Monday Bunday

Amelia and her posse.

The gurlz are still fighting, boxing through the fence and each Saturday one breaks into the other's area and there 's a little scuffle, two weekends ago it was unclear what happened, but Amelia got a bit of a rip on the top of her precious little arm. It's just a flash wound she told me.

Are these mittens or boxing gloves?

If I'm gone for more than an hour I put up a four foot fence.....still for some reason I think one day all fences will come down. Curiously Sydney has a neutral attitude to Harriet, they sniff through the fence and there is no boxing or lunging, potential friends and allies?

Monday Bunday

Here is Amelia in our newest structure known as The Buddha Boudoir. It has since been changed slightly so that the laundry basket cannot entrap the rabbit within.

When it came to choosing who, or rather as my departed mother would correct one to say, to whom to present the give-away print of Amelia in Her Dream, first and foremost we wanted to be fair. But what is fair? An On-Line dictionary says that fair is "free from favoritism or self interest or bias or deception; conforming with established rules or standards." I didn't establish any rules or standard except no tricks. Now if I did the random number generator, that could be thought of as fair, if you look at it in a vacuum, that is to say all entrants being equal. But often in sports for instance there is the use of handicaps to make things fair. So what if I only considered the people how didn't have one of my prints already, would that be more fair? But what if there was someone who had had a bad day and needed a perk would it be more fair to give them an advantage because they had had some undeserved bad luck?

The space between, there is none.

Luck, Fate and Karma are tricky, why do things happen? sometimes it is quite obvious. For instance did you know I was the cause of my Xhubs hernia? Yes, I did this by serving the Chinese take-out while it was still hot. You see if moving a heavy and extensive record collection and you ask people to help you and you reward these hard workers with nice, nice Chinese Take-out from "the really good place down the street" and if your wife stupidly serves the food, as mentioned before, while it is still hot then the helpers will stop working and you will be carrying the records all by yourself and you will get a hernia. It is her fault for insisting on this adherence to the code of good hosting, not yours for not realizing limitations and common sense. This would be an example of cause and effect. It is also called a red flag, but let's not get into that.

Theme: white toes

The point is, and you've been wondering what it is, I'm sure, is that one of our Bunny Blogger friends has suffered the loss of a bun: Skittles. Small and densely packed with personality Skittles passed on Saturday. So in all fairness we give away the Amelia print to Skittles' family, though it can hardly make up for the loss, it is certainly something to do. Sometimes you just have to do something.

Hug your bunnies and your loved ones of whatever species

and have a great Summer week.

Monday Bunday

As you can see I am under close scrutinity unless they are sleeping or eating.

As you can see Tyler likes to play "Big Bunner Is Watching You", even though he is not so very big.

As you can see they are in charge of everything.

Here Amelia closely examines the newest print, Amelia In Her Dream, for defects and finds a few. It is bigger than I usually work, the paper size is 9.5 by 11 inches and I had trouble controlling it when it was damp, as it has to be for this sort of printing. There are some smudges and inky kisses on many of the prints. There are some that are fairly decent and I put them up for sale in my Etsy shop. $5 from the sale of this print will be donated to our local rabbit rescue organization, Rabbit Haven.

Here is one that really seemed to have too many smudges to sell, but is pretty anyway. If you would like to win it you can enter the drawing by writing the following sentence in the comments "Rabbits Rule The World". A winner will be announced next Bunday, no tricks this time.

Rabbits Rule The World.

Monday Bunday; Givin' It Away!

For those of you who entered the Tiger print give-away there is test of skill to be passed. Before I hear a collective "Ahhhhhhh, no fair" let me add that there will be TEN WINNERS!!!! UPDATE: all the prints have been snapped up, thanks for your interest, Happy Tiger Year, what remains and the best is yet to come, to everybody! All you have to do is send your name and mailing address to my Email (banditrabbit at earthlink dot net) and the first ten will get a Year of the Tiger Print. The only restriction is that you need to one of the people who left their name in the previous post.

Tyler's hind legs appear to be above the floor, when I mentioned this to him he pointed out that he was, in fact, The Mystery Spot and that the local tourist attraction had it all wrong.

Often when I am printing there are rabbits supervising. Evidence above and below. I know they look like they are just lying around, but they tell me differently.

Amelia has SUCH a fat tail.....

I have taken to having Harriet's gate open during mealtimes. This lead to one incident when Amelia thought she should go into the Harriet zone, Miss Hare took offense and there was a little scuffle in the lean-to from which they both emerged unscathed. Since then no bun has ventured to the other side, but I think they are getting used to being near each other without the fence. Today Harriet and Amelia have been mirroring each other, laying together closely with the fence between, of course, grooming at the same time that sort of thing. I am SO tempted just to remove the fence and see what happens........

Have a Great Week all you Bunnies and Humans.

Saturday Night Special

Be sure to read to the end, there's a give-away you can enter!

Today when I got home from the Farmer's Market I was mugged by two bunnies wearing rabbit masks.

They held me up at bun point and took the green stuff right out of my bag .

A couple of real toughs, as you can tell by the belly of this beast.

I recently participated in a print exchange and much to my surprise produced too many not too bad tiger prints, so I'm giving away 4 (one from each of my lagomorphic supervisors). If you would like to enter the drawing let me know in the comment section. We will pick the winners in a week and the lucky commenters will be announced on Bunday, June 28th.

Catch Up Post

We have been having lots of fun with red clover harvested from my bro's place on top of the mountains. Everybun goes CRAZY for it. I had thought to try to get a picture of each rabbit with a head of clover just at the moment before the tasty purple botanical lollipop disappears in the cute maw of the beast, but it will take a whole season of shots to capture that; the clover disappears too quickly! Next year, next year......

The clover moves so fast between the inward movement and the side to side caused by chewing that it can be mostly a blur......

Tyler rears his head back to control a particularly unruly piece of clover

Nom, nom, nom......

A reader asked to see pictures of the study I had to endure to check my Email while this machine was on vacation in the shop. Lest you think I am a Traitorous Significant Other for publishing these images, you should know that I consider myself more of a Domestic Anthropologist and that I have more or less made my peace with the hoarding, that is to say I am not on his case about it and keep my stuff in a more moderate flux and flow of mess to neat.......

The desk and some book shelves.

As you can see this is the desk. The blue towel keeps the yellow rope tight, the laptop is, as mentioned in the previous post on top of an IBM Selectric. Above the desk are too many things to describe in detail. Curiously, there are two Apricot pits which I believe must be from a tree taken down ten years ago.

The floor of the study.

Not a Contructivist collage, but the floor, you can see it doubles as a bunny amusement park.

Monday Bunday

Laptop is back and functioning though there are a few glitches like the pictures in this post show only as code until previewed. In the end it was the hard drive that had given out, as it was still under warranty it was a matter of waiting for Hitachi to send my computer guys a new one. In the meantime I was able to check my Email on the BFs laptop. That machine was less than optimal and often quit or would not allow me to leave comments on other blogs and of course he wouldn't let me put rabbit photos on his machine since he was sure that is the reason my hard drive seems to die annually. The old SuperBook was beyond frustratingly slow and often had to have a mercy force quit. Additionally, to use the aforementioned laptop meant going into BFs study. BF is a hoarder and the study is filled with books and decades of papers and empty tea boxes. His laptop sits atop an old IBM Selectric type writer, which I am told is really the only way to to write. To prevent the laptop from falling in cause of earthquake it is secured by a yellow nylon rope which must be secured every time one leaves the machine unsupervised. The Spots love to go into the study and look for unprotected cords and chew on the papers covering the floor, if the door is left just slightly ajar they are in there in a second and BF is flummoxed on how to get them out. Tensions began to run high and higher when ever I checked my EMail and finally, tired of waiting for Hitachi to send the new hard drive I just bought another and had it installed. When the other arrives I'll have one in reserve that I can use to back up data (what a concept) or can give to BF or DS should they need it. In all due fairness to BF although he may be a hoarder I think I can honestly say there are few men who would allow their homes to be turned into a warren.

On to more important topics. Harriet as Whistler's mother (AKA Arrangement in Gray and Black). I think the mittens help.....next time fun with clover!!!!!

Imaginary Monday Bunday

1-photo of Harriet looking like Whistler's Mother.
2-The Spots eating Red Clover, words cannot describe.
3-Amelia in composition with willow tent, matting and red floor, shot from above.

Laptop is getting a new hard drive, seems to be an annual occurance....should be back in business end of next week.

Have a great week bun and all.

UpDate

Ha, ha, I have snuck onto the BFs laptop, it's not so good I can check Email, but can hardly go anywhere without it dumping and for some reason FaceBook is not at all friendly to his ancient software, so I've given up on that. The guy at our local computer place, which seems pretty trustworthy, Dave's Computers, said he thought my computer problem might be the logic board, that was on Tuesday I haven't heard from them since. Thanks for all the comments! 4Buns are all just fine and the weather is beyond glorious. I feel a bit guilty enjoying it what with all the other throubles in the world.......

Monday Bunday

As anyone can see there are no bunnies photos in this post and such a sad thing that is. Don't worry all the bunnies are just fine and as photogenic as ever, but my laptop is down and I don't know when I'll be back blogging again :(

Movie Night!

Blogger can be so slow and frustrating when loading movies that this will have to be link experience so I can keep my sanity. Welcome to the BunnyFilm Short Fest! First a word from our sponsor CLICK HERE. Amelia has been doing work with the outdoor tunnel you can see her skills HERE and HERE. Harriet likes to get on the bed and arrange the covers, THIS is a poor example of that fun filled activity, but the best that could be captured at this time. And lastly we send THIS FLOP out to all our readers and viewers, thanks for visiting The Qi Papers.

Enjoy your weekend

and be sure to give your rabbits extra treats.

Bunday Not Monday

There is much to tell.

On Saturday I got all the rabbits in the back room on pretense of giving them greens and then I shut the door. I informed them "No bun gets out of here unless they are in a carrier". Amelia and Harriet are pieces of proverbial cake when it comes to carriers and depositing said bunny in the instrument of torture, the Spots are a hard case. Although during greens they both freely hopped in and out of their nice large, two bun, luxury traveling device, when it was clear that they HAD to go in, there was a shift in attitude. With an extra X pen I made a corral that lead into the carrier and gradually made this smaller and smaller until they really had no choice but to go in. It reminded me of the torture chamber of a castle I had the good fortune to visit in my youth. The cell had a grate in it that was moved on a track, forcing the occupant into the corner and in the end crushing them to death. Fairly tame, in the big picture, but it made quite an impression on a 7 year old. Back to present day, once loaded in their humane carriers I brought all the rabbits to the Rabbit Haven Adoption Show and Bunny Spa to have their nails done and to use the boding room. It was our first full family outing in months and frankly I found it quite exciting. While the Professional did their nails and glands I brushed everybun, then we waited for a bonding room. We had a new Bonding Expert assigned to our case, Darrel. Once again I learned a lot, everyone has their own style and understanding of boding; Darrel was a real hands on sort of guy, he was down in the pen petting and smooshing the girls and constantly checking their body tension. His was the bunny massage therapist mind/body approach. Although both girls were pretty good he felt like they were both a bit tense and wondered aloud what would happen if we added a third rabbit. So we popped in Tyler. Instantly everything changed, every bun relaxed! Tyler is such a love bomb. Darrell got them all snuggled together like a sideways layer cake and petted and massaged and proclaimed that they were all very relaxed and certainly somebun was audibly tooth purring. After ten minutes of this still no bun was groomed, but they were having a better time, we thought a ride in a cart for the threesome would be a good way to end up. I went to get the cart and when I got back AMELIA WAS GROOMING HARRIET. Needless to say we let that go on and canceled the cart ride. Tyler certainly seems to be the key in the Harriet and Amelia equation, now I'll work with him too.

Polka Spots....

Always at these rabbit shows there are stories of rabbits, basically we talk about nothing but rabbits, you'd think they were the center of our lives....and you'd be correct. The Haven had recently received a new rescue, a breeder Angora rabbit from a horrific situation. All the rabbits were being kept in bird cages hung in a tree, every time a rabbit moved the whole tree swung. The rabbit at the show, not for adoption, just there it could have special care, could hardly hop because her muscles had atrophied and her balance was confused, like a sailor landing on terra firma after years at sea. Humans can be so inhumane...

Lastly, you all know about the kittens who lost their mittens? those mittens weren't lost, those mittens were stolen and I have pretty good idea who did it.......

The end.......for now.

If It's Tuesday.......

Tuesday is the day before Wednesday and Wednesday is the Farmer's Market so often just before a Wednesday we may run out of the sort of greens that are bought at the aforementioned market.

Running out does not mean deprivation by any means, but rather a foray into the garden, which is at last yielding a decent amount of fresh lagomorphic friendly provender. For this morning's second breakfast I picked the following roses, nasturtiums, honeysuckle flowers, borage flowers, escarole, mint, yarrow, dandelion, bolting chicory, lavender and a bit of rosemary. Needless to say no bun complained save to ask for more.......

It is hard to get too much of Amelia's ear tricks....

Action shot.......

Random Offerings

Friday night was date night here at the Rabboratory, Amelia and Harriet had some greens together. You can see a little movie of them HERE. Amelia seems to have forgotten that she ever groomed Harriet and this date, as with all their recent dates, ended in a Me, Me, Me stand off, at the end of which Harriet lunged at Amelia for not grooming her. I was ready for this and uttered a stern "eh!" or something like that and Harriet stopped short.

Neither black queen or white queen will concede.....

such self esteem!

Amongst the Spots, it is a furry white and action filled place.

They know so much that I don't.

Tyler believes, and rightly so, that he has

the quintessential bunny tail.

I'm working on a new Moku Hanga print, Amelia in Her Dream. This is a pencil rubbing of the blue, green and black blocks. I colored on it a bit to get an idea of what else I needed to do. I still need to cut at least one more block for the back ground and adjust part of her back just behind the ears to the beginning of the line, it's just not right. I think I'll put the eye in by hand......Finished image size will be 10 by 8 inches (big for me!).

Buns At Work

The multiple doots show that territorial behavior is still on alert, but I think we've dropped down from a red to, is it amber? is that what we call orange? what is between red and yellow? And what color or not on alert at all?

As you can see our own version of the Berlin wall has yet to come down. With the new divided room arrangement it is easier to get Amelia and Harriet out for their deck time. I had thought that the bonding might be enhanced as well, but a few nights ago the girls really mixed it up under the chair, Amelia got her teeth into Harriet's neck and were on the floor kicking each other. Needless to say I got a little spooked and didn't do any bonding until this evening.

Tyler would like to be Harriet's boyfriend.

This time instead of putting Harriet into the space where Amelia was I had put Harriet into Amelia's usual area earlier in the day and popped Amelia in after dinner for a dessert of roses. It went pretty well. At a couple points I felt like maybe they getting close in an aggressive way, so I made disapproving noises and they back off. They are friendly with each other with the fence between them, though can be some boxing.....

Sometimes a fence can be cozy......

Since I have removed the chair, which has time and again proven a prime fight zone. I'd been wanting to move my work desk out of a dark and mostly inaccessible room into the smaller more crowded but lighter bunny filled back room, so I have done that and started carving on for a new print too. This one is off Amelia, working title "Amelia In Her Dream". I'll show more of that as it emerges.

Hope Everybunny is Well and Happy, or at least close to it.

Monday Bunday

Amelia and Harriet in a "groom me, groom me" stand off during a bonding session. A second before they were nose to nose and had been that way for a good minute.

Fishing for Sydney using Dandelion bait. Both she and Tyler prefer "dandies" over other offered greens and and will turn their respective noses up at Romaine and Escarole.

Tyler finds that eating a nice "dandie" from the middle doubles the satisfaction.

Not the happiest bun in the world, please, don't call PETA she was on the chair for 2 seconds...

I took Harriet and Amelia to my Tai Chi class*. I wanted my students to experience soft alertness and animal energy close-up and personal. Both buns were will behaved and consented to being held different people. I didn't get any pictures of that, just this one of Amelia being not very happy on one of the chairs in the office. After everyone left I did a short bonding in the pen with the girls. Harriet nipped at Amelia early on. I'm getting the idea she will nip at her if feeling at all ill at ease, unsure, or overly excited. She seems very confident and relaxed, but really she is still settling into the warren here.

*No.1 Ladies' Tai Chi Health Club meets every Sunday at 9 a.m.

Just the Facts

Mirror, mirror on the wall....

Before developments get out of hand and I am accused of withholding BunBond information, here's what has happened since our Girl Road Trip. I decided that instead of being disadvantaged by the lack of neutral place I should use that to further the bonding by switching Amelia and Harriet around from area to area so that, in essence, they each "owned" everything. To create more or less equal territories a radical remodel took place: instead of a large pen, the fencing now divides the room in half.

Harriet asks "Does orange bring out the color in my eyes?"

OK, so the Spots don't have access to the back of the room and Bunnex; you can't please all the bunnies all the time. With the new set up it's easy and casual to pop one or the other rabbit into the other's space and have a session. Now for the really big news that has only been posted on Facebook, see what you miss not following me on Facebook? AMELIA HAS GROOMED HARRIET. Yes, you read that right, Amelia, "I never groom anybody because I am such a precious beautiful talented pink eyed girl bun" groomed Harriet; not just one time, but twice in a session and then again in another session. After the first grooming Harriet, who seems to have forgotten social graces, up and nipped at Amelia, perhaps to say "why did you stop, you white fool!" In subsequent sessions there has been a little chasing on both parts and a some nipping. Amelia has requested grooming from Harriet, but been denied.

Amelia, fashion enhanced.

So far Harriet has only groomed me. Since the Road Trip and our extensive lap session Sydney has been, possibly slightly less skittish with me and petting. Tyler is definitely a factor, he seems to have her pretty cowed, when I see that he is occupied in the girl's room I go and have visit with Sydney. Rabbit relationships can be a bit tricky, but rabbit fashion is not, everything looks good! Nasturtiums are in season and the make charming, colorful hats for rabbits of all shapes, sizes and hues. One size glorifies all and they are %100 organic and edible.

Tyler loves hats.

Monday Bunday: Road Trip

WARNING: Photographs are not related to the text.

On Saturday the plan was to take all four rabbits to the Rabbit Haven Adoption Show. Tyler and Sydney were to have their nails trimmed and Harriet and Amelia had an appointment in the bonding room. Despite best efforts and treats offered, I was only able to get Sydney into the the carrier, Tyler jumped out the door when I guided Sydney in and would not be recaptured for love or rose petals, which pass for currency around here. Plans and intent change, life is change, what was going to be a pleasant family outing was now GIRL ROAD TRIP! More treats for the girls and singing contests and giggles galore. Sydney belted out a version of "Brass in Pocket" originally performed by The Pretenders. Amelia countered with Chaka Khan's "Tell Me Something Good". Harriet surprised us all with Brian Eno's "I'll Come Running". The fun ended far too soon and before she knew who had won the contest, Sydney was getting her nails trimmed and being told she was still too fat and to, simply had to, cut down on the pellets. When older rabbits, here she really took offense, are too fat, they cannot reach their cecals and that causes all sorts of problems.....

The bonding room became available and chaperoned by myself and one of the Rabbit Professionals, Amelia and Harriet were placed in a pen. What followed was not exactly what I had had in mind, but that is the way of Bun, to teach the human to see beyond their own small plans and dreams. There was no biting or chasing, instead Amelia set about owning the space with extensive exploration and peeing in each small litter box multiple times. Meanwhile Harriet let me know that I was hers by sitting in my lap and licking my arms, not just once but four times. Cindy, the Pro, laughed and said "I guess you won't be giving that one up." A couple times I scooped up Amelia so she could share my lap with Harriet and maybe have a little bond there. After about 20 minutes someone else needed the room so we vacated.

Since I had Sydney without her brother, Tyler, who can be bossy and over bearing, almost but not quite a Napoleon Bunaparte, I thought I'd see if I could establish more of a relationship with her. Sydney doesn't not like to be touched, petted, or held and all I want to do snuggle her and whisper sweet bun things into her black, black ears. You understand the problem. I am perfectly willing to settle for petting once a day and being able to pick her up in an emergency. [Ex: the house is on fire all rabbits must be evacuated immediately for their own safety.] With Harriet and Amelia in their respective carriers I walked around the adoption area with Sydney in my arms, just to gently stress her a bit, then I settled on a chair next to the girls. Pretty soon there we were joined by other bunny people. Nothing like a bunny to attract bunny people.

One Rabbit Haven volunteer took quite a shine to Amelia and wanted to hold her, I gave permission. Another came by with a rabbit that was waiting for adoption and a man with a white Netherland Dwarf ,whose had had its nails done, joined the gathering. Winter was a very small, short eared white rabbit had been adopted a 4 years ago from Rabbit Haven. He had attacked everyone who approached him until he saw his current human. At that historic moment he flew onto the man's shoulder and refused to leave. I imagine for a brief moment everyone who knew the bun thought he was going to rip off the poor unfortunate's head. Although it would seem that the relationship would simply take off from that point, once the man got the bun home it was a full six months before Winter stopped charging and biting. Still, he amazes one and all by sitting like a strange white parrot on his person's shoulder.

I learned some applicable and practical things at the show too. If you are holding a nervous bunny that needs to settle down, gently pat the bun on the shoulder. This seems to distract them and soon their breathing will normalize. When bonding, play gentle music, Heather, the Rabbit Haven Director, suggests meditation music, stay away from drums and percussive soundtracks! With this in mind I'll put together a bonding playlist. I have a Bunny Calm list, but I'm not sure about the Rain Forest segment, I think there may be too many bird noises, Tyler , in particular is not fond of birds since they could be hawks. And frankly, I think they are all freaked out by the whales.....After much encouragement Sydney relaxed and settled in my lap with half closed eyes, hopefully the start of a trend. Amelia was traded for Harriet and the volunteer proffered the opinion that they would both make fine therapy buns. The car ride home was quiet, all the girls exhausted from their outing. At home Tyler came out from behind the couch to be sure his harem was accounted for, then offered himself for petting, as a sign of his undisputed superiority over moi.

Have a great week.