Monday Bunday

Good Bunday to all, Tyler and Sydney are resting up from the Bunny Benefit Bash. Binks and visits to the salad bar can wear a bun out. We wish Cadbury and Bunnygirl a well deserved rest for the successful event, if you missed it you can catch the wrap up and see the video HERE.

"It sure was fun to see all our bunfriends and a soft snuggle is the best thing to come home to."

Saturday yielded the first red poppy of the year. Front yard is full of them, and the front strip, by the street is just poppies (carefully transplanted and thinned by, guess who?). This one is from one of the resting vegetable beds in a place that I tried to grow what turned out to be some very sad snow peas. The volunteer poppy was perfectly happy. 

There are also California poppies and Breadbox poppies that have popped up in the backyard, but no blooms from them yet....

Ready, Steady, GO!

Our friends Cadbury and Bunnygirl are hosting an on-line Bunny Benefit with a virtual band that is actually a book that Bunnygirl has written (she writes a lot of books). In case you don't know about this you can check out the band's site and read their stories HERE. Their name is Maelstrom and, well, it is all quite entertaining and funny! There's going to be a video with  40 bunnies from the rabbit blogosphere,  and that's a lot of lagomorphs to capture and cooordinate. Our hats off and ears up to BG and Cadbury for all their hard work. We'll see everyone at the party and will be donating some money to the choosen rabbit charity, Rabbit Rescue where our bunfriends Fez,  Norbert, Abbey and Miss Jack originated. 

We'll be looking for you at the party.

Thump Day

Hop Softly and Chew on a Big Stick

Rabbit services have returned to their pre-illness level, pen is clean and training will re-commence; Disapproval rating is slowly dropping. Yesterday, in a round-about way, I was informed that I will not be teaching next year, all part time teachers are being released. This has been my best year yet, I guess it is good to end on an up note. Life Drawing and Color Theory are finishing next week, then I teach Relief Printing  to the 9th grade, and so it will end. Since teaching is half my income I suppose I am only half worried. In the big picture of melting glaciers, homelessness, human and animal rights atrocities, and such like, it is a small thing. But the Spots may have to sacrifice their pricey salad mix until the local economic situation improves.

Monday Bunday

Humans are still fighting the URI (Upper Respiratory Infection) mentioned in previous post. It would seem to be a nationwide epidemic of sorts and by all accounts can last for three weeks. I seem to have mine minimized with herbs, supplements,  and sinus rinses, not having to resort to DayQuil or NightQuil, as, it would seem, most the population has. It is so slow in going away, the best thing so far has been laying out in the sun (with maximum skin exposed) and getting really warm then taking a nap, then, for awhile,  I feel like it's gone, but we haven't had the weather to implement this course of treatment with any regularity.  My students have partially taken to more hygienic practices in class and are especially fond of the hand sanitiser; cleaning hands with dramatic flourishes upon entering the classroom. It's a start.

Ahem, excuse us, but we'd like a word about the recent drop-off in services. The frequency of treats has dramatically plummeted and we are actually missing jumping in a lap for our dinner. Our pen could be a bit cleaner, too, what is up with the maid?

Do you see this foot?

(That's Sydney's foot)

And do you see this foot?

(This is Tyler's foot, pointing accusingly)

We are putting our feet down and they will be thumping 

if things don't turn around pretty soon!

Be good to rabbits everywhere.

Bunday Night at the Movies

Rabbits Eating Rose Petals

Monday Bunday

Prepare for lift-off

 or 

White Punctuated with Rabbit

A Post In Which........

This is a post in which I describe how I single-handedly took on public health at a small high school. I've been sick most of this week with a pretty ripping cold. It is the same disease, doubtless, that flies through the air at some 300 mph every time one of my students coughs and doesn't cover his or her mouth. It is the same one that exists in the tissues they do not throw away, and the same one that they share with each other via that communal bag of potato chips. Although I have only missed one day at school I have missed enough to my other job as Acupuncturist to total over $300. (I should say that the three days I taught I had my symptoms quite controlled with herbs and supplements, so I didn't feel like I was putting anyone more at risk than they already were.) But worse than loss of income I can't pet the rabbits, or do their training because rabbits can catch colds from humans, I read this in the House Rabbit book. And BF is quite unhappy that he may be the next victim. Today I presented my 11th grade Drawing class with the following:

I should say that students are encouraged to come to school sick for the morning classes, lest they miss an important experience. This certainly doesn't help keep the healthy population unexposed. It would seem, too, that although they have had some sort of health education in terms of sex and drugs and such like, the handling of contagious diseases of the respiratory sort has been overlooked. Once they voiced their opinion that I was just mad because I got sick, they did have to concede that pretty much the whole school was sick because during morning exercise (a whole school activity) once one person coughed the whole school was coughing. A poll revealed that everyone except one girl had been sick in the 11th grade. I suspect her extended vacation in Mexico may have cooked the virus out.  I bought some very nice essential oil hand sanitizer and soap too, and some bleach wipes. Though I don't use bleach for cleaning myself I do have a certain respect for it in terms of germ extermination. Several years ago one of my brothers had a bone marrow transplant for a tricky cancer. I took care of him, post procedure, at "The Transplant House" where all the patients are walking around with someone else's parts. Caregivers had to keep the communal kitchen very, very clean and the rule was you had to wipe down all surfaces with bleach wipes. It is imprinted in my mind as something you do in an extreme circumstance; like epidemics. Although these purchased substances and my presentation brought a certain amount of mirth quite a few students used the hand sanitizer and everyone covered their cough (approximately one third of the class was coughing). I found out that another teacher was telling them to cover their mouths with their hands for coughing, this was not followed by the order to wash hands, resulting in a mass of germs on the hands that go all over desks, door knobs, etc.......(sigh......)  I put a flyer with a short explanatory note in every teacher's mail tray and invited them to follow suit. At the very least my classes will have a higher level of hygiene.......

Sydney says "Rabbits are self cleaning mammals, why can't humans follow our lead?"

Monday Bunday

From Above, A Bun Below......

Sydney is an active rabbit, quite a sprinter and a binker,  recently she has been doing a lot of bunny-ups, not sure what's up with that, no pun intended, and when she stretches out, she stretches across too. This has been my first week of being heavily scheduled for teaching, aside from not knowing if this my last year teaching because of budget cuts (well, budget balancing), and aside from having to scrounge or pay for a supplies because there are no more supplies funds, it has gone pretty well. I did have to confiscate a cigarette lighter which was going to turn into a classroom incendiary device, but that was rather exciting. And really this has been only the tip of the iceberg, this week because I could go on, but really I'm looking forward to a whole new week!

Have a great BunWeek yourself.

Monday Bunday: Training Update

I've made some adjustments in the Spots training program. For a while I had them jumping up on the couch, but became concerned that that was too much excitement for optimum digestion; it just didn't jibe with the precepts of Chinese Medicine with recommend quiet relaxation during meals. Now all training is done on the floor. With horses if you over train the animal will get "sour" and refuse to do what you ask it to. To avoid this I cut back and no longer intensively train at every meal. Now the twice a day pellet rations are fed in the pen, the only requirement is both rabbits have to let me give them a brief pet and touch their ears (remember ear touching is a bonding /your are sooooo dominant gesture). Tyler is good with this and often presents himself when he knows I'm coming with pellets, it is little harder for Sydney, but she is improving. Greens involve various numbers of  "paws on". Very occasionally I will get both rabbits in my lap munching away, more often they trade off perching on my leg and eating. Tyler is quite adept at this and Sydney will, after a bit of a warm up with two paws on, hop all the way on. Behavior outside of training includes Tyler demanding more pets and being more comfortable with me being close to him while this happens, as opposed to arm's length away. Sydney will come and see me if she suspects a treat may be involved and on finding there isn't will only retreat a  short distance, as opposed to simply running away in scorn. I think she is getting closer and closer to presenting herself for petting, but if Tyler is around she'll hop off; he is top bun. I must convince her that she, too, is top bun in my eyes.

Greens for Spots; both rabbits crowd into my lap to grab a bit of salad mix. Tyler pushes his way on first!

Lap feeding can get pretty crowded, but provides exciting and challenging photography conditions.

Here is Sydney having a good long perch and munch session. 

Tyler in perching pose, he seems quite comfortable.

This picture show why Tyler is sometimes known as "Mr. Whiskers" and sometimes as "Smudge Nose".

It is always Bunday in a Rabbit Centered Universe.

Global Art

The 12th graders have  class in which they both assemble a portfolio for college admission (if they need to do that) and do an oil painting  or long term drawing project. This year as a focus we participated in The Memory Project, follow the link to learn more, or be satisfied with knowing it connects orphans in third world countries with US students through the common language of art. Apparently receiving the portraits is a very powerful experience for these children, some of whom have never seen a photo of themselves, it is a sort of right of passage into adulthood. Or at least that is the way it is presented. On our end it, in some small way, makes a real connection with people in a different culture, resulting, perhaps,  in a change in consciousness regarding life on spinning ball of matter we call earth. We worked from photos of the kids, who in all but one case, were from Myanmar (AKA Burma). With instructions to be realistic with the faces, creative with the background and that it was OK to change hairstyles in the case of girls, the 12th graders intrepidly set forth. Lessons learned were that art takes a lot longer than you think and if you talk a lot you won't get a lot done. I attempted to give kind but accurate feed back with emphasis on keeping the faces recognizable........I think they did a pretty good job and I hope their art brings some joy.

Top left : last student done, very busy with portfolio to several different colleges already accepted to the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Top right: this student had been wanting to do oils for years and is now doing an oil painting project for SR. Project Presentation, Valedictorian of class, one of our Chinese students. Lower left: another first timer for oils, although slightly less sophisticated than the other pictures it has a charm and humor which is so like the artist himself, one of our Chinese students. Lower right: Afraid I did this one, the student did not come through with a passable picture (despite my best attempts to intervene), I did this in little than a day, it is water color and colored pencil, we will pretend that a student did it.

Left: so much detail in this one, student lavished attention on the picture, I think the love comes through. Middle: actually from a 10th grader on her own making up for a missed service learning trip, I wished she had been able to spend more time at school with me, but she was just too busy! Right: A new student to the 12th grade did this, she said she hadn't done any art since 4th grade, what are they teaching in schools these days?

Next time: More training with the Spots!!!!!!!!!

Monday Bunday: Treat Box

I tried to set up a little display, but Sydney barged in and went straight for the dried roses decorating the soap.

Firstly, we are constantly wishing our bunfriend, Fiona, a swift and thorough recovery from her digestive imbalance. 

Received recently from Nottingham, that's Nottingham as in England like in the Robin Hood stories, received recently from across the seas, a box. In that box was a little something perfect for everyone and everybun. Miss Eve and Neville's bunny slave, YowlYY, sent it to us as a thanks for the the little bun-bonding card I made for the happy couple. Many thanks to our Nottingham friends. Who says art doesn't pay? 

There was much milling around of rabbits, Sydney looking for the soap and Tyler wondering what all the excitement was about.

We got a card with a spotted bun on it; a box of dark chocolates (yum, yum, they are almost gone and the box itself is particularly excellent, I am looking forward to storing my rubber stamps it it), some absolutely wonderful, handmade, Rose geranium, soap, and two eggs of bunny treats (described in the card as "bunny crack" but described on the customs slip as rabbit treats).

Tyler wonders what is in the egg? He seems to remember having to deliver a number of these last Easter. Rabbits are lucky, they only have to work once a year.

 To me the whole rabbit blogosphere seems unique, though I am sure there are parallel blogospheres for other animals and interests, I do feel fortunate to have electronically connected with all my visitors. Such a kind, humorous and talented bunch of bunny slaves,bunnies (and all the rabbits are so photogenic), and rabbit friendly people,  you are! 

After sampling the contents of the egg, just one piece each, the Spots decide not to deliver these particular eggs elsewhere on Easter.

The other day, just to see who was next door in the blogo world, I hit the the "Next Blog" button, and well, Oh my goodness.......it is not as if I don't know such things exist, but I was rather shocked to have that sort of thing going on right next door! Okay back to work. Enjoy the rabbit centered universe.

Around Here

AROUND HERE

YOU HAVE TO BE

ALWAYS READY 

FOR YOUR CLOSE-UP OR MUGSHOT

Favorite Place

A fine and private place; note: sea grass square and bag for immediate dental satisfaction

Although Tyler and Sydney do a lot of things together, like hang under the table on the double occupancy  snoozy pad, they do have separate interests which they pursue with lagomorphic tenacity. Tyler is quite fond of cardboard, Sydney would rather destroy the back of the couch (or what is left of it). He likes the closet, she prefers the study. Tyler likes, in the mid morning, to be under the bed and chewing anything. This is his space, Sydney rarely joins him.

The usual suspect, or one of them.

 Sometimes during feeding she will hop away and do binks while he is eating. Now how strange is that? Just the other night he was eating the preferred Organic Spring Mix from my hands and she was in the enclosure doing the craziest bun dance, and there really is not a lot of room in there.  Both buns wear their sunglasses all the time, mighty suspicious.

BunDesign

Called up on the Carpet.

Magic Carpet Ride.

Carpet Baggers.

Sweep it Under the Rug.

Spots Watch TV

Sometimes the Spots like to watch TV, depending on what is on. They don't like explosions and loud action flicks or much to Boyfriend's disappointment Tennis (Bandit LOVED Tennis), but documentary or quieter programs will bring them out onto the carpet.

Being unborn or a small tot for some Nixon's shenanigans, I was interested in the early years that formed the president, who in general I don't like, but who essentially brought acupuncture and Chinese Medicine to the US.

 Here they are watching the Nixon documentary that was on the PBS last night. A hay cube snack, just in case a nibble is needed is close at paw. Tyler watches out of one eye, Sydney approaches the matter with one ear up.

The Spots ask what happened to Checkers and were particularly interested in Nixon's skill at Poker which he employed while stationed in the Solomon Islands during WWII. He won several thousand dollars which he sent back to California to fund his next political campaign. 

Monday Bunday

Tyler's ears: always active, speak volumes, perceive noises imperceptible to humans.

Sydney's nose: so black,  so imperious, it cannot be denied.

Rabboratory Thump Day Report

The Spots insisted on a photo session with a proper back drop, for artistic flavor. Once installed it was as fun to be behind it as in front and, of course, it's always fun to eat during your close-up.

Those are edible Chrysanthemum greens fresh from the chilly garden.

No match for Tyler, he'll take them on any day, any time.

Sydney wonders who is the rabbit behind the curtain 

and is unconcerned with the twin shadow rabbits. 

Sydney uses her ears to create an indoor Aura Borealis.

Monday Bunday: More BunTraining

Tyler as Top Bun; four paws on, on the couch with a fresh bag of organic spring mix.

Yes, the Spots are still in training. Three out of four meals involve some sort of interaction and behavior molding. It seemed like one drawback to sitting on the floor and asking for four paws on was the unsteadiness of the terrain (i.e. my cross legged leg) so we have some meals on the couch. It is great fun to see them flying on and off it. Tyler takes it at full speed from far away, Sydney is more circumspect and will dilly dally around on the floor before suddenly appearing. At the start of each session they are eager to have a bit which they often take off the couch to enjoy on the floor. As time goes on Tyler will stay and have a good nosh while Sydney looks on from below. Sometimes they will both be up and eating, though this is a bit crowded. Sydney usually comes up later and often we have a good long chat over a snack. 

One difficulty is rewarding both rabbits at once and taking a photo.

With both rabbits I am stroking them more while they eat, not too much to annoy them, just trying to git them more used to being touched all over. I do touch  and pet them when they have their morning pellets, which is not a training session (I just want my tea, please). One thing I have learned is to favorite treats in reserve for introducing new levels of behavior. This is how I convinced them both onto the couch at once. In the case of the Spots apple bits is the ultimate lure. Sydney will do anything for oat groats and she may well have to prove her love for them in the future! 

It is nice to have two buns side by side with paws on.

At this point the beneficial side effects of Spot training seems to be that they both are less likely to run away when they hear the kitchen door open. Tyler is once again allowing me to pet him more, in the beginning of training he had stopped letting me pet him (yes, my little heart broke into 10,000 pieces). Sydney is getting more friendly and jumped onto the couch with me, briefly, yesterday to see what I was doing on my laptop. 

Sydney with four paws on, the yellow things are Calendula petals a favorite bun dessert.

Rabbit's Guy gave us a very nice award, Lemonade (see it to your right), for Spot Training and we would like to pass this on to Mum of Critters for her new bunny and to Alice from Potentially Nervous for her atmospheric and fantastic bunny photos. 

Through the Glass Lightly

There was a little get-together down the street. There were dog and cat people and rabbit people too; a second grader and some retired folks; some college professors and a few artists. Our magnanimous hosts served Champagne, which I hardly ever drink and never in the morning, but today I was feeling just a little like Audrey Hepburn perhaps, so I raised my glass to our new president. The new day has come.

Monday BunBumday;Rabboratory Report

Note foot,tail and glare positioning for maximum disapproval

After modeling for BunBumday Tyler went to work in the Rabboratory with Sydney and the Simple Assistant. As good fortune would have it the Spots were blessed with some Willow cuttings. As you know Willow wood  is a non-toxic chew favorite. It became quickly evident that the Simple Assistant was not, despite her supposedly superior digits, able to make anything close to a ball. After much discussion it was decided that balls and cubes were in a fact a "man" made shape and that these shapes were used not because they are particularly appealing to lagomorphs, but because it makes marketing easier. How could you get anyone to buy a Willow construction of unknown shape? Simply impossible to mass market. The Spots worked hard and came up with some interesting lagomorph centered constructions. These will be dried as the hardened work will give teeth more of a workout and once hard they will be less likely to spring apart when chewed; now all the pieces are under tension.

Tyler puts finishing touches on his creation. It features both thick and thins chewing options and enough space to really get in there and get a good tooth workout.

Sydney thought something small would be nice; something a girl could carry to a quiet corner for a good gnaw away from prying eyes and cameras.

Here the Spots confer on the final design refinements of a piece that sports width, height, thicks and thins; small enough to move around and large enough to share.

There were more pictures but silly Blogger refused to down load them, even though it was tried several times at different times. Bye for now, have a good Martin Luther King Day and a great and historical Inauguration however you observe it.