Fractal Blog

It's the middle of winter and icy pursuits are all the rage. There's an (artificial) ice rink set up at Docklands. And we spent the afternoon watching this ice sculpture being created. Fortunately it was sunny (from a spectator point-of-view) and cold (from an ice-sculpture point-of-view).

At first there were only huge blocks of ice. These needed putting into place very carefully, using raw muscle power, a chainsaw and a sort of sanding (icing?) tool.

It's going to be a big sculpture.

Next, the outline is sketched into the ice with a very sharp etching tool. This only took a few seconds. It's going to be a lion!

Now comes the hard work, using the chainsaw (again) and a fine drill. Three sculptors worked on this for about an hour and a half. Slowly the lion is taking shape by removing all the non-lion bits from the ice.

Finally, the end product! Isn't it gorgeous? And we watched from start to finish. Well, with breaks in our favourite wine-and-cheese shop, and in our favourite pub. Purely to warm up, of course.

Vic Market is invariably an excellent source of meat. Usually, however, the meat is not actually alive any more... This cute calf was part of a petting zoo, keeping the children occupied while the parents did the shopping.

Back in Melbourne, where it's definitely winter. The Yarra has become a dark, muddy brown from the soil that got washed into it during the heavy rains. And the price of fresh food has doubled as the storms in New South Wales have destroyed much of the harvest. There was no point posting a picture of soggy Melbourne so this entry is accompanied by a picture of where I'd rather be.