Spring Has Sprung

 These snap dragons were at one of our clients properties who recently passed away. It seemed a shame that no one was there to enjoy them anymore so I had to take a few pics. They also happen to be one of my favourite flowers as I remember playing with them as a kid.

 Cherry tree in bloom and sunshine glinting on water, what more does a picture need.

 Here's another cliche pic that I couldn't resist. A bee on blossom. Not quite a bumble bee yet though, they still elude my lens for now.

 I was quite taken with this tree for some reason. Perhaps just because it was so large.

 This cheeky chap is an escapee from the aviary that is on the other side of the lake I reckon. He certainly seemed rather tame as he was happy to sit and watch me as I watched him.

 Daffodils! There are so many at the moment and all different sizes and colours too.

 The swans have started nesting so the ducks can't be far behind. I'm looking forward to getting some pics of fluffy ducklings.

I quite like this pic although it didn't really turn out like I hoped. The coot was moving too fast for me to get another try though.

Why Hello There...

I'm going to do a few photo posts since I have been busy with my camera now that Spring is starting to show through. I went to visit my cousin a few weekends ago as she always has an interesting mix of animals and I wasn't dissapointed.

On her front lawn she had this little pen set up with these two cuties in. They even had cute little coats on!

What a little poser huh? Not that lambs need to pose, they are always cute.

I guess I tired this fella out with all my photo taking.

Spots! I love piglets! My cousin has two sows that gave birth within 3 days of each other and now share the litters, feeding any piglet as if it were her own.

The black ones are from a smaller sow so they look younger alot younger than the pinks but they just started smaller.

These little explorers got lost while we were watching the mothers eat. they went round and round in circles but couldn't seem to remember where the entry to the sty was.

This spotty one is everyones favourite at the moment. Apparently everyone who visits reckons they want to take this one home.

Everyone jumps in at feed time. This pic also shows the size difference between the pinks and the coloured.

Succulent Showday

I've always liked the idea of house plants but I'm terrible at remembering to water things, add that to the fact that as a house sitter I can be away from home for a week at a time and it's easy to see why I've never had pet plants before. Until now!
I decided a couple of months ago that I rather like succulents and since I was accumulating a rather large collection of glass GU pots (they contain rather tasty mini cheesecakes which I had a fad on) I thought it would be nice to put the two together. The original idea was to use a tea cup and I even bought a little succulent from the saturday market and transplanted into a dainty little cup with matching saucer and rather promptly killed it.
Being rather good at knowing my knack for failure I picked up a couple of freebie succulents from a garden we worked in and whacked them in the GU pots, not really worried whether they lived or not. These of course have thrived.

Due to my fascination for miniature things I had high hopes for this guy and he was tagged as my favourite early on. Not so much anymore. He is still living which is a definate bonus but due to it's size and lack of anything exciting happening it has slipped into more of an average placing. I still have high hopes for it to be sure but I think a lot patience is required.

This one is my current favourite. It started out as excess to requirements as this was the mother plant that I stole the pup from. I couldn't quite bring myself to throw away a living plant though and since I had plenty of pots I whacked it in just to see what it would do. I figured if the first pup died I could steal the second one off this one.
Not only has this plant lived but it has grown which really quite surprised me and pleased me. After all it's one thing to keep things alive but quite another to know you are doing well enough for them to get bigger and better. Now all it has to do is produce a second pup and I'll pee my pants with pride haha

This is the bottom of the above pot. I really like having them in glass and watching the advancement of the roots below the surface. It's a bit of ritual now for me to lift it up and peer at it's underside before I water it now just to see what's new. I also like the glass jars because I can see when the entire soil is dry and that's when I water them. I'm pretty stingy with the water, I wait until they are entirely dry and then they get two teaspoons each pot. Usually once a week, sometimes less if I forget them.

While working in another garden the other day I thieved these guys from under a mass of weeds. They won't be missed and they make good free trial plants to replace the one I killed. I don't actually have much confidence in these guys but I will treat them the same as the others and see how we go. After all if they die they haven't cost me anything except a little time.

The twins round out the collection to 4 pots. These two were also thieved at the same time as the previous two. Again I'm not sure if they will do well but I rather hope so.
Do you have any indoor plants? Do they do well or are you as good as me at killing them off slowly?

Well It All Went To Shit Pretty Quick...

After a fair share of suppressed irritations this week I finally cracked today and ended up in an irrationally foul mood over a very minor insult to my pride. I had plans of catching up on my blog today (I think I've failed the challenge) and even writing spares to put in the files for future use. What I achieved was a very impressive silent sulking session and some half arsed distraction thanks to google.
So accepting the first possible chance of escape and solitude I high tailed it home and surrounded myself with a 'Cheer The Hell Up If It Kills You' kit and thought I'd share with you the things that I assembled.
Firstly as you can see above I plonked my butt in front of my fav table ( I tend to sit on the floor as I find it more comfortable, I guess because I can pretend I'm still a kid that way) with my laptop and a glass a wine. The laptop to distract me and the wine to sedate me. I also put on A Cook On The Wild Side, one of Hugh Fernley Whittingstalls first DVDs. I find it soothing for some reason. Perhaps because it reminds me of living in England and has nice country scenes to look at. Maybe because Hugh doesn't get overly excited so there is no sudden rise in volume, no bickering, shouting or tension and he speaks mostly in a low tone. Also I enjoy the subject of food, self sufficiency and exploring which is the main topics throughout and lastly I have watched this DVD so many times that I can tune in and out at will. Basically it makes nice soothing background noise to help me relax without serious attention.

Next of course I lit the fire. Warmth is happiness and the fire also makes soothing back ground noises. The heat also makes me sleepy or at least takes away my tension, a bit like a back massage without the horrible prospect of someone touching me haha.

Food is very important, it's hard to be depressed on an empty stomach. My favourite snacks at the moment are burger rings and although I always choose savoury over sweet I like to have some chocolate around. Usually it's just to look at as one or two pieces is usually plenty for me but if I don't have any I crave it fiercely.

I've got my current colouring page on stand by for when I get bored of the technology. I started this one last night while watching Pretty Woman on TV. My red has pretty much run out now which is sad. I guess I will have to decide soon whether it's worth buying a new set of felt tips or just moving onto a new hobby. Either that or I will have to go back to the pencils. I'm a pedantic sharpener though and spend more time creating a point on the pencil than actually colouring.

Lastly, and also on stand by, is a new project. The plan is to write in all the things I want to do/see/eat while in the UK. I saw recently a chinese method for how to index a notebook which really intrigued me and this seemed like the perfect project to use it one. I will write all the things that I want to do, index at the back and then when I'm in the Uk I should (in theory) be able to easily refind my ideas when wanting to fill a day. I am also planning to leave enough space under each entry to add a date of completion and hopefully the signatures of those who completed it with me, making it into a home made souvenir/diary/autograph book.
So there you have it, my method for calming myself down. I'm feeling pretty chill now which just proves it works considering I was ready to hurt someone or something barely an hour ago. Wine and heat will do that for you haha
Do you have any unfailing ways to calm yourself when you get angry or do you ride it out? 

Day 14 - My Bedroom

This was one of the blog prompts so I'm not really sure what I'm meant to write about. But here is my bed. Dad bought me the Union Jack blanket last time he was over. You can just see my prize soft toys on the far pillow. I think at the moment I have 7 in the party but they vary from time to time.

This is above my bed. I call it the travel wall. The large fan in from Thailand and the small white one from Spain. There is also a smaller black one from Tenerife but it's hard to see. There's the world map underneath and then the map of the Game of Thrones realm just for fun.

On one of my shelves I have my bottle collection. They pretty much all have a story and my favourites are the small ones at the front which were all found in the garden, beach or river mud flats. Not sure why I collect them. It's my hoarder tendencies shining through perhaps. Also I come from a family of collectors but I never found my niche so I have quite a few little collections of random things.

I adore anything miniature so miniature bottles are doubly exciting to me. Closely followed by miniature books. Then mini anything else! So far I've only been able to find tiny bottles that are full of glitter. I saw a few empty ones online once but they were too expensive for me to bother with and the only other ones I've seen are used in fancy jewelery or keychains and although they are adorable they are also way over priced. Yep I'm a cheapskate when it comes to my collectables, if it costs more than $10 I'm probably not going to buy it.

Another sort of collection. Dragons and Wicca/witchcraft/pagan related items. This shelf is pretty empty because most of these kind of items are again quite expensive. At the other end of the shelf though is a collection of sea shells. I find it hard to resist picking up more whenever I go to the beach. I only like to have less than a dozen on my shelf though so most have progressed out to the garden!

Last picture. This is my favourite thing in my room, my book shelf. I actually have two in my room. Both full. and three others around the house. Plus my desk. I have a 'thing' for books. Books to read, books to write in. Fact, fiction. Pretty much anything. The whole top shelf of this book case is Tolkein at the moment. I like to go to charity stores and see how many different editions I can find. It's amazing what turns up and all have been less than $5.

So there you have it. That's the condensed tour of my room. I could do an entire post on my book collection and perhaps I will some day soon. It will make me want to go book  shopping again though!
Do you have any collections?

Day 13 - Fantasy Land

I've been having a bit of a hard time lately finding things to write about as I find winter a bit of a miserable time and I don't want to fill this space with negative thoughts. The other day at work though my imagination ran away with me and I planned out a whole future career idea for myself so I'll write a bit about that instead. I apologise in advance if I goon too long. My fantasy lives interest me far more than my real one!

So my idea was to start a petting zoo! Wanganui doesn't currently have one and I always find this strange since the people here love animals and I know quite a few people who have crazy little collections. Perhaps they just don't want to share them. I personally dislike children so a petting zoo is perhaps an bad idea for me too since the majority of the custom would be people with children. I think I could perhaps tolerate them though if they were there to appreciate my animals.
So what would I have?
Sheep of course. Llamas/Alpacas (even though they scare me), goats, pigs, rabbits, chickens, ducks, geese, guinea pigs, cows, donkeys, lizards etc etc etc

I even planned out admission fees and money making ventures. I thought entry should be cheap, $5 for an adult $2 for a child. That way on the brochure it would look really enticing with lots of bang for your buck. The catch of course would be to offer loads of pay for extras that the kids would pester their parents to pay for. Pony rides for $2. Little bags of pellets for feeding the animals $1. Pig races, where the kids and parents can both be involved $2 for a ticket, choose which pig you think will win and if you're correct you win a bag of lollies to share.

Another idea I had was lamb feeding of course. I think this would have to be free though and just a first in first serve basis, 4 feeds a day and what ever lambs I can scrounge from neighbouring farmers. I could offer to raise them as a free service and then return them to them afterwards. Win win for both parties as the farmers get a hassle free orphan at no expense and I would get a good supply of adorable babies to draw in the punters without having a surplus of adult sheep that aren't required.
There would have to be a few adult sheep kept around though. I reckon I could harness train a few and put them in front of a little carriage. $5 a ride for two kids or one kid and one adult. It would have to be a minimum of 2 sheep pulling the cart but 4 all harnessed up would look impressive.
The milk from the lambs could be sourced from the cows. After all most dairy breeds produce far too much for just one calf so in theory I could have lambs and a calf all being supplied by one cow. Milking could be another demonstration for the public or perhaps even another pay to have a go at thing.

There would be set times for holding rabbit and guinea pigs in a controlled area. A comfy chair to set the kid in with a towel on it's knee and then add the animals. Safe for the rodents and no mess for the humans. In theory!
I would love a reptile room too with large tanks containing whatever types of lizards or snakes that are permitted in this country and special handling times for these too. Also feeding times at some point during the day as an extra little event for the customers.

I would also love for it to have a large herb and vegetable garden for people to wander around and show their kids how things grow. There would be lots of little signs to say what things are and how long they take to grow.
There would of course have to be a cafe and shop. I thought it would be cool to sell produce from the animals and garden. Fresh grown fruit and veg could be used in the cafe or sold fresh. Eggs from the chickens and ducks could be sold. Wollen clothing items made from the sheep or alpaca fleece. Honey from local bees. Herbs from the garden could be sold dried, fresh or even in beauty products. Perhaps even milk from the cows.

I would love to have a lake for the ducks and geese. Preferably with fish in so that people can feed those too. Paddle boats could be hired. In my mind there would be a grass verge on one side for people to picnic on leading down to a pier where they could look into the water and feed the fish or climb onto the boats. The rest of the lake would have a forest edge with a walking track through it and at some point a tree tower that can be climbed to get a good view over the park.
So what do you think? Am I nuts or am I onto something? All I gotta do now is find a million odd dollars to set the place up and I'll be away!

Day 12 - Colouring Pages

 I've been doing a whole lot of therapy colouring lately! Here's a few completed ones for you guys to have a quick flick at.

Day 11 - My Weekend

I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking for this post. I was housesitting at the weekend on a lifestyle block. It sure makes me wish I had my own 5 to 10 acres! I will one day.
They had about a dozen chooks all of different breeds that produce a pretty array of different size an coloured eggs.

These boys were the loudest of my charges and you sure knew about it if you were late for a feed. They were rather pretty though so it was easy to forgive them.

There were two dogs, total opposites of each other. This is Jake who was very forward, loving and wanted to be involved with everything. The other dog was a collie called Star who was very shy and scared. You can just make out her legs on the far right as she heads away from the camera. Jake though sat like this for 5 minutes straight patiently waiting for me to take his picture.

There were 4 cats, all of whom worshiped the heater. two were very shy and one was my total shadow whilst in the house. It liked to sit near me when I watched tele and help me out in the kitchen when I was prepping the lambs milk.

One last picture. I just couldn't resist a quick pic of these cabbages. Most of these pics were rather hurried as the weather was so terrible this weekend I didn't want to risk getting my camera wet. I hope you enjoyed my visual account of my weekend.
Did you do anything exciting this weekend? Or did you take any great pictures?

Day 10 - My Piercings

I'm going to keep this brief as I know some people can be squeamish about piercings and I have had plenty of gory stories to get to this point. Just to clarify the pic above is not  me but it is what I am aiming for on one of my ears. I currently have 4 of the 5 piercings on my left ear and I hope to get the last next time I am in the UK.
I have not had much luck with piercers in New Zealand, the ones I have had dealings with mostly seem to be lacking experience or very set into bad habits.Not all are bad though and there is a girl in Palmy who has done a few for me that was excellent. I stopped going to that shop though because firstly it is close to an hours drive away which is a long way to go for a piercing and secondly because I couldn't guarantee which piercer would be on duty when I arrived. 
I do live in a small town and there aren't many piercers to choose from and to be brutally honest I wouldn't go back to any of them. I recently went to one with a girl I know who got her cartilage  pierced for the first time and I was horrified to find out that they do all ear piercings with a gun! If you don't know how bad a practice that is then google it. It made me nauseous to watch though. Doubly wrong for that place was that they gave no after care instructions which I thought was very odd considering my friend had mentioned repeatedly that it was her first piercing since she was a kid. They did sell her some studex but that seemed more like a profit thing.
Anyway enough with the negative!
So what have I got? As I mentioned in my previous post I have 14 piercings currently with plans to get more, it's an ongoing addiction same as tattoos.
I have 5 in my left ear, 4 for the paw print and my lobe.

6 in my right ear. The two hearts are attached and not removable unless I bend them out of shape with pliers. The 3 hoops I don't tend to change either simply because I like the way they look.

On my lip I now have 2 hoops which brings me to 13 and the last is my belly button which currently doesn't have any jewelery in since no one is likely to see it in winter so I don't bother.
Ok enough said on this as I still need to write todays post!
Do you have any piercings and if so how many?