Nesting

We've taken the lovely crochet nest that I made the lovebirds out of their cage because they were nesting in it. While that might seem obvious, if they had both been boys or both been girls, it wouldn't have been a problem and they could just have snuggled down at night in there. However, as we now know Barry is a girl (she started laying eggs), we have taken the nest out to discourage nesting behaviour. We don't want the pitter patter of tiny lovebird feet until we've moved and have a proper avery. The don't seem to mind their lack of nest, but we do need to find a new cardboard tube for them to sleep in as they nibbled the last one away.

We're still enjoying lovely sunny weather, however it has got a lot colder. The temperature dropped from 22 to 12, and Ian has been doing some repairs on the stove ready for when we'll need some heating in the living room. The house is still quite warm and normally light the fire for the first time at Christmas, but we'll get some logs ordered so we're ready for when we do have a cold spell...

Happy Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving in America. I think out of all the festivals we don't celebrate, Thanksgiving is the one I'd most like to join in with.

It's a massive holiday in America and one which I really didn't know much about until I started working for About.com, writing Thanksgiving projects and 'chatting' with fellow writers based in the US. I'd always assumed it was alike a super-sized Harvest Festival, however it is so much more than that. Thanksgiving is regarded as a secular holiday and therefore it is celebrated by my Jewish, Muslim and Sikh colleagues, as well as the various shades of Christian plus the Pagans, Humanists and agnostics (what a colourful bunch). Although many of them have special celebrations in December and January, they don't all fall on the same day so the holidays are dotted around, but Thanksgiving is the one that everyone can join in with, regardless of who, if anyone, they give thanks to.

Of course, now after 8 years of writing rubber stamping projects for Thanksgiving, I'm pretty used to it and the customs. I like the idea of thinking about the things to be thankful for, rather than thinking about things to be sorrowful for.

We've got a bit of problem with fleas at the moment and we'd run out of flea spray so I ordered some more yesterday and took delivery of it just a few minutes ago. I had a flea yesterday jumping around inside of my t-shirt which I couldn't get to and it was driving me to distraction. Therefore today I am thankful for the quick delivery of flea spray and getting rid of the little blighters!

Larry, Gary and, er, Barrietta

Barry the lovebird is showing distinct signs of nesting, so we think that he may be a she. As the original name I gave him was Sugarplum, I am hoping we can go back to that again as it is more appropriate for a little lovebirdess.

The nesting signs are quite funny. They have half filled the crochet nest I made for them with bits of shredded paper and card. They shred paper tubes like demons, starting at the top and then using their beaks to nibble around the tube so it is shredded in lots of equal size strips. It looks as though they use an office shredder. But now, instead of letting the paper fall to the floor, they take it up to their nest. They fly around with these bits of paper or climb up the sides of their cage carrying them. I have also noticed that they appear to dunk the paper strips in water before they go into their nest. I don't know if this us general clumsiness or something they would do in the wild. However it seems to happen too frequently for it to be a coincidence.

I don't think they will lay eggs yet, but it will be something we have to watch for next spring...

Tinkerbelle gets the all clear

Tinks went for a final check up today at the vet's after her operation two weeks ago. The vet was very pleased and she doesn't have to go back again. The scar is quite big, however it seems to have healed really well and quickly. She's been wearing a lampshade for the last two weeks and this means that her face has got dirty because the lampshade seemed to act as a funnel for dirt. I gave her face a wash before we went, but this unfortunately just smeared the dirt around and made her look a lot worse, rather like an unconvincing Balthaza from the village three kings parades . However, happily we weren't getting marked for her appearance and Tinks was allowed to take her lampshade off, something she's no doubt going to be very happy about.

That's Better

Glad to say the weather taken a turn for the better this week and managed to find some time for a short walk.

Primrose says...

She can do a better job than me!!!

Make the rain STOP...

After literally months of dry weather, it started raining last week. And within about 15 minutes, we were bemoaning the rain and wondering if the rain would ever stop. Needless to say, it was just before Ed and Emma arrived and I had piles of bedding to get dried.  The rain only lasted a couple of days, but then the weather became cool - cooler than it should be for the time of year, and I had to hunt out my winter clothes. But then the last couple of days it's changed again and the weather is back to how it should be - early 20s with deep turquoise skies which are typical of this time of year.

Having had weeks of feeding up Anubis and Primrose, they are both now well on the way to being back to normal. They have both become rather demanding, having got used to the special attention. They eat by themselves now, and we no longer have to force feed Primrose, which was messy and gory, as bits of cat meat got spread around the place. I'm still picking bits of the carrot and rice mix that she had off Tinkerbelle, who worked out that if she stood near Primrose at force feeding time there was a strong likelyhood that food would be flying.

I think that Anubis is now the heaviest she has been since she arrived two years ago. We think she probably bought the virus into the house which has not affected the others, but it did affect Primrose when she arrived.  She and Primrose have bonded which is rather nice.

Tinkerbelle had the tumours in her mamory glands removed last week. The vets felt that she is pretty much back to full health and therefore could cope with the op. The tumours might not have grown large or been life threatening. However they might have been. So rather than wait and see, by which time she may be too old for an op, we went ahead and had it done now.

I've had a new student this week who wanted a crash course because she has the opportunity to do an exchange to study a masters degree abroad and to exchange places with another student. She is applying to study a fine arts masters degree in Australia and needs the b1 level English exam in order to qualify. She hopes to go to Brisbane and the exchange student will go to Barcelona.

We spent much of last Saturday night locked in the house hiding from late night trick or treaters. What's the Halloween equivalent of Scrooge I wonder...