I made a short video of some of the photos of our house which we have on the website.
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Monday, June 22, 2015
The smell of freshly baked...
parrot cake.
Yesterday morning saw me in the unusual task of baking cake at breakfast. Well, a sort of nutty scone. However it wasn't a special treat for Ian, it was part of our quest to get Larry to eat more healthy food and it was a special parrot cake I made for him, using sunflower seeds, rice, baby bird feeding formula and some other goodies. I even spread peanut butter one one side for him.
What a lucky parrot!
Which he demonstrated by steadfastly ignoring his parrot cake and dissecting a bit of cucumber instead. So I suppose that if the goal was to get him to eat something else other than sunflower seeds it did the job. Happily, the lovebirds are much less fussy and were happy to tuck into Larry's special parrot cake.
The lovebirds are still ignoring their nest, but they've got too big now for their tube, so at night there is a big tussle as they each push each other out the end of the tube. They like picking away at things and yesterday showed that perhaps they are not the brightest buttons by sitting on a coconut shell I hung for them and picking away at the rope until it broke with both it and them falling to the floor.
The lovebirds chatter away to each other. It's quite a sweet noise (unlike Larry's squawks), They do it most when they are going to sleep and it does appear that they are talking too each other. Perhaps they are arguing about who gets the tube!
I started doing another oil pastel drawing, and I was doing it outside, but I had to stop because it was so hot the pastels were going a bit squishy. Hence he has no eyes!
Yesterday morning saw me in the unusual task of baking cake at breakfast. Well, a sort of nutty scone. However it wasn't a special treat for Ian, it was part of our quest to get Larry to eat more healthy food and it was a special parrot cake I made for him, using sunflower seeds, rice, baby bird feeding formula and some other goodies. I even spread peanut butter one one side for him.
What a lucky parrot!
Which he demonstrated by steadfastly ignoring his parrot cake and dissecting a bit of cucumber instead. So I suppose that if the goal was to get him to eat something else other than sunflower seeds it did the job. Happily, the lovebirds are much less fussy and were happy to tuck into Larry's special parrot cake.
The lovebirds are still ignoring their nest, but they've got too big now for their tube, so at night there is a big tussle as they each push each other out the end of the tube. They like picking away at things and yesterday showed that perhaps they are not the brightest buttons by sitting on a coconut shell I hung for them and picking away at the rope until it broke with both it and them falling to the floor.
The lovebirds chatter away to each other. It's quite a sweet noise (unlike Larry's squawks), They do it most when they are going to sleep and it does appear that they are talking too each other. Perhaps they are arguing about who gets the tube!
I started doing another oil pastel drawing, and I was doing it outside, but I had to stop because it was so hot the pastels were going a bit squishy. Hence he has no eyes!
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Project De-Dumpling Dumpling
After Dumpling had her summer haircut yesterday, I was a little alarmed to see that her head had shrunk. However, on closer inspection it transpired that rather than her head shrinking, the rest of her body has grown somewhat. Not to put too fine a point on it, dumpling is now very dumpling like. She is fat.
We've never had a fat dog before. Although Bob would dearly love to have been fat, his downfall was that when he wasn't eating or dreaming about eating, he was undertaking his next food finding session, which entailed rather more exercise than he would have voluntarily undertaken. It was Bob, remember, that Ian found on top of our very tall fridge, trying to get to the cat food. His constant trips to the cat tree to see if the cats had dropped a crumb or two of cat food, or wandering around the kitchen looking for tasty dropped morsels, kept him, while not trim, not on the podgy side of plump.
Dumpling is probably the most slothful dog we've ever had, because she lacks Bob's optimism that if she wanders round long enough she may find some food. Instead, she gets up, wanders in to the living room, has a nap, followed by a siesta, followed by an afternoon nap before going out for tea. She does jump around at tea-time, but not enough to count as exercise. Millie gets a wealth of exercise from her running around the table at meal times, goodness knows how far she goes, but she gets speed up and I don't think we'll ever need to worry about her not getting enough exercise. Bobbins does well too, although not as speedy as Milly, she does spend a lot of time trotting around and is in good shape. But Dumpling prefers to sleep.
So today we took her for a walk. We knew it would be difficult as Dumpling, being blind and only knowing the house and patio, would find the big outdoors scary. We decided to both take her out so one could hold the lead and the other could call her. It wasn't a great success, but she did walk a little bit and have a sniff. She was carried for quite a bit though, which I think may have given her the wrong impression of 'walk', but we'll just have to keep on with her for a while until she gets used to it. We'll try her wearing a harness tomorrow rather than a collar which kept slipping over her head.
We've never had a fat dog before. Although Bob would dearly love to have been fat, his downfall was that when he wasn't eating or dreaming about eating, he was undertaking his next food finding session, which entailed rather more exercise than he would have voluntarily undertaken. It was Bob, remember, that Ian found on top of our very tall fridge, trying to get to the cat food. His constant trips to the cat tree to see if the cats had dropped a crumb or two of cat food, or wandering around the kitchen looking for tasty dropped morsels, kept him, while not trim, not on the podgy side of plump.
Dumpling is probably the most slothful dog we've ever had, because she lacks Bob's optimism that if she wanders round long enough she may find some food. Instead, she gets up, wanders in to the living room, has a nap, followed by a siesta, followed by an afternoon nap before going out for tea. She does jump around at tea-time, but not enough to count as exercise. Millie gets a wealth of exercise from her running around the table at meal times, goodness knows how far she goes, but she gets speed up and I don't think we'll ever need to worry about her not getting enough exercise. Bobbins does well too, although not as speedy as Milly, she does spend a lot of time trotting around and is in good shape. But Dumpling prefers to sleep.
So today we took her for a walk. We knew it would be difficult as Dumpling, being blind and only knowing the house and patio, would find the big outdoors scary. We decided to both take her out so one could hold the lead and the other could call her. It wasn't a great success, but she did walk a little bit and have a sniff. She was carried for quite a bit though, which I think may have given her the wrong impression of 'walk', but we'll just have to keep on with her for a while until she gets used to it. We'll try her wearing a harness tomorrow rather than a collar which kept slipping over her head.
Monday, June 15, 2015
Pastel s
My first attempts with oil pastels. One on the left is on the proper oil pastel board. The one on the right was a practice as I didn't want to waste the proper board until I had at least had a go first.
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Tube
Having made our lovebirds a lovely crochet nest, they slept in it once, and have subsequently shunned it for a cardboard tube. They are getting quite big now, and their tales poke out at the end, so I only hope they don't get stuck in their tube. The lovely crochet nest hasn't gone to waste, however, as they appear to have decided it's a toilet.
They are quite tame. In the morning I wheel their cage into the bedroom to feed them and I open the door of their cage and they fly onto my lap where I balance the food bowl. They then feed and have a little wander around. I have to put them back in their cage, one generally follows the food back in, but the other is more problematic. He is inclined to sit on the top of my head, so I end up putting my head in their cage and 'scraping' him off against the top of their door!
They are still very messy eaters, however they now know how to clean their beaks, which they do on my legs, so I end up just as covered in food as I did when they were babies! They still shake their heads while eating, sending food flying, which adds to the mess.
We've decided on Nutcracker and Sugarplum for names, although Ian still favours Gary and Barry. So Nutcracker is also Barry (and Big Head as he is definitely fatter with a bigger head than the other), which doesn't help the confusion.
The Spanish name for lovebirds is inseperables, which is quite cute.
I've reduced the number of summer classes I am doing this year so I have some time to spend on modme. I'm not giving classes to older students, and I'm hoping to keep Fridays clear.
They are quite tame. In the morning I wheel their cage into the bedroom to feed them and I open the door of their cage and they fly onto my lap where I balance the food bowl. They then feed and have a little wander around. I have to put them back in their cage, one generally follows the food back in, but the other is more problematic. He is inclined to sit on the top of my head, so I end up putting my head in their cage and 'scraping' him off against the top of their door!
They are still very messy eaters, however they now know how to clean their beaks, which they do on my legs, so I end up just as covered in food as I did when they were babies! They still shake their heads while eating, sending food flying, which adds to the mess.
We've decided on Nutcracker and Sugarplum for names, although Ian still favours Gary and Barry. So Nutcracker is also Barry (and Big Head as he is definitely fatter with a bigger head than the other), which doesn't help the confusion.
The Spanish name for lovebirds is inseperables, which is quite cute.
I've reduced the number of summer classes I am doing this year so I have some time to spend on modme. I'm not giving classes to older students, and I'm hoping to keep Fridays clear.
