"Where are all my lovely ladies...?"

... is what Limpy, our cockerel is (probably) saying to himself at the moment. Both the ladies have gone broody - in separate barns, leaving him on his own with no one to hang out with. Silkies are mega-brooders, so they rarely leave their nest. Poor Limpy must wonder why they don't like him any more. He is taking it out on us by eating the leaves to our vines.

We are letting the chickens brood this year as we want to rehome them, and it will be easier to do so if there is a family of hens and chicks, as they are now pretty old by egg-laying chicken standards.

It is class mayhem at the moment with exams approaching and students wanting extra classes.  I did say no to doing a 9 -10 class this week. Two ladies I give classes to are tutors in Llerena and they teach until 12.00 at night - which makes me look like a light weight!  No wonder I have to clarify whether my classes during the summer are in the morning!

We will soon be harvesting our cherry crop. We're currently deciding what to do with our single cherry. But it's one more than last year so it's a start...

The Inside Story

I've spent the last day or so staring at the inside of a human body - although happily not a real one, a 3d model of a skeleton. Yuck.

Over the last two and a bit years I've been learning about 3d graphics and I have been making graphics to use in my classes and also on the website. Recently I started to spread my wings a little and to sell the graphics on a site called Teachers Pay Teachers, for teachers to use in educational material to use in class or to make resources  to sell to other teachers. So I decided to extend my range from just cute things to include realistic images - including this skeleton and organ set! I can't say I enjoyed working on this set of graphics very much - and even less the set I am working on now, which shows muscles - it's like looking at a peeled body! We revamped the Away With The Pixels name for this. Here's our store - Away With The Pixels. and here's the new blog - Away With The Pixels.

Ian has just joined me in this venture too, offering some of his photos for sale. He made an alphabet a while back and put this in the store - and sold one copy almost immediately! He's now working on a set of numbers and symbols, and we've had some fun trying to look for the shape of numbers in every day objects. Another set that he is thinking about is how 3d shapes are used in every day life, and making a set of photographs that illustrate this. So we've been looking for cones and cylinders, rectangle and triangle prisms... in houses, buildings and all sorts.

Well, back to posing skeletons...

Big Eye!

may_21, a photo by ian_pullen on Flickr.

Low Flying Alfies

We have to watch out at the moment for low-flying Alfie. He has broadened his spring boarding onto Ian's lap to now include me. And all of a sudden a little three and a half legged, one eyed, Yorkshire Terrier comes hurtling out of the air, hoping to land somewhere in the vicinity of your lap. He nearly over shot my lap the last time he did it, but it doesn't seem to worry him. He can only use one back leg, so I wonder if he can't control very well the force he puts into his jumps.

When we first got Herbie, he was very good at night when we put him in a puppy crate, and then after about a month, he started barking and getting distressed. We're now experiencing the same with Alfie, he was fine at night with the other dogs, however the last two nights he has started barking. I wonder if it is where to start with they just take everything in their stride and then after they settle in being shut away brings back bad memories. We stopped shutting Herbie away as he really did seem to get distressed, however I think Alfie will settle down.

He doesn't like being told off and if he thinks he is going to get told off he rolls onto the floor. I'd hate to think that he lost his eye through being hit or kicked. He uses his remaining eye to good effect, however, and manages to look very appealing with one huge black eye looking up at us.

Flood!

It rained yesterday - proper RAIN. There had been a weather warning for storms, and when we went for a cycle ride in the morning (which we have just started to do again) we saw lightening bouncing around, so thought that that was it. Particularly as the weather brightened up at lunch time. However shortly after lunch the sky went black and down it came. With hail.

We stood and watched the water level at the back rise - and rise - and rise. And then we watched as it trickled over the back door step. However, unlike before we got very little in the house, because the high back door step manages to catch most of it, however we did have a puddle at the back door trickling into the back room. We had a similar amount at the front, but I think this blew under the front door. Without a doubt, this would have been our worst flood if we hadn't have had the back step, and there'd have been plenty of people bailing out last night.

Oh, the benefits of tiled floors and walls, electric points high up the wall and tiled skirting boards - everything can be dry no time!

Alfie continues to settle in well. He is from the Roland school of living with special needs, which basically means jump first and ask questions after. Alfie takes a run up and launches himself at Ian and onto Ian's chair - regardless of who else is sat there. Pirata, is much more circumspect and while he is pretty fearless when he is on the floor, he is careful before jumping up or down. This could be due to the fact he fell out of a window and had his leg pinned before we got him.

Can You Tell What It Is?

may_09, a photo by ian_pullen on Flickr.

Obviously because of the great speed, you probably won't notice anything but a slight blur in the middle of the shot. However, look a little more closely and you may just make out a human figure on a bike. Perhaps.

Villagarcia Zoo Aquires a Wallyby

Breakfast

The big dogs get fed in the morning and evening, and the others get fed once a day. This has always been the case - however it doesn't stop Bob from hoping...