Our new bunnies

Here are some photos of our new bunny boys. Ziggy is a Mini Rex, with velvety white fur that has interesting ink-blot patterns of grayish brown. (That pattern is called Broken Opal.)

After much consulting with rabbit experts, we've determined that Sandy is a cross between a Palomino and a Dwarf Dutch.

Ziggy is about a year old, and Sandy is about 4 months, in these photos. I love how they both put their front feet into the food dish when they eat!

Eleni in a globe of gold

I just found this 2002 photo, while browsing through my old photo pile. This is my little niece, Eleni, riding on an elephant. As you can see, she's wearing her Super-helmet of glowing golden light, to keep any evil spirits away from her head.

I have no idea how this effect happened, but I just love it! It suits her.
* * * * * *

Commemoration of Summer

Fall is here. Snow is due any day now. This picture commemmorates the beauty of summer which is passing fast. Here in Colorado, we still have 75 degree days in Fall, while the night temperatures go to freezing. I just love the colors and light in this summer shot. The oak leaves are red and brown now; the green is gone.
* * * * * * * *

A Mouse Lunch

After our sweet little bunny Bunnita died, Bugs was left as a lonely widower. We started letting him roam in the yard with us for a few hours daily, so that life would hold some interest for him again. He would wander in and out of the outdoor enclosure where he and Bunnita had dug a deep hole. The mice that lived in the hutch with the rabbits moved along with Bugs. (I've named the mice Squeak and Eeek, but I can't tell which is which.) We saw them scurrying from the hutch to the outdoor enclosure, apparently looking for their buddies. On several occasions, I saw Bugs and a mouse casually munching pellets from the same bowl! A luncheon among friends. One lucky day, I caught this picture of Squeak eating sunflower seeds from the rabbit bowl. Or maybe it's Eeek.

Those hours in the yard grew longer and longer. After awhile, we were leaving Bugs to play in the garden all day, putting him in his hutch only at night. Eventually, he made it clear that he was capable of taking care of himself. He made himself several homes around the garden, under various things. He is now a free-range half-wild rabbit of the world. His favorite homes are: *under the solar panels, *in the cabbage patch, *in the bushes, and *under the plumtree branches. When we come out to his area, though, wherever he's currently hiding, he usually runs out to be petted. He and Gary have a lot of conversation time when Gary is gardening. Bugs hops alongside him, keeping Gary company. My men are good at gardening together.

Most mornings, Bugs can be found back in his enclosure, checking out his hole. Sometimes he hops back into the hutch, seeing if it's still as he left it. Snow is expected this weekend; we hope he will go into one of his old homes to stay warm.
* * * * * * * * * *

A Greek American Kiwi

I was browsing through a CD and found some photos that a friend took when we were in New Zealand last year. I know I'm interested when I get to see what a fellow blogger looks like, so here is evidence of my extreme pulchritude. There's been talk of my eyebrows lately, so they are featured here as Exhibit A. As a point of interest, when in Colorado, my hair is absolutely straight. The humidity in New Zealand brought out the waves that I remember so well from my younger days in coastal towns.

A Grandma and an Ethan

*****A grandma and her sweet baby Ethan. This is my favorite photo, so far, of me and the little cutie.

Gypsy, the World's Cutest Dog

****In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I have the world's cutest dog as my daily companion.

Gypsy is an unusual mixture of Golden Retriever, Sheltie, and Long-Haired Dachshund. The result is a mid-sized beauty of a pooch with a sweet temperament, sharp intelligence, and the desire to herd everything in sight. She doesn't require a leash, because I am her herd and she needs to keep me in herding range... she won't leave my proximity no matter what.

In doggie years, she is now slightly older than me. Notice the gray hairs around her muzzle, just like the silver hairs appearing among my brown ones. She's not as athletic as she once was, until we take her out into the mountains to hike. Then she becomes a wild mountain dog, sniffing and chasing around the bushes and under the trees, always looping back around me before taking off on her next chase. It's a beautiful dance to watch: she races off up a path, then loops back behind me, then off down another path, then loops back around me, then does a few circles around a bush full of chipmunks, then loops back around me. It's the dance of a herder, keeping her charge in line. If Gary and I take separate paths around a hill, for example, she will loop a constant figure 8 between the two of us until our paths merge again.

She performs this service - making sure we are well and where we should be - all day and all night. As lightly as I sleep, I hear Gypsy get up and make the rounds of the house and back yard around four times nightly. The first of those rounds includes patrolling the cat food dish, to clean up whatever Puff the cat hasn't gotten to yet. It's all in a dog's line of duty.