Your Review is Welcome in a Writer-Bear’s Neighbourhood

Each review is wanted,
Each review is good,
Your review is welcome
In a writer’s neighbourhood.

Mawson Bear’s Guardian Mark speaks: As you know, our Mawson is a Writer-Bear. One of his books is called Dreamy Days and Random Naps. It’s about slowing down, indulging in big dreams of a grand world, and resting on cushions. This is the perfect for all the tired daydream-believers who want to give themselves permission to relax for little while Could this be you?

I’m sure many frazzled grownups would enjoy escaping for a peaceful half hour into this cosy world – If only they knew about it. And this is the same for every writer: if only readers knew about their books!

Writers need your help. Yes, YOUR help: When you are quiet sort of writer (or a quiet writer-bear) it is not easy to be heard out there in the wide world. Only YOU, the all-powerful reader, can help. You can post your own review about a book on one of the book-retailer websites.

How to do it: Go to your chosen book retailer. Here are some retailers: Amazon and Good Reads, Barnes and Noble (USA), and Booktopia (Australia). (There are more listed below.)
Search for the book title, or author name, or ISBN number.
After you find the book, scroll down to the field headed ‘Leave A Review’, or ‘Write Your Own Review’.
If you haven’t before used that book retailer you need to register to do so. This does take a couple of minutes of bother, I know, but then comes the fun.

Smiting at the Star Ratings. With all the power of your mighty keyboard, bash at the ratings. If you love the book, keep on smiting. Smite Thrice!!! Smite Fourfold!!!! And, yea even unto Five times!!!!! (Err, smiting only once is right out!)

Our Scotland the Brave charges at the ratings and smites for all he is worth.

Adding Words. Just smiting will do but adding words is even better. Now don’t be alarmed by the word ‘review’. An essay is not required, rather just a few words about what you think of the book and what you liked. For instance, ” I loved the pictures of these happy, sleepy bears and can’t wait for more”. (Umm, that sort of thing would really help a certain writer-bear.)

You can post your review on other sites too: Having tasted your awesome power, why stop there? You can copy and paste your review to any other on-line retailer. Do as many as you like, depending on how mighty doth waxeth your smiting arm that day.

Other ways to help writers that cost nothing:
Look at the reviews left by other readers and click the “helpful” or “like’ buttons.
Share the links about that book all over the place.
You can look at the writer’s other titles too and if you are not able to buy one just now, add to a ‘Wish List.’ On GoodReads add it to “Want to read’ list.
These small actions tell the websites’ algorithms that people are taking notice of the book. It all adds up. And up. And UP. And it means lots of people will fall in love with our Dreamy Days and Random Naps (and the other books you review, of course) just like you did. All writers will be grateful for these things which you can do in a jiffy.

Can you help with Mawson’s Dreamy Days and Random Naps?

Please let me know if you would like to do a review for Dreamy Days and Random Naps. I can send you a PDF version. Short remarks are fine. It is, after all, a little book. Or just bash away at those star ratings.

Where to find Dreamy Days and Random Naps

FIND DREAMY DAYS AND RANDOM NAPS at Odyssey Books. Or roll off your cushions and flop over to Bookshop Org (supporting local bookshops), Amazon everywhere, Booktopia, Walmart, AbeBooks, at Google Books, at Booklubben , Ad Libris, Desert Cart , Fa Saxo (Denmark), Linnaeus Boekhandel, Loot (South Africa), Saxo , McNally Jackson (New York), at Loot (South Africa), Mighty Ape (New Zealand),

Your host, Mark, is Mawson Bear’s Guardian, photographer, editor, blundering typist, chocolates fetcher and cushions re-arranger. Baffled Bear Books ABN: 4787910119.

Books by Mawson, one of this bright world’s few published Writer-Bears

Do you sometimes feel a bit muddled about, well, Things ?

Sometimes rather ruffled when Things just go and, well, Happen ?

Sometimes feel confused one moment and completely baffled the next?

Mawson and friends look at his little books

It’s not easy being Grownup. All this business of having to be sophisticated and industrious all day long! It just wears you down. But when you arrive in Mawson’s cosy world, the frazzled reader can flop down among the cushions and relax.

Here you can find the answers to just about nothing at all. You can forget you ever had questions anyway.

Mawson writes little books that are not full of the answers to life. Or perhaps they are

Mawson and his friends are befuddled about most things most of the time – just like so many of us. And that’s all right.

She Ran Away From Love,is all about his friend Frilly feeling hopelessly baffled by Big Questions.

‘A magical little grand tour into the meaning of happiness.‘
Sharri Williams Author of The Maybelline Story.

In It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In , Mawson attempts to put into words that mysterious feeling of Feeling Lost.

Its A Bright World To Feel Lost In, by Mawson

‘A book about optimism, searching for new adventures, and making the most of life and love.’
Review on Goodreads by Debbie Young, author of the Sophie Sayer Mysteries.

Dreamy Days and Random Naps looks at the joys of naps, sleeps, snacks, hopes and dreams.

‘Mawson is a precious teddy who should be a staple read on every little one’s bookshelf. He certainly has a home on ours. I know he certainly inspired my own inner child.’
Lyndie, Bookaholic reviews.

Our publisher is Odyssey Books. Look also at Bookshop Org (supporting local bookshops), at Amazon everywhere, at Barnes and Noble, at Dymocks, at Booktopia, at Walmart, at AbeBooks, Mighty Ape (New Zealand), Google Books, at Booklubben and more.

Birds, Birds, Birds at Lady Elliot Island on the Barrier Reef

Bee Bear has been telling her friends about Lady Elliot Island, her journey there, her explorations of the island, the corals she saw in the lagoon, and whether she saw turtles. But her bird friends at home especially want to know if she saw tropical birds.

She certainly did! Lady Elliot Island is paradise for twitchers (bird spotters.) On this coral quay which is so small that the air-strip cuts right across it (see picture above) there are thousands of birds. They come for the nesting season and peak around November.

It’s high density living here. Birds that usually nest on the ground get squeezed out by the earliest arrivals of the season and so take to the trees instead. They are all over every branch of every tree.

The birds in the picture above were in the trees three metres from our veranda. You can simply sit on your cabin veranda with a camera and take pictures of domestic life among the birds.

Birds that prefer trees have to find themselves a place on the ground. It’s all about high demand for premium real estate.

Everyone is making a racket.
‘Mummy, where are you, I’m hungry!’,
‘Harold, you’ve been ages. It’s your turn to mind your kid’,
‘Steady on, Mabel, I only just got back’,
‘You stayed out at sea deliberately, didn’t you, leaving me stuck here with this squawker’,
‘I did not, Mabel, you’ve no idea how far I had to go for fish ‘,
‘ Hah! A likely story’,
‘Its true. I blame those line trawlers. They’re killing everything.,
‘Oi, You, get off my branch’,
‘Your branch? Hah! It so is not.’
‘It is, it is. Me and Narelle got it first. So get lost’.
‘ You did not, you great big liars, we got it first,’
‘You pinched it!’
‘ You get over here, mate, and try saying that, go on, go on.’
‘ Mummeee, Daddeeeeee! Where’s my fooooood!’

Screeches, calls, warnings, quarrels. On, and on, all night it goes. The resort even provides ear plugs so that guests can sleep at night.

Birds soar everywhere. Outgoing- traffic of the parents leaving chicks to find food in the ocean crosses through incoming traffic of food-laden parents in what looks like an air-traffic controller’s worst nightmare.

The birds are all protected from humans these days, of course, and completely at ease with people. They perch all over the cabin verandas and some venture hopefully toward the diners in the restaurant. They even raise their young right next to the walkways and buildings, including the most unusual bird you see below.

This is the rare Red-tailed Tropic Bird. It’s one of the world’s oldest and most elusive birds. Read more about them here and here. We had the most wonderful good fortune to see a young one and only hundred metres from our cabin.

Just look at this Red-tailed Tropicbird chick hunkered into its ground-nest waiting for its ocean going parents. It was enormous. It was bigger than a full grown chicken. . ‘Food”, it cried, ‘Gimmee foooooood!’ Of course, we didn’t- no feeding of the birds on Lady Elliot Island. But we did wonder how the parents could ever bring back enough food to satisfy this big lad. Both of them were out at sea trying to do just that.

In the next post, fellow Baffled Ones and Gentlebears, we bring you even more birds and more chicks.

PLEASE FOLLOW US At Baffled Bear Books .
Simply plonk your paw on the FOLLOW buttons on this very page.
You can also follow on Amazon and on GoodReads. We are also on Instagram, and Tiktok, and Anchor/ Spotify and Mastodon (link is @mawsonbear@mastodon.au. )

You are at Baffled Bear Books, brought to you by Mark, guardian and blundering typist for Mawson Bear, Ponderer of Baffling Things and one of this bright world’s few published bears. Mawson is writer bear of It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In and of She Ran Away From Love.

Turtle Dawn on Lady Elliot Island on The Great Barrier Reef

Welcome back to Lady Elliot Island, a coral quay on The Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia. We flew here with BeeBear (read all about it here) and walked around exploring (read it here.)

ComingIn1 — Lady Elliot Island at the southern end of Great Barrier Reef

Almost every tree you see on the island in the photo above has been planted in the past 30 years during the patient restoration process. The island was stripped for the guano in the years before that. But it is a conservation success story now, and safe again for the turtles to nest on.

Those buildings in the photo below are some cabins of the Eco Resort. See how close they are to the beach. We stayed in one of those. They are not fancy because this is a low-impact eco resort.

During our stay in November, turtles were heaving themselves ashore after years at sea. On our first night we sat by the seats you see above watching the turtle who made these very tracks. Ironically, she dug right next to the sign about turtles.

Laboriously she dug, then moved, then dug, and moved again, not satisfied with the particular holes. On and on she dug. We were exhausted, and we were only watching. We went to bed and left her still digging. In the morning we saw that she had not been happy with any of the holes. No eggs laid.

We rose before dawn and set off stumbling along the crumbly edges of the island peering for obstacles. We did not take torches because the lights can disturb the turtles. We were part way around the island at the point where the runway comes almost down to the water when we saw tracks. Our turtle seemed to have lumbered ashore, gone into the bushes, worked her way through them and circled back around towards the sea. It must have been a very long trek for her, and all of it over ground deemed unsuitable for laying in.

‘Our’ dawn turtle had been digging where the runway met the lagoon.

There was a mound by the runway edge that might be a successful nest. (We would report it to the staff who monitor all the possible turtle nests). But where was she? Oh no, Look there! Our heroine is that rounded shell in the middle of the photo being watched over by a heron. She had taken so long at her mission that the tide had gone out. She was stuck within the reef.

We watched over her for a while as the sun came up. Sometimes she circled hopefully. Most of the time she rested. She had worked all night to clamber up the shore, to dig, to lay, and to get back down to the water – she must have been exhausted.

We moved away to leave our “Dawn Turtle” in peace. On returning from our walk, we were delighted to see her checking possible exits through the rocks and coral. As the tide came in the water lapped higher and she got a bit further out. And then with a splash and a surge she made it over the big outer reef.

There she goes, one turtle taking on the vast Pacific Ocean. We were so happy to see her making her way out, but worried too. The scourge of plastic is out there, just waiting to uselessly fill her stomach. And the long nets of the predatory trawlers show no mercy. But if .. she can still find real food and if .. she somehow escapes entanglement, she will be return one day to Lady Elliot Island. Let’s hope so.

Swim, turtle, swim.

Mawson Is All Over the Bear Wide Web

Dear Friends. You can find Me, Mark, the Guardian, and Mawson (the furrier one) all over this bright world including, of course, right here on our WordPress WebDen.

Mawson’s own Web Den on WordPress is called www.mawsonbear.wordpress.com .

Our publisher is Odyssey Books, where you can find beautiful pictorial books, poetry, fantasy epics, memoirs, and great fiction.

Amazon: Why not click FOLLOW on our Writer-Bear page at Amazon to see all of our books and Mawson’s bio.

All the books by Mawson Bear, the baffled writer-bear for our befuddled times

Mawson on Instagram and on Threads: @MawsonBear

Mawson on Mastodon: @mastodon.au@mawsonbear

Mawson is also Tok- A-Lot, err, Tum-Tum, err, no its Tik Tok

Mawson Bear and Mark the Guardian — Mawson (the furrier one) and Mark

Mawson’s Guardian is at Good Reads

And even on Blue Sky.

OR use a Search Engine eg DuckDuckGo to simply look for ‘Mawson Bear‘ and you will find four or five pages of links (beams proudly.)

Mawson Bear is the top hit on search engines for himself. — We looked for ‘Mawson Bear’,’ Mawson, and we found you!

Your host, Mark, is Mawson Bear’s Guardian, photographer, editor, blundering typist, chocolates fetcher and cushions re-arranger. Baffled Bear Books ABN: 4787910119.

Lady Elliot Island on the Great Barrier Reef: the Lagoon

Welcome back to Lady Elliot Island, a coral quay on The Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia. The Barrier Reef, as everyone knows, is the mighty reef down which Nemo’s dad swam to find his little son. We flew here from Perth with BeeBear and walked around exploring ( read about it here.).

BeeBear and the birds and turtles look at a map of Lady Elliot Island

But what do you really want to see at a coral lagoon? The lagoon of course! The glass bottomed boats leave from the beach at the end of the runway that runs through the middle of the island (see aerial viewing pic below)

Lady Elliot Island. The runway stretches from one side to the other

Almost all the trees you see here have been planted in the past 30 years during the patient restoration process – it had been stripped down for the guano in the years before that.

Glass bottom boat on lagoon of Lady Elliot Island

Those buildings on the far left of the photo below are some cabins of the Eco Resort. See how close they are to the sea. We stayed in one of those. They are not fancy because this is a low-impact eco resort. Our glass bottomed boat took us further out to just above the main reef where the water gets more blue and you can see the whole island from here.

View of the beaches of Lady Elliot Island

Out and out we went. In the deeper water above the reef we tourists went snorkling with the boat crew keeping on eye on us so we felt quite safe. The staff on Lady Elliot Island must have the best job in Australia, in the world.

Looking back over the water to Lady Elliot Island

From the boat we saw all kinds of fish and a huge groper and even, briefly, a manta ray. A large green turtle came up from under a coral shelf right in front of me. It was one of those moments that stay in your mind forever. I have no pictures – didn’t have that kind of camera. Besides while you are down there, you just want to experience the moments fully, right there, as you are.

Just visible are the buildings of the eco resort

And what of the coral? The coral is not easy to see in the deeper water especially as the swell builds, and from the boat itself this is about all you can make out (below). The startling blues of the starfish are clearly visible though. We saw lots of coral at low tide and I will show you that later.

Coral as seen through. the bottom of the boat

Don’t worry, I won’t leave you without any photos at all of the wonderful animals in the lagoon, for once back on shore we saw this little fella. He was just turtling along right among the people! It is after all, a turtle’s home, not a peoples’ home.

” I’m just a turtle,
Turtling along,
A happy green turtle,
Burbling a song…”

We settled on a deck chair as evening fell. Would the big female loggerhead turtles clamber up this very beach in the night? Yes, they did! But that’s for another post.

Slow Life on Lady Elliot Island, Queensland, Australia: Coral, turtles, serenity

Hope you enjoyed reading about BeeBear’s BeeBear Flies to Lady Elliot Island on The Great Barrier Reef to Lady Elliot Island, the southern most coral quay on the Barrier Reef.

We settled into the cabin and stepped out on to our little veranda just 50 metres from the beach by the lagoon. The tide was half out. Later, we joined a guided reef walk at low tide. Snorkelling is only allowed at high tide.

Overhanging our veranda were our closest neighbours: a few hundred of the thousands of quarrelling birds here to nest in November. This kind of high density living would make anyone quarrelsome! Birds that usually nest in the sand taken to the trees due to lack of ground space. Every pandanus tree branch is weighed down with occupants. The noise is constant. The staff kindly leave ear plugs in the cabins so that people can sleep at night. More about the birds later.

What does everyone want to do on their first day on a tropical island? Explore! We collected the essentials for Brave Explorers: strong shoes, hats, sunnies, water bottles, and we were ready. Oops, nearly forgot the SLR camera.

For most of our explorations we saw few other people. There are at most 160 people staying and working here. This is done deliberately to keep down the impact of we humans on the wildlife. Of course, they are all doing things too like swimming, snorkelling, going out in the glass bottom boats, or just lazing on their cabin verandas.

Some way around the shore we came upon a stretch of coarse sand. Here we could lurch along reasonably well, sinking into the whiteness.

But long stretches are a difficult scramble between the sea and sharp coral on one side and lumpy rocks on the other. The coconut here was washed ashore from elsewhere. There are no coconut trees here.

Between the trees that begin just up from the rocks and sand the nesting turtles were digging nesting holes at night. The staff teams go around each morning to count and inspect them. We hoped to see some later.

If you look at the map BeeBear is showing her friends (above), you can see a compass (or steering helm) symbol at the top. The lighthouse is up there. It’s keepers were the island’s only occupants for many years.

Over the next two days we took a reef walk, went snorkelling in the lagoon, and looked for turtles. More about that in future posts. For now let’s try to ignore those raucous birds and loll about on this coral quay looking toward the sunset.

followMark, your host at Baffled Bear Books, is guardian and blundering typist for Mawson, one of this bright world’s few published bears.

Of Mawson’s first book, It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In, a reviewer said, ‘Reading this book is like receiving a great big hug of reassurance and a huge hot chocolate with fluffy marshmallows.’

BeeBear Flies to Lady Elliot Island on The Great Barrier Reef

Lady Elliot Island is a coral quay on the south end of The Great Barrier Reef. The tiny island has featured on an episode of David Attenborough’s TV series, Great Barrier Reef not only because of the bird life, turtles and manta rays there but also because it is a conservation success story.

Our BeeBear spent two amazing days and nights there. Naturally, she is bursting to talk all about it to the birds of Mawson’s house and to Tammy Turtle and to YOU.

Tammy Turtle and The Birds listen enthralled as BeeBear tells of her journey to Lady Elliot Island on the Great Barrier Reef

Where is Lady Elliot Island? Zoom in on a map of Australia. Find Queensland. On the east coast of Queensland, you can see a large island, Fraser Island / K’Gari which is the largest sand island in the world. Lady Elliot Island lies north of K’Gari.

Just getting there was an adventure. First, BeeBear (and her people) flew ALL DAY from Perth in Western Australia to Brisbane in Queensland in Boeing 737 (comfort and movies) then on a turbo prop aircraft to Hervey Bay (shaking and rattling and sandwiches). Then the planes got even smaller. We hoped none would shrink too small to carry a small bear.

We flew out on a Beechcraft B 200 from Hervey Bay and returned on a Cesna 210 Centurion. As an experienced aviator herself, Beebear helped to oversee the control thingygums. If you zoom in on the photo below you can see the navigating thingygum. It shows our position and the red line shows our flight path.

BeeBear supervises the flying. The map diagram on the control panel show the flight path

Our flight from the coastal town of Hervey Bay to Lady Elliot Island took 80 minutes. We headed out over the sea and then northerly between the mainland and K’Gari/ Fraser Island, the big one in the distance (below). It’s the largest sand island in the world.

Looking east from our aircraft. The large island in the distance is Fraser Island

Beyond Fraser Island is The Pacific Ocean where the turtles roam for years on the currents after laying their eggs on Lady Elliot and on many other islands of The Barrier Reef. Just look at those blues! BeeBear was mesmerised by the colours of the ocean.

The astonishing blues of the coastal waters between the coast and Fraser Island

The colours and swirls and patterns of coastal seas are just too blue for words. And these pics were taken through slightly fuzzy perspex windows so in fact they looked even bluer. We flew past Fraser Island and had a good view of the little islands and sand banks too.

Looking back southward as we past by Fraser Island we also see small islands and sand banks and blue waters

See that little island in the foreground of the picture above? Imagine an island like that all for oneself. Our BeeBear thought it just about the right size for a a small-winged bear to settle down on. She would just sit there in the shade by the sand all day simply being stunned by the colours of the sea. Cyclones could be a bother though.

Lady Elliot Island, photo taken by us through windows of the plane. A beautiful clear day. The lagoon is clearly visible

Thar she blows! Lady Elliot Island hoves into sight (above). You can see the main coral reef where the deep dark blue ocean is breaking to white tops (and you can compare with the picture on the brochure at the top of the post). Within the reef lies the lagoon. You can do reef walks at low tide and snorkel there at high tide. You see green turtles and reef sharks and all kinds of starfish and fish and lots of coral. The island is so small that, as you can see, the airstrip goes right across the middle, one side to the other.

The runway runs end to end of the island. You can see it end at the waters of the lagoon

If you look through the blur of the propellor (above) you can see two bands of blue at the end of the landing strip? That’s the lagoon, and after the lagoon the dark deep blue of the Pacific Ocean. We were to see turtles right there where the runway strip ends.

The eco resort on Lady Elliot Island, deliberately low impact and low key

And there is the Eco Resort on Lady Elliot Island. It’s deliberately low key and low impact. The staff are very involved in caring for the island. They plant trees and count the birds nests and the turtle nests and inform visitors about the wonders of the island.

The island was actually a conservation disaster until some decades ago, and since then it has been restored tree by tree. More about Lady Elliot Island in the next post when we go for a walk and enjoy the Slow Life.

Mark is guardian and blundering typist for Mawson, one of this bright world’s few published bears. Of Mawson’s first book, ‘It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In’, a reviewer said, ‘Reading this book is like receiving a great big hug of reassurance and a huge hot chocolate with fluffy marshmallows.’

Goodies at Mawson Bear’s RedBubble Shop

Mawson Bear and friends appear on goodies at the RedBubble Shop. You can see carry bags, mugs, water bottles, T-shirts, Stationary and more with pics taken by Mawson’s Guardian.

When you are at Mawson Bear’s Shop at RedBubble, it will look like the screen shot below. You can then take a look for your favourite sort of things: Teddy bears, flowers, teddy bears, beaches, teddybears, landscapes, and of course Mawson’s friends. Some things don’t cost much, the postcards for instance. Or get a carry bag featuring a handsome bear. No one else will have one quite the same. (Click the image to go straight there!)

Be sure to click FOLLOW while you are there. We add more bears (and other things) whenever the bears sit still enough for a handsome photo.

Mawson, you may remember, is one of the only published writer-bears in this bright world. His picture books are suitable for grandchildren up to grandparents.

Pondering …

Hooray, You're on my list.

Bother. Something went wrong. Please reload the page and try again.

Mawson is all over the Bear Wide Web

Dear Friends. As we enter a new year, You can find Me, Mark, the Guardian, and Mawson Bear (the furrier one) all over this bright world including, of course, right here at WordPress.

Mawson’s own Web Den on WordPress called www.mawsonbear.wordpress.com .

Our publisher is Odyssey Books, where you can find beautiful pictorial books, poetry, fantasy epics, memoirs, and great fiction.

Amazon in all regions: This link here is to Amazon dot com. Why not click FOLLOW on our Writer-Bear page at Amazon to see all our books and news.

Mawson on Instagram: @MawsonBear

Mawson on Mastodon: @mastodon.au@mawsonbear

Mawson is on Spot-A-Bear too, err, on Spotify .

Mawson on Tik Tok: @modwyer34

Mawson’s Guardian at Good Reads.

And along with Instagram you can see Mawson on Threads

OR use a Search Engine eg DuckDuckGo (to look for ‘Mawson Bear‘ and you will find four pages of links (beams proudly.)

Go back

Category: The Guardian speaks

Your Review is Welcome in a Writer-Bear’s Neighbourhood

Books by Mawson, one of this bright world’s few published Writer-Bears

Birds, Birds, Birds at Lady Elliot Island on the Barrier Reef

Turtle Dawn on Lady Elliot Island on The Great Barrier Reef

Mawson Is All Over the Bear Wide Web

Lady Elliot Island on the Great Barrier Reef: the Lagoon

Slow Life on Lady Elliot Island, Queensland, Australia: Coral, turtles, serenity

BeeBear Flies to Lady Elliot Island on The Great Barrier Reef

Goodies at Mawson Bear’s RedBubble Shop

Mawson is all over the Bear Wide Web

Your message has been sent

Share the Joy

Share the Joy

Share the Joy

Share the Joy

Share the Joy

Share the Joy

Share the Joy

Share the Joy

Share the Joy

Your message has been sent

Share the Joy