Rabbits!!

I have had my hand torn open by a little rabbit who wasn't very pleased at the idea of going back to bed again. I am so annoyed with my little flock of rabbits tonight, I have had bunnies for the past ten years and don't consider myself to be an amature but I ended up being scratched by two different rabbits. Benson is a little tiny rabbit without the strength to break skin so when he scratches it is not too bad (though he does have a wonderful little bubbly personality) but Salt is a little madam with attitude. She has just been given a new big hutch but never the less decided that she didn't want to go to bed so she went crazy and scratched my hand badly. In essence I am not pleased!!!

My inside bunny has a poorly eye and I am trying to give him drops 3 times a day. This is made easier by the fact that he is happy to sit still, however it is made harder by the fact that he has really long eyelashes and the drops are sticky. I usually manage to get some in his eye though and he just has to accept the fact that the fluff around his eye permanently looks wet. I shudder to think how difficult it would be to administer if it was Salt instead!! I would permanently be covered in scratches!

I am now going to spend the evening sulking with doughnuts and popcorn

Eating wallpaper

I am getting my first puppy in a month and a half and I cannot wait!! I am utterly daunted at the same time by being responsible for her development and happiness (to be completely anthropomorphic). I have seen my freinds buy impulse puppies over the last few months, two of which have ended with the dog being rehomed. They seemed so unphased by such a big life upheaval but the idea sort of terrifies me (somehow in a good way).

I just think that if I can't train this dog correctly then I must be in the wrong career... mind you it might be a bit late for a change after a degree and a masters in animal behaviour lol.

The boyfriend and I have had a bit of a dissagrement about the placing of the puppy crate, the problem is that we have a house bunny and two hamsteres who will need some form of segregation at night. We are now thinking that the dining room is a good place for her to live. I think it might need some form of decoration though, we tend to avoid the room since the baby rabbits wintered there last year. I say babies but in the space of one weeks holiday I came back to find rampant teenagers who were chewing the wall paper off the walls. Needless to say that it looks a complete state now!! They even managed to get ontop of their cage and chew the wall half way up... they even nibbled the concrete in places! It didn't take long for the books at the bottom of the bookcase to migrate upwards (luckily they didn't munch on any books I liked too much!).

Lagging behind

Well today has not been the best of days... all the ducklings seem to have vannished from the pond. I am sort of hoping they were bullied out by that nasty male, but I can't help but think they met a worse fate!

Ever feel like you are lagging behind in life? I constantly judge myself against others and come up wanting. I know perfectly well that I have achieved a degree, my PGCE, am about to start a masters course, have a wonderful partner and a house but still I am dissatisfied. I do think that some of this might be down to facebook (the route of all evils!!). I tend to look at what other people have, children, high flying jobs and lovely new kitchens and feel that I should be there... I guess I am hankering after the impossible... the perfect life!!

I keep telling myself to stop judging myself against others as it is never going to make me happy, however doing it is much harder!!

Seaside adventures

Yesterday we took the advantage of the blistering heat and went to the seaside. Of course when we got to Saltburn it turned out that the sun was hidden behind a teeny tiny cloud and there was no breeze to blow it away. Saltburn turns out to have one of those beaches which permanently has wet sand which quickly soaks through your beach towel. By the time I had been sat down five minutes my leggings were wet and I was quickly realising that wet sand is hard sand and thus uncomfortable to sit on.

In the space of time we were sat down I managed to be hit by a football (men who seem to think that they are a. fantastic looking even though they wobble as they trundle after the ball and b. professional footballers) and have someone kick sand in my can of Pepsi... I thought that it would be the children who would be the problem on the beach but it seems not!! I even heard some woman telling her child off for trying to build a sandcastle as it was time to go and get chips.

We stood in line for an hour to get chips and then climbed 200 stairs back up the cliff to the car where there were free benches, by the time I had hauled myself up there I didn't feel like eating lol. After that we decided to try another seaside and headed towards Robin Hoods Bay.

Later I did think about the fact that we picked two seaside towns which included large hills which you had to navigate back to the car. I am shamed to comment that I was passed on the way back up from Robin Hoods beach by an elderly couple!! Hands up I am way out of shape!! When staggering back to the car I did realise that at least it hadn't mattered that I only made it to the gym once last week as I had just done the equivalent of two workouts.

When I woke up this morning it was drizzling and the back of my calves hate me.

Saving staffies

Today I rescued a white staffie with a cute grey patch over one eye... I shall set the scene...

On my way to my parents house I topped a rise in the rural road to see the backend of a staffie as he happily careered down the road. Worried that someone would hit him I stuck on the hazard lights and tail gated him (I hasten to add I was not being cruel not stopping the car and running after him... I can't do more than a quick shamble myself after a bad car accident). I don't condone the use of mobile phones when driving but made an execption on this occassion to make a desperate call to my parents for help.

The staffie pulled over down the drive way of some rural offices. I stopped the car and before I had even got the door open he was there with his slobbering kisses and wagging tail. He seemed so pleased to see me and easily let me get hold of him... one step closer to a rescued doggie!!
Next was the question of what to do with him, easy solution... just pop him in the boot. It was only when I was lifting him in that I realised that he was wet and his underneath was covered in mucky water. Now this might not sound like too much of a problem but I have a brand new very expensive 4x4!! But it was only the boot right... and I am getting a puppy in a couple of months.

Meanwhile my father turned up and as I was chatting to him I realised that the dog was hanging over the back seat grinning at us... in the time between me phoning his very surprised owners and them turning up to get him the following happened. He retracted the wing mirrors whilst trying to hump the gear stick, got muddy water and hair all over the seats and floor, licked the windows and got a huge smear of doggy drool all over my right boob... and you know what despite that all I drove off with the biggest smile!!

Another day of eating sugar

I really need to cut down on the amount of sugary goodness I am eating... I scored marks for resisting a tiffin slice when I went to costa coffee this morning but then this afternoon I have consumed a mini tub of ice cream, a calipo, four celebrations and the better part of a bag of onion rings (shame on me for this was a big bag). So this then leaves me sitting on the sofa feeling drained and exhausted. I know eating junk foods makes me lethargic and unhappy but sadly I seem unable to forgo the shorter term benefits. Every night I go to sleep saying 'never again' and every morning I stare at my bowl of alpen and start to plan how I can ruin the start of yet another hopeless diet.

I know that my problem on the whole is that I have very little to do with my time, especially now I have decided to cut down on the amount of money I am spending (partly because I have bought everything I could want!!). Eating nice food like cake gets me out of the house and is a plesant pass time... until I realise that for the past four years I have been wanting to shift my extra weight.

So once more for those in the cheap seats at the back ' Never again!!!!'... let us count how many hours I manage to resist this time....

The day of the ducklings

I was concerned today over the apperance of seven tiny ducklings on our local pond, it is rather late in the year to be starting a new family and the ducks on the pond, most of which are this years youngsters are a bunch of thugs. There is one budding new male in particular who can always be seen beating up some unsuspecting, and probably elderly, duck.

The ducklings in question are still at the stage where they bob around the pond like over excited corks and are scolded by their mothers for not getting out of the water with her... babies afterall need frequent naps. The cutest part though is where they attempt to get back into the water again... the baby will carefully position itself at the top of the cliff (or small concrete edge followed by a slope to us), it then waggles it's whole body before simply casting it's tiny body off the edge. The duckling then proceeds to bounce and slide down the slope before plopping into the water... a second later it bobs back to the surface again.

My other main worry when I arrived at the pond was the number of ducklings, my partner had totalled them at 8 last night (and you don't expect an accountant to be wrong about these things!) but this morning there were only seven minature blobs scurrying around. We are lucky enough to have a very low duckling mortality rate at the pond although the babies will run the twice daily risk of the main road, it never fails to bring a smile to my face to see a double decker bus stopped to allow mum to shepherd her babies across.

Nature, with the help of medcine and risk assessments is kind to us and it is easy to forget that for every pair of adult breeding ducks that when they die they will probably only leave a pair of surviving reproductive offspring. But then maybe this stable population structure is a good thing... if not we would be overrun with ducks.

Interesting fact: the collective term for ducks in water is a raft