Hot Buns 2007 Contest

Send your favorite bunny photos for the annual Hot Buns photo contest; the winners will be featured in the Buns 2007 calendar which benefits The Rabbit Habit. Send entries (gif or jpeg files) to lilbun@verizon.net or dhoffman_48@yahoo.com (which can handle bigger files). The deadline is April 10. All entries will be posted at www.geocities.com/dhoffman_48/.

Sun-striped Bean

Mr. Bean ATB 2/21/04

Dora, who (almost) always gets away

If anyone is inclined to wonder why I post so few pictures of Dora, the photo to the left should answer that question. She mostly steps out of any photo I try to take of her. Boomer and Cricket, who appear here most often, are very cooperative and lounge about everywhere. Dora, on the other hand, is very wary.

She has her favorite resting places where she feels safe, but it is hard to get a good photo of her beneath my office chair where she loves to hang out. She naps there and will nudge my feet with her nose or nibble on my pantlegs for attention. I'll reach down and scratch behind her ears for a while and then she settles back for her nap.

If the dog is too rambuctious or if I'm running the vacuum, she'll head back to her cage for safety. She's confined there during the day while I'm at work, but often chooses to relax there. She seems to have a sense for when it is time to go to bed because I will find her waiting for me to close her in before I turn out the lights for the night. In the photo at left, taken on the day I brought her home, she is looking very suspicious of me and my camera.

Dora is a stunningly beautiful rabbit; a Checkered Giant. She is small for her breed (I suspect that is why she was sent to slaughter by her breeder), but she shows the gorgeous markings and graceful shape that is typical of her breed. She even has polka-dots on her belly!

She looses any sense of wariness when I sit on the floor nearby. She dances over and presents her little head on my leg for pets. If I don't oblige her quickly enough, she licks my pantleg for attention. She hasn't worked up the courage yet to climb all the way onto my lap, but will settle beside me and click her teeth with contentedness. I think she would stay this way for hours; she loves the attention so much. Like most rabbits, Dora is loving and affectionate when given the chance and on her own terms.

Road Trip

My husband and I took a ride today to Peddler's Village in Lahaska, Pa. - the drive was short - only about 1 1/2 hours. Closer to home is Smithville, which we usually combine with some birding at Brig. Believe it or not, we didn't get lost despite the easily distracted navigator (me!)

We did some shopping and had lunch at the tavern. I spent too much money on things I don't need (like the adorable pair of ducks at left). We've been doing some remodeling at home and are finally buying proper furniture after 12+ years of marriage, and I've decided that I'm tired of looking at bare walls and empty shelves. I hate to spend money on silliness like this, but they do make me smile! We found them in one of the shops that had the primitive-style country crafts that I like.

There was also a lovely shop that sold imports from France - beautiful things! I couldn't resist this dried flower arangement; now I just need to find the right place for it - and figure out how to keep it from getting full of dust! My poor flash photos don't show the intensity of color - the deep red and yellow of the roses together with the lovely purple of the dried lavender. Just gorgeous!

A few weeks ago we drove to Conneticut to pick up a huntboard for our dining room and plan to go tomorrow and order the farmhouse table we picked out locally to go with it. The table is huge - really too much for just the two of us -but it will give me a good excuse to have holiday dinners here at home after all these years. Anyway, I thought these dried roses were a perfect contrast with the black-painted wood of the huntboard.

The DH is snoring in front of the TV, tired from all the driving he did today; and I've got bunnies to feed and love on. So, I'll have to share the rest of my finds from our road trip on another day.

Helping Missy breathe easier

Miss Buns has a chronic respiratory infection called Pseudomonas that was diagnosed in December of 2004. This bacterial infection is very difficult to get rid of. My vet and I have been treating her for more than a year now with various bunny-safe antibiotics and still every culture and sensitivity test we do comes back positive. I've more or less given up on the idea that we'll ever cure her of it (I'm not willing to subject her to a cocktail of strong, injectable antibiotics) so I concentrate my efforts on coping with and keeping the infection in check. When her breathing gets bad and she starts sneezing too much I dose her with 10 days of Baytril and that seems to do the trick for a month or two. Twice a day I clean the crusty stuff from around her runny eye to keep the fur on her cheek from falling out. She enjoys this extra attention and daily *grooming* from me and generally won't struggle as I wash her cheek fur and comb through it with a small flea comb. Sometimes she gets pissed and will nip me if I'm not careful and pull at her skin.

Every so often her breathing sounds just horrible and I can see that she is congested and struggling to breathe through her stuffy nose. Today was such a day. My vet was kind enough to loan me a nebuliser machine (used by people with asthma) to treat this congestion. I use a very weak mixture of a liquid antibiotic and saline solution in the nebulising machine. Then, I corner Missy and hold the mouthpiece in front of her face so that she has to breathe in the medicated mist. We've done this often enough that she is no longer freaked out by the mist floating past her nose, nor is she bothered by the sound of the machine. She'll sit quietly for the 5 minutes or so that the treatment lasts and will sometimes nibble hay from her litterbox or wash her face in the adorable way that bunnies do. None of it seems to faze her at all, thankfully. Lately, she is so comfortable that she *chins* the mouthpiece, claiming it as *hers*. Once we've finished, I always give her a favorite treat to reward her for behaving. I also give a treat to Freckles who lives on the other side of the lattice wall you can see in this photo. A favorite and convenient treat is a few craisins which she gobbles up quickly.

The nebulsing has a dramatic effect on her breathing and I'm thankful to my vet for suggesting it as an alternative treatment. I know a few people who nebulise their rabbits every day to treat chronic respiratory problems and they've all said that their bunnies handle it well. For Missy, I think it's the craisins when we're finished that make it worth the bother. And she does breathe easier afterwards. She always feels well enough for a treat!

Listing

Interesting post today on Charlie's Bird Blog about birders who keep lists. I'd imagine most birders do keep some manner of a list. I have friends who keep year lists and place lists, in addition to their life lists. I keep a yard list, and a pond list, and also a life list. I'm not fanatical about it; hence when I tried to come up with the last five additions to my life list, I was only certain of three:
1. Wilson's Plover
2. Eurasian Collared Dove
3. Razorbill

Prior to these, I'm not sure. Probably Gray Jay and Boreal Chickadee from my early summer trips to the Adirondacks. Obviously I don't keep very good records! What do these birds say about me as a birder?

Would any birders care to list their most recent 5 life birds?

My Bunny Valentines

Boomer and Cricket, 2004

Lotus and dragonfly

Here's another favorite photo from my pond - this beautiful lotus was expensive and short-lived, but well worth it for the two summers it bloomed before we neglected it last winter and let it freeze. The pot I kept it in was huge and near impossible to move to the deep end of the pond without climbing into the water. It was late November by the time we did the clean-up that year and I just wasn't willing to climb into the frigid water. So I pushed it from the pondside as far as I could and hoped for the best.

The first summer the flowers and leaves were huge - sometimes as big as dinner plates! It provided great shade for the goldfish and landing spots for dragonflies (I think this one is a blue darner - anyone know?) Lotus need warm water to bloom well and require a lot of fertilizer. I don't like to add much fertilizer to my pond plants and hope that what the fish provide naturally will be enough. The second summer the lotus didn't bloom as nicely and the leaves were much smaller because of too little fertilizer. With a weaker plant I started having trouble with aphids - they didn't do much visible damage like they will to roses - but were still a nuisance. Maybe a stronger plant would have survived the winter, I don't know.

I'm thinking about buying another lotus this summer if I can find one suitable to small ponds and that will not require a planter that I can't handle alone. These plants are just too beautiful not to include in the water garden.

Snow day!

I was afraid the winter would pass without any significant snowfall, but we hit the jackpot today. I love the snow, but my husband, who worked all day and all night plowing for the town and schools, doesn't feel the same, needless to say. A neighbor was nice enough to take care of my front sidewalk and dig out the end of the driveway, I guess so he wouldn't have to watch me out there struggling while my husband was at work.

I dragged the dog off his warm bed for a walk around 5 pm when it finally stopped snowing. I'd guess we got about 15 inches; just enough to make ordinary things look beautiful. We walked through the neighborhoood and ended up with our customary pass through Sickles Park to have a look at the raspberry and blackberry fields and the farm pond. There a few people cross-country skiing on the track around the ball fields, but besides them we had the place to ourselves.

The neighborhood red-tail was perched in his usual spot on the edge of the field, but flew as soon as I raised my camera to take his picture. I found a very cranky-looking great blue heron standing on the ice of the farm pond who was a more willing photo subject. Oftentimes there are a few mallards that hang out in the pond, but I didn't see them today. Not many birds around in general, I guess most spent the day hunkered-down out of the weather.

There were masses of robins flying overhead just before dusk, but I didn't see any feeding in the holly trees or viburnums in my yard during the day. There were only a few house finches, a bedraggled starling, and a lone junco at the feeders today, despite their being stocked with sunflower, suet, and peanut mix.

Buddy and I finished up our walk just in time to wake up Rich to go back to work for the night. So now we're both hunkered in for the night; warm, dry, and happy. I'm lucky to have the day off from work tomorrow and I'm dreaming up all sorts of things I can do with so much free time. More than likely I'll sleep late and spend some time grading papers - which I've been ignoring all weekend!

The snowfall is so silent

A weather-appropriate favorite from Miguel de Unamuno. The English translation by Robert Bly follows the Spanish:

La nevada es silenciosa,
cosa lenta;
poco a poco y con blandura
reposa sobre la tierra
y cobija a la llanura.
Posa la nieve callada
blanca y leve;
la nevada no hace ruido;
cae como cae el olvido,
copo a copo.
Abriga blanda a los campos
cuando el hielo los hostiga;
con sus lampos de blancura;
cubre a todo con su capa
pura, silenciosa;
no se le escapa en el suelo
cosa alguna.
Donde cae alli se queda
leda y leve,
pues la nieve no resbala
como resbala la lluvia,
sino queda y cala.
Flores del cielo los copos,
blancos lirios de las nubes,
que en el suelo se ajan,
bajan floridos,
pero quedan pronto
derretidos;
florecen solo en la cumbre,
sobre las montanas,
pesadumbre de la tierra,
y en sus entranas perecen.
Nieve, blanda nieve,
la que cae tan leve
sobre la cabeza,
sobre el corazon,
ven y abriga mi tristeza
la que descansa en razon.

The snowfall is so silent,
so slow,
bit by bit, with delicacy
it settles down on the earth
and covers over the fields.
The silent snow comes down
white and weightless;
snowfall makes no noise,
falls as forgetting falls,
flake after flake.
It covers the fields gently
while frost attacks them
with its sudden flashes of white;
covers eveything with its pure
and silent covering;
not one thing on the ground
anywhere escapes it.
And wherever it falls it stays,
content and gay,
for snow does not slip off
as rain does,
but it stays and sinks in.
The flakes are skyflowers,
pale lilies from the clouds,
that wither on earth.
They come down blossoming
but then so quickly
they are gone;
they bloom only on the peak,
above the mountains,
and make the earth feel heavier
when they die inside.
Snow, delicate snow,
that falls with such lightness
on the head,
on the feelings,
come and cover over the sadness
that lies always in my reason.

--From Roots & Wings: Poetry from Spain 1900-1975

I hate HTML code!

**Begin rant**
I've spent the last few hours playing around with my blogger template just so I could add "What I'm Reading" to the sidebar. You'd think it would be simple, even for someone like me who is clueless with code. But no, copying and pasting just isn't enough. You actually need to know what all that gobblygook means! I've had enough for one night. I would like to add the other books I'm reading, but can't figure out how to do it - I'm defeated.
**End rant**

Mansion fire and pooped-out teacher ramblings

This photo from today's Asbury Park Press shows what remains of the beautiful historic mansion that was the Thompson Park Visitor's Center. It was destroyed by fire on Monday. I drove through the park today on my way to class and was so sad to see it. I was just there in October with a few other Master Gardeners and a couple hundred Girl Scouts planting 1968 daffodils to commemorate the year the mansion was donated to the park system. Renovations had just about been completed on the building (about $3.5 million worth).

Class went well tonight, but I am glad to be done for the week. My students continue to surprise me with their insights and abilities. I would love to spend hours discussing the novel with them, and listening to them talk about it with one another, but we have to get serious about preparing for mid-term exams in a few weeks.

23-5 Meme

I tagged myself by invitation from WoodSong's blog, which I enjoy reading each day.

Here are the rules:
1. Go into your archives.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Post the fifth sentence (or closest to it).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five other people to do the same thing.

Once a week or so I *feed* the worms with the leftover greens and fruit from the bunnies, some coffee grounds, occasional egg shells, and shredded junk mail for bedding material.

From my 1/26/06 post about the worm bin I use to compost kitchen waste.

Not sure if I even have five readers to tag, but I'll start with Simone, divakitty's mom, and puggyspice. Anyone else want to play?

Today was my volunteer day at the Sandy Hook Bird Observatory and we had a nice number of visitors. The local Audubon group had sponsored a walk earlier in the morning, so quite a few of them stopped in to warm up. It was a beautiful day, but very windy out at "the Hook". I heard that the group saw all three scoters and a few gannets. The Barrow's Goldeneye was also seen today. Also had a call from a genteman about a *pleated woodpecker* in an apple tree in his backyard. *giggle*

Remembering Mr. Bean

I've always loved this photo of my first Flemish Giant, Mr. Bean, and my dog Buddy. I think it's so cute the way they are peering over the gate at one another. Mr. Bean had been out on the sunporch playing with the other bunnies when Buddy came along to see what all the ruckus was about.

Mr. Bean lived in our bathroom and had free-run of the house. For the most part he hung out in the bathroom and the hallway outside our bedroom, but would ocassionally venture into the kitchen when I was fixing salads or out to the sunporch to visit his girlfriends. I used the baby gate to keep the girl bunnies from having access to the rest of the house where they would get themselves into trouble. Buddy and Mr. Bean mostly ignored each other because Mr. Bean wasn't afraid of him and Buddy was trained to always be *gentle* around the bunnies.

Mr. Bean came to me from a show breeder who was going to sell him to a slaughterhouse because he wasn't show quality - his color wasn't *good* - Boomer and Cricket were bred by the same person and sent to slaughter because they have crooked tails (another disqualifier for show). We brought him home the day before Easter, hence his name, Jelly Bean, a.k.a. Mr. Bean. I remember being so intimidated by his size and a bit scared of him!

He was a wonderful, gentle rabbit; typical of his breed. He loved to eat, and to be petted, and to nap. He loved to sleep on the tiny wicker end table in my office - even though his feet hung off the end of the shelf! He had the softest, creamiest fur on his belly and waggled his ears and danced for me when I called him "Jelly-Belly-Bean" in my silliest voice. He was perfect with his litterbox and was not a chewer (except for my PDA cord and a straw gardening hat I had left lying around where he could decorate it for me).

He loved spending nice days on the patio where he could lounge in the sunshine and flop in the sandbox on his back for a nap. He would lay beside me at night when I sat down to read. He loved orchard grass and a shot of Snapple What-A-Melon in his drinking water.

It's two years this month since he passed away and still I miss him and think of him. I wish we could have found a way to make him healthy. I wish he wouldn't have had to die alone at a vet hospital that didn't know how to help him. I wish he were still here with me.

Mr. Bean: you know that I love you and that you're safe, here, in my heart.

Hal Borland on the month of February

" Here comes February, a little girl with her first valentine, a red bow in her wind-blown hair, a kiss waiting on her lips, a tantrum just back of her laughter. She is young as a kitten, changeable as the wind, and into everything. She can sulk, she can beam, she changes from one minute to the next. February is a phase, a short phase at that, and she has to be lived with.
February can't be taken seriously too long at a time. It starts with Groundhog Day, which is neither omen nor portent, but only superstition, and it ends, often as not, in a flurry of snow. It is sleet and snow and ice and cold, and now and then it is waxing sunshine and tantalizing thaw and promise. February is soup and mittens, and it is a shirt-sleeve day that demands an overcoat before sundown. It is forsythia buds opening in the house and skid chains clanking on the highway. February is sunrise at 6:30 for the first time since November.
February is a gardener pruning his grape vines today and shoveling a two-foot drift on the front walk tomorrow morning. It is a farmer wondering this week if his hay will last the Winter, and next week wondering if he should start plowing. It is tiny, tight catkins on the alder in the swamp and skunk cabbage thrusting a green sheath up through the ice. February is the tag end of Winter --we hope. But in our hearts we know it isn't Spring, not by several weeks and at least a dozen degrees.
There's no evidence to support it in the dictionaries, but some say that February's name comes from an ancient and forgotten word meaning *a time that tries the patience.* " -----from Sundial of the Seasons, 1964

Craisin Time!

Here the DH is dolling out craisins to the Flemmies. Normally, they're kind of afraid of him, but not when he comes bearing treats!

I tell him that he needs to spend time on the floor with them, so they won't be afraid, but his bad knees keep him from it. Part of their fear is the dog, who follows my husband everywhere and insists on craisins, too. Silly dog!

He tried shaking the treat can when we wanted to trim their nails a few weeks ago, but they're too smart to fall for that trick. So we had to force them into the carrier and bring them into the petstore for a nail trim. Boomer and Cricket ride together - that's about 40 lbs. of bunny in one carrier - thank goodness for the big, strong DH.

Yellow pond lilly

A memory of summer from the pond on a gloomy winter day. This was one of the first waterlillies to bloom when the pond was new.

The worm farm in my basement

Ever heard of vermicomposting?

I keep a few hundred (thousand?) red worms in my basement to compost my kitchen waste.

I started out with a dixie-cup sized portion of worms and compost from a fellow Master Gardener about three years ago. I used a simple rubbermaid bin to house the worms, but then switched to a tray- type bin last year.

Once a week or so I *feed* the worms with the leftover greens and fruit from the bunnies, some coffee grounds, occasional egg shells, and shredded junk mail for bedding material.

After a few weeks or months, the worms turn what you see in the above photo into beautiful, dark and fluffy compost (the photo at right is over-exposed). My houseplants thrive on this stuff!

It just amazes me. No work on my part - other than a desire to *waste* less - no smell, no pests, no trouble at all - and free organic fertilizer for my garden!

Dora with a mouthful

Dora leaps and dances when I come with her salad in the evening. I think she's leaping more for the little bits of carrot and apple the salad is laced with, rather than the greens. Like most of the bunnies here, she goes for the sweet stuff first. She hates dill for some reason and leaves it behind to wilt at the bottom of the bowl. She's not a big fan of cilantro either and will only eat it after it sits in the bowl for a few hours and there's nothing left but the dill!

I used to feed the bunnies huge mountains of salad twice a day, but in the last two years or so have greatly reduced the amount of greens I feed. They still get them twice a day, but in much smaller quantities. I had one bunny who loved greens, but always was gassy from them, so now I'm afraid to feed too much.

Hay is the most important thing for a house rabbit to eat, but like anything that is *good for you*, it often is a challenge to get the bunnies to eat it. Every bunny has their particular likes and dislikes (which change from day to day, it seems) and they'd much rather eat pellets than hay, but too many pellets lead to fat bunnies and other problems.

I buy 50 pounds of 2nd cut timmy hay by mail order every three months and use this as *treat* hay, because it is expensive and 2nd cut is soft and green and lovely - and fattening. I also buy small bags of 1st cut timmy from the petstore each week. In addition, I order a less expensive mix of timmy and oat hay from a small farm in Massachusetts that I use to fill their litterboxes each day. As a result, my basement looks like a hay barn most of the time, but this way I always have something on hand that the bunnies will eat, regardless of how their tastes change from week to week.

Dora, so far, is not a good hay eater and this worries me. She loves to shred and eat willow and newspaper, but only nibbles at the hay in her litterbox and the baskets I keep scattered around my office. I've tried every type of hay I have in the basement, but she's not nuts for any of them. I may have to try a bale from a local horse farm to see if maybe she prefers a more stemmy, brown hay.

My chuckle for the day

I googled my blog name tonight and found out that SomewhereinNJ is a pretty popular screen name among singles looking for a date. I want to make clear that I am not any of these people and am not looking for any dates. Makes me wonder if this accounts for the recent jump in the number of page views.

Missed opportunities and sleep

My plan for today was to get out and bird with Sandy Hook Bird Observatory. A nice winter trip is to visit the local ponds, inlets, and beaches that make up the *North Shore* of coastal NJ looking for ducks. Unfortunately, I slept till nearly noon and missed the trip. One major thing that I have trouble with as a birder is getting up early enough. In the winter it's easier because it gets light so late, but the spring kills me.

I get up before dawn only once a year for the NJ Audubon World Series. I *compete* with SHBO's Century Run team to raise money for their nature center where I volunteer. Last year we did okay with a total of 127 species for the day. I actually made myself useful to the team this year by alerting them to this Eurasian-Collared Dove which had been seen throughout the previous week, but had'nt been found yet that day. The story of our day is available here. We also saw a Wilson''s Plover that day. The WSB is always fun, except for my first year participating when it poured rain the whole day! Every year brings it's own surprises. One year there was a bagpiper practising on the seawall at dawn.

Sandy Hook is a great place to bird if you get the chance. It can even be reached easily by the ferry from NYC. Warblers in spring together with a good hawk migration, great sparrows in fall, and ducks, gulls, and seabirds in winter. The summer brings lots of traffic for the beaches and the birding is slow, but the evenings are nice with wading birds, plenty of terns, and osprey. Cape May gets all the attention in NJ, but Sandy Hook rivals it (IMHO) in many ways; least of which is that it's only ten minutes from home.

Here's a link to what's being seen this week statewide and a great site for local recent sightings.

Cricket disapproves...

This post on the Birdchick Blog today got me thinking about the many ways I invade the bunnies' privacy by trying to get cute pictures of them. It seems that Birdchick's bunny Cinnamon disapproves of my posting a photo of Boomer's butt.

Cricket will not make any comment about how large Cinnamon's butt appears in this photo, but she certainly disapproves of Cinnamon being so near to a Golden Eagle. I, however, find the Golden to be very cool. Sharon has a great blog and the coolest job (and a very cute rabbit)!

My bunnies are not easy to photograph, so I tend to sneak up on them with the camera when they are otherwise occupied. For example, this photo of Missy playing in her cardboard castle on the patio. The cardboard castle was probably her favorite toy, but the Flemmies destroyed it. Bunny toy manufacturers listen up - there ought to be toys designed for big bunnies! The flemmies were too heavy for the cardboard castle and can't fit into the cheese house.

I snuck up on Boomer and Cricket to take this picture of them snuggling together in their hidey-box. They sleep their day away there while I'm at work. They really seem to like the fleece bed to sleep on, but it accumulates huge amounts of their shed fur. If I try to brush away the fuzz with my fingers (or heaven forbid the vacuum!) Cricket nudges me away with her nose and tries to nip me. She is very protective of her hidey-box, but only when she is in it! Today I brought the two of them into the petstore for a nail trim, which was quite an ordeal. They both disapprove of nail trims.

Lastly, I have this photo of Freckles peeking out at me from her cheese house. Why she loves this thing so much I can't guess, but she sure looks cute in it. She'll scramble around in it for a bit and then flop on her side for a nap. She is a pro at the *dead-bunny-flop* that gives me a small heart attack on a daily basis. She also loves to throw stuff to make noise, like she's doing right now because her dinner and treats are very late!

I don't have any embarassing or indiscreet photos of Dora yet, but she's only been here a few months and is too wary still for me to sneak up on her.

Fish worries

This weather has me worrying about my pond fish. We've been so disorganized this year that we still haven't gotten the bubbler rigged up to keep the pond from freezing over. So the warm temps are a good thing in that regard, but I worry that the warmish temps are stressing them.

I hardly feed my fish during the warm months, but stop altogether from around Halloween until April Fool's Day. With colder temps the fish don't eat and can't properly metabolize the food anyway, so feeding is dangerous. During a *normal* winter they just hang out down at the bottom of the pond and live-in-limbo under the ice until the world warms again. This year, however, they are pretty active and are even begging when they see me at pondside on warmish days. The warming days of spring seem to be when I'm most likely to loose a fish to disease. They are weak after the winter and are prone to bacterial attack at this time. So I'm hoping for colder weather and ice, and a bubbler.

Another view of Boomer

Here's Boomer showing off his fluffy white tail and just *begging* for me to pet him. Isn't he gorgeous?

I can't imagine a life without bunnies.

Hoot owls!

The great-horned owls were calling tonight so I ventured outside in the cold with my binoculars to see if I might find them....

In the dark, all I got was a silhouette (picture a big dark blob with ear tufts) about 3/4 of the way up the tallest locust tree in the yard. I could hear the female with her deeper voice nearby, but couldn't spot her. I listened to their duet for ten minutes or so and then decided I'd had enough of the cold and was ready to go inside when the male owl flew from its perch. I followed him with my bins as he flew higher in the tree and attempted to mount the female who was perched on an outside branch of the same locust. As he mounted her, one of them screamed and he flew off to a closer locust tree which offered me a better view of him. Still a dark blob, but I was able to make out the suggestion of his creamy bib feathers. Very cool!

These owls have been calling for years in the neighborhood and it always thrills me to hear them. I guess they nest closeby, but can't be sure as I've never found their nest. I don't have much luck in finding nests anyway, other than the red-tails when they nested one year in a pine tree at Sickles Park just 50ft. or so from the road. I enjoyed watching them, but sadly that nest was destroyed in a late fall storm that same year.

My growing TBR pile...

I went to Barnes and Noble on my lunch hour today with the intention of buying a 2006 calendar for the kitchen. If I get my act together before the end of the year I'll order one of the Men With Buns calendars for my desk at the office to help promote the idea of rabbits as house pets among my dog and cat-minded coworkers. This past year I had the Hot Buns calendar and everyone enjoyed the new bunny photo each month, especially the July 2005 photo of my beloved Mr. Bean (ATB). Wasn't he a gorgeous rabbit!?! I'll have to blog about him one day...

Anyway, back to my trip to B&N. The selection of calendars was lousy, probably because they were 50% off, so I decided to pick up a few of the books that were on my Xmas wishlist that Santa didn't deliver. Mind you, I already have the pile you see above *to be read* so I really needn't buy any more books until I get through these, but I just couldn't resist. The plan is to limit the TBR pile to what will fit in that basket ;-)

I've added a button on the right to view my *incomplete* library at Bibliophil. This is a great site for readers to keep track of the books they own and have read. It is a lot of work to enter the large number of books I've read though, so I do a little at a time. According to my statistics, I only read 16 books in 2005 - not very many, but it was a busy year.

Missy with a mouthful

It occured to me today that I hadn't yet posted a photo of my first bunny, Miss Buns. Boy would that make her mad!

I've had Missy for just over 4 years now. She and Freckles came from the same pet store, before I understood that rabbits are better obtained from rescues and shelters.

Missy is a very bossy rabbit, like many girl bunnies. She has definite opinions and is not afraid to express them by thumping or nipping! She and Freckles lived together (both spayed, of course) for 4 years and Missy terrorized sweet Freckles for most of that time. They were generally loving with one another, but not bonded or in love like Boomer and Cricket. Missy would get in a mood and Freckles had to put up with being bossed and chased around their habitat. Ever since Missy got sick this summer and had to spend 2 weeks at the vet getting better the two have lived apart. Freckles aparently has decided she would rather live alone.

Missy is doing well, but has slowed down a lot. I wonder how much of that is due to the heart condition and chronic respiratory infection or if it is simply that she is lonely and bored. She eats very well, but spends most of her time napping. She continues to do binkies (although wobbly ones) in her pen sometimes in the morning when I bring her salad - especially if there is lots of dill - that is her absolute favorite!

Petbunny Xmas Card Swap

Another holiday season is coming to an end. We had my DH's family for Christmas Eve and for dinner on Chrsitmas Day. That we were able to seat 15 in my tiny house is pretty amazing! The food and company were good and there were no fistfights - what more could you ask for?

Tomorrow we're having my family for snacks and dessert in the late afternoon. We'll also finally get around to exchanging gifts. Then we can put away all the Xmas clutter and get back to our routines.

Each year at Christmas and Easter I exchange greeting cards with other members of the Petbunny List. Most all of the cards have a bunny on them and some people even make their own cards and include photos. This year, because I never got around to making cards, I bought them from A Rabbitt in Paradise. Lots of great bunny-themed items at that site and beautiful artwork on the cards!

We usually receive about 35 cards from the PB Swap and I use them to decorate on the porch where the bunnies live. The bunnies receive more cards than my DH and I do! I wonder what the mailman thinks of all the cards addressed to Miss Buns, Freckles, Boomer and Cricket, and Dora the Explorer!

This is a photo of some of the cards displayed on Dora's cage. Because they're hung on the very top outside of her cage, she can't nibble on them the way the other bunnies do. My favorite of the ones you can see here is the second from the left sent by Mary, G.T., Herman and Freckles. It was made by the Minnesota Companion Rabbit Society and shows a bunny meeting its reflection in a Xmas ball. Very cute! Kathy B. made a beautiful handmade card that you can't see because it's hanging on the other side of the cage - I can only imagine the time she spends making these. Just gorgeous!

This next photo is of the cards in Boomer and Cricket's pen. Please ignore the bunnies gorging themselves at the bottom of the pic - I had just giving them their pellets before I took the photo.

Many beautiful cards there! I try to give everybunny an equal number of cards to display (so nobunny gets jealous!) but Boomer and Cricket have the most, just because they are such big bunnies and their pen is the largest and has the most display space.

Lastly is a pic of Miss Buns and Freckles' cards. These two love to nibble their cards and toss them around the pen so I have to be careful of the material the cards are made of - no photo cards or anything with glitter, etc. Missy loves to sit in her pooty box and chomp on her cards rather than the hay she should be nibbling on. She is such a little devil! Not sure that it is visible in these tiny pics, but a few cards on the right have been *decorated* by Miss Buns already.

Buddy gets festive

Buddy is just exhausted with all the holiday preparations - poor old boy! I took this photo a week or so ago while we were "camping out" in the living room for a few days while the DH was re-painting the bedroom. We've since re-painted the living room, dining room, and bathroom. DH is now working on the kitchen. This work has needed to be done for a long time, but he hates painting so has put it off till a week before Christmas when the whole family will be here for dinner. We haven't even bought an Xmas tree yet, so I don't know how we'll ever finish in time!

Buddy had a day at the *spa* this past Saturday - we sent him for the first time to the vet for a medicated bath, ear cleaning, and nail trim. He came home with a shiny coat and at least 5 pounds less fur. I'm amazed (still after 10 years) with how much he sheds! The vet staff said that he behaved well which was a surprise considering how fearful he is at the vet.

Anyway, we have an assortment of Xmas hats, scarves, antlers, and bandanas that we torture him with around the holidays. He takes it all in stride - he's such a good boy!

A favorite bunny blog

My friend Charlotte's bunny, George, has outdone himself today in The Hay Diaries.

Local Wonders and this reader's wish list for Xmas

This poem about a barn owl on the Birdchick Blog led me to explore our Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser, and this collection of his essays. I just started reading it yesterday, as my school workload is finally easing up, and have really enjoyed what I've read thus far.

I will be sooo glad when the semester ends and I don't have to *play teacher* for a month and will have time to read. Hopefully, I'll get lots of books for Christmas and will be able to take full advantage of the extra time.

Here's my wishlist:

The Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Bedside Book of Birds by Graeme Gibson
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
The Ardent Birdwatcher: On the Craft of Birdwatching by Todd Newberry

The cheese house and other bunny toys

This photo of Freckles in her *cheese house* makes me smile anytime I come across it. The cheese house is not a very popular toy here (the inside is too slippery) so mostly it collects dust. The favorite bunny toy was the cardboard castle - the bunnies loved to play in it and climb to the top, but the Flemmies caused a fatal collapse - those things just are not made for big bunnies! Another favorite during the summer months is their sandbox - oh how they love to dig and *do donuts* in it. Dora loves to chew stuff and is currently demolishing a tent tunnel from Busy Bunny - I'll need to order another before she starts taking apart my furniture!