A large rabbit run

Today, I made a run for Jean's rabbit, Blacky. He has a hutch, but rabbit hutches are far too small for rabbits to spend all day in; we'd been letting him run around the house (which requires constant watching, so can only happen for an hour or so), or letting him enjoy the slightly larger possibilities of a large cage with the bottom removed pegged down on the lawn, but we knew it wasn't nearly enough for him; he was always wanting to get out, and when he's in the house, he enthusiastically runs the entire length of downstairs.

So, I built him a run, with some help from Jean (he's her rabbit, after all, but there's only so much use a four-year-old is in this kind of project). Two metres and ten centimetres long, a metre and five centimetres wide, and fifty centimetres high; made out of a wooden frame with rabbit mesh, and a liftable solid door at one end, which also provides some fixed shade.

I relish the chance to do something with my hands, as I usually don't get time to, and end up spending all of my time at a computer. And Blacky certainly seemed happy; he was running around it at high speed, occasionally bounding into the air and spinning round, which is what rabbits do when they're happy. Note the motion blur:

That's not all, though; we've also bought him a lead, so we'll be able to safely take him for walks along the drive.

A stroll in the countryside

On Sunday, I was looking after Jean as Sarah was in Cheltenham to run a writing workshop thing.

So I suggested that we might go for a walk, and Jean liked the idea - however, she decided she wanted a LONG walk! So after some discussion, we set off for the furthest of the three pubs in the Parish, which is about three miles away, with a packed lunch and lots of water, and Jean's teddy bear, who she decided should come with us.

To my delight, Jean didn't tire and demand to come home; we made frequent stops to drink water, and sat down in some shade in the woods to eat our cheese and biscuits, but we pressed on cheerily, past some lambs:

Eventually we reached the Fostons Ash for some lemonade and crisps.

Then Sarah rang as she was on the bus home, which stopped off by the Royal William, the pub nearest our home - so we decided to walk straight there to meet Sarah, taking a different route, where we got a little closer to some of the lambs:

At the Royal William we ate a filling dinner of chips (not so unhealthy if you've been walking all day!), and came home.

Jean was still enthusiastic at the end, despite having now walked about six miles from 2pm to 8pm!

The best thing was, I recorded about two hours of it on my concealed camera. It's mainly shaky footage of bushes and sky, but it offers the context for the audio track, which records all the awesome conversations Jean and I had.

Bee Guardians

My friends are looking for Bee Guardians to help with the disappearing honey bees - here is their website.

Therizinosaur Time Capsule

Well I managed to get something in for the Therizinosaur Time Capsule on the Art Evolved website. My contribution does look like a Skeksis from the Dark Crystal :/ but never mind! (For those who haven't read the previous entries on this Therizinosaurs are dinosaurs and ART evolved is a site on palaeo-art).

This is the second one I have entered and I am still only getting around to giving them the planning sketches :/ Something I hope to solve with the next one which is why I already have the book pages marked out and have not put the art stuff away!

This time capsule also coincides with ART Evolves first birthday I am really happy to have found them before they cross that threshold - not sure why but it just feels important!

When I find my camera lead I will also complete the live blogging of the art work on Salaric Art and Craft - I have even made a palaeo-art section on there along with a my drawings/paintings.

Elephant Parade

I have applied to paint an elephant!

Yep you heard me an elephant! Of the statue variety - think the multi-coloured cows that were around London or the Pigs that were in Bath.

They don't have many left and I only just scraped in on the deadline - so I probably wont get it but I had to try!

The elephants will be paraded in London to help awareness of the plight of the Asian elephant. You can find out more about the event here.

I love conservation stuff and again this is for me at least a cross over of science and art - so for my design I went for the whole ecology feel - so yeah you guessed it I plan to paint one of my seascapes Well to me the epitamise a bio-community in balance and in danger - they are also basically one of the oldest habitates on earth!

One of the things that doing this application has taught me though is that I need to get some sort of portfolio site up and running :/