place for the past half century, for sharing your family with us, and entrusting your summer memories into our care.

Andy's Challenge

There was some jostling and debate as it all got itself organized, but Andy got 'em into shape...

The challenge? Two teams, of varying ages and stages -- dive from the dock, swim around the rafts
(the "big kids" had to come down the raft slide too!)

There were designated dock watchers, keeping an eye on those too tiny to be participating and a whole host of 'spotters' keeping an eye on the swimmers and canoes.  Everybody down at the beach got involved.

From there, carry buckets of water to the top of the sand pile and fill some big buckets... grab a frisbee and get it up the hill into one of the Frisbee golf targets... run back to the beach... lifejackets on, and into the war canoe to paddle around the far raft and back to the beach.

Can you say "commotion?"  It was all good fun, and once they'd been through it once, the teams were keen to go again, to see if they could improve on their performance, particularly the paddling skills.

Andy and his family are over here from Oxfordshire, England, and this Relay was his brainchild, and he had a great time organizing it. The guests had a lot of fun participating. That's what summer's about -- making your own cheer!

Thanks Andy, for making this fly!