Bunnies a Go-Go

The baby bunnies appear to have moved on already. On Friday we noticed them crawling a little ways from the nest. Then on Saturday morning I saw them in the nest early, then they hopped away and were gone all day. We saw them curled up together in the evening and Nigel caught a photo of the mother returning to the nest.



On Sunday morning I didn't see them in the nest, and not in the afternoon or evening. They weren't there this morning either, so I guess that's it. They've moved on and are independent.



Mother rabbits have it pretty easy.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad's 75th birthday. Hoorah!

It seems as though Dad's been around since the dawn of time,



though, that may only be the dawn of my time.

Dad's always been fond of history and being born in 1933, he might find it interesting to know that it was 1933 that saw the debut of the film King Kong and the first photo of the Loch Ness Monster. I'm not saying it was a year of monsters, just that it was a very cool year.

I went through all my old photos and found almost none of Dad. I suppose while we were growing up he was the one taking the pictures, so he wasn't ever in them. I took a gander through the internet and lo and behold I found a photo of him cutting the lawn at his lawn bowling club.



Did you know that 1933 was also the year that saw the invention of the rotary lawn mower? Spooky.

For all of his adult life Dad worked for the railway, starting out as a machinist and working his way round to management.

When Dad started his machinists' training (back in 1950 when he was 17) there were still a few steam engines kicking around and so he was one of the last group that was trained in repairing them, isn't that amazing?! (Not that he should feel old.)

Dad retired in 1988, and in those 38 years he never took one sick day, pretty impressive, no?

After the first 35 years of no sick days the railway gave him a special sticker to wear on his hardhat.

Hmmm... I think they should have done better than that, a medal maybe?

Here's some footage of CN steam engine 3254, which lives in Pennsylvania now.

I wonder if you ever worked on this one?



Happy Birthday Dad!

Maggie

This is Maggie. Mum made this doll through a series of workshops a few years back (fifteen, perhaps). She did a fantastic job on her- hand painting the face, arms and legs, sewing the body, and adding the hair and eyes. Maggie has fair skin, dark hair and blue eyes (like Mum and like me), that's not an easy look to find if you're shopping for a doll - it's always blonde and blue-eyed or dark hair and brown-eyed (sigh). She also sewed the blouse and cord dungarees. It was heaps and heaps of work.

Here she is wearing the wee sweater Mum made for her:



and here she is in the hat Mum started and I finished, the pattern called for a pom-pom on top, but I'm better at tassels, so that's what she got:



I think Mum thought these were the same yarns, however the sweater is off-white and the hat is white, sorry Mum, I know it doesn't happen often, but you made a tiny boo-boo. Still a very cute set.

Isn't she sweet. Maggie has lived with Mum and Dad a long time now, but Mum promised her to Elly "when I go". I doubt Mum is going anywhere soon, but when Elly went to visit them last week Mum insisted that Maggie return with her.



Maggie is going to live with us while Elly is studying in Ireland. She starts school this September and will be gone for three years. So now I have two foster children.



Here's the bunny shots of the day. They all opened their eyes yesterday, and started to wander a little ways from the nest.



I needed to mow the back lawn today and since they've started to move around, we put them in a cardboard box and set them in the shade on the deck (I wouldn't want them running under the mower - ick).

Dot and Gerry hiding their faces in the corner:



Here's Flipsy. A corner of his/her ear is missing. I blame Gus, though we do keep him on a lead when he's in the back.



They're growing so fast that they may be gone from the nest before I have to cut the lawn again!

More Than Bunnies

Let's open with some knitting, shall we?

Despite the blog's appearance, there's been more than just bunnies growing.

Progress continues on the seaweed stole. The dark red yarn in the photo is a "lifeline". It's there in case I make some kind of horrendous error, I can rip out all my stitches back to where ever the thread is. It's a very useful tool when working a complicated pattern. I've never used one before, but this is a design beast and my concentration skills aren't what they once were.

Since this such a slow-going project, I've got a couple of easy options waiting for me in the knitting basket.



This will be a cosy for one of my many tarot card sets. Hardly a necesary item, but it should be a quick and easy knit and I'm using up odds and ends from the leftovers bag. specifically, this yarn is Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool. It's an excellent yarn, there's lots of metreage per skein and it's a lovely combination of the softness of wool and the chalkiness of silk, a great multi-season yarn (not overly pricey either). The colours are fabulous too, I've got leftovers of purple and black - perfect for the particular tarot card set I'm knitting this for, I'm going to show them to you another day.



I've also been finishing up one of my Mum's projects. Years ago she made a doll called Maggie (there's going to be a special post about Maggie tomorrow). She's a beautiful doll, about the size of a newborn. Mum sewed an outfit for her and knit a wee sweater and most of a matching hat. In the photo you can see the pieces for the hat. I've finished the hat and will post photos of Maggie wearing her new togs tomorrow.

I know many of you want to see how the bunnies are progressing, and here they are this morning.



They just barely fit in the nest.

Elly has started naming them. The one with no white on the forehead is Flipsy, that's the one she was holding from a previous post, it flipped out of her hands right after the shutter snapped. The one with the large white blaze is Dot, and the one with the small white blaze is Gerry.

Aaaawww...

Quick Like a Bunny Update

I know a few of you are waiting for a daily update on our little bunnies.

Last night it started to rain so Elly made a little cardboard cover for the bunny nest, to which Ian immediately added an addition and sign. It was very cute.



Unfortunately (being made of cardboard) it started to dissolve in the rain right away.

So instead we half-covered them with a rubber garden tub.



It kept the rain off them and Nigel and Ian saw the mother return to the nest around 8:30PM, so I suppose she approved.



In the photo you can see two of them have a small white diamond on their foreheads. They lose that as they mature.

It's astounding how fast they're growing. They'll probably be independent within two or two and a half weeks.

I'm going to share another part of the tale of the bunnies, but if you have a weak stomach, you'd best not read it (I mean you Jane).

I'll leave a little space so you don't accidentally see any upsetting text (don't worry there's no photos).








When I checked on them this morning I noticed a small bunny corpse covered in maggots a little ways from the nest. I picked it up (with a shovel) and tossed it in a garbage bag. It was much smaller than the others, so i assume it died a while back and the mother removed it.

I'm hoping I don't find any more.

Handmade July

Jane has received her handmade-of-the-month for July. I sent it off last week and then completely forgot to blog it. I made MaryElla, a bracelet pattern from knitty.com. I tweaked the pattern a little, instead of overlapping the ends and sewing on a snap, I used a provisional cast on, shortened the overall pattern and stitched the two ends closed with kitchener stitch. I've made this pattern for myself a few times, but always found the overlapped ends a bit lumpy. The provisional cast on and kitchener stitch close made for a cleaner overall look. I also made the bracelet tiny, less than 6 inches. It barely fit me (or Ian), but it fits Jane perfectly (it even spins on her wrist).

In bunny news, I'm afraid another one died overnight. I'm not sure what the mortality rate is among wild rabbits, but I wouldn't be surprised if this sort of thing happens. I removed the dead baby from the nest and found there were still three left. One must have been hiding under the others yesterday. They look bigger even after one day.







Here's Elly holding one of them. They wriggle quite a lot, and are about the size of a full grown hamster. Their eyes and ears are still closed.



So sweet.