As for Feb I'm not quite sure where that went so quickly, but finally catching the cold lurgy that I'd been managing to avoid up until then didn't help! I'd been feeling pretty run down with it brewing for weeks before it finally came out, but I now finally feel much better and am starting to get my energy levels back! I've also had the week off from my little gift shop job this week which has given me time to get update with things, and I now almost feel almost up to speed with myself for the first time in a long time!
There has been some social activity around here though, firstly in the form of meals out. One of which back towards the end of Jan was an annual gathering at one of my friends houses, where we and some other friends had a lovely catch-up, and where the hosts announced that they were to be having a baby! The second meal was then the week after for one of the hubby's friends birthday's, which was held at a local restaurant, and again was lovely as it had been a while since we had caught up with them too! The third was a lunch and a catch-up with a friend that I hadn't seen since well before Chistmas, and finally the fourth was an afternoon tea in Brighton for a friends hen do, which took place last weekend.. Below you can see the gorgeous afternoon tea, the lovely views that we had overlooking the hotel balcony, and the gorgeous keepsakes that one of the lovely hens made for us.
Aside from meals, we caught up with my parents, sister, and her boyfriend for a chilled afternoon of lunch, rugby, and Prosecco at one of our local pubs on Sunday at the beginning of Feb. Then a couple of Sat's back I had a lovely evening out catching-up with the girls for the first time since there 30th birthday's in mid Dec, where we watched a band at a local pub and danced the night away. Finally my hubby came and met me in Brighton last Saturday after the hen afternoon tea as we had a Morrissey gig at the Brighton Center that evening. I can't say that I am a Morrissey fan, but I went for my hubby who was in his element! It was however a better gig than I though it would be, and you can see a few pics from it below, as well as the Prosecco that we enjoyed when out with my family.
Like I say in-between all this, and between being needed to work overtime on some weekends, there have been many chilled days too! Days where we have just spent the day in our pj's, especially when the weather has been rubbish! One of which was the sat before Valentine's, when my hubby was out with his dad and brothers, and my friend that I was meant to be going out with that evening had to cancel due to being unwell, which meant that I was left at a loose end. It worked out well though as like I say the weather was rubbish, and I was also feeling rather knackered after having a late and spontaneous night out with my hubby, old assistant manager, and one of his work colleagues the night before. So I decided to do something that I pretty much never get to do these days ,which was to snuggle up with tea and cake and watch the "Valentine's Day" chic flick that was being aired on TV, which I had never seen before.
Talking of Valentine's Day! In order to mark the occasion I decided to re-work my "Anniversary Love Bunnies" piece that I did way back in 2009, which I have always liked the composition of, but that didn't really fit in with the style that I use for my Bobby Bunny & Friends brand now. It was something that I had been meaning to do for sometime and I thought that with Valentine's coming up that I could use it as both a Valentine's post, and then convert it into an Anniversary card listing. If you follow me on Instagram, Facebook, or Flickr you may have already seen it, but if not then you can see it from sketch to finish below. As well as a comparison between the new and old designs.
On a more personal level my hubby and I celebrated Valentine's in our usual fashion with our M&S meal for two, which I am very glad that we did as the weather was hideous that evening so I'm glad that we didn't go out! Below you can see our meal that consisted of our usual Tai Fishcakes for starters, peppercorn steak with a peppercorn sauce and tripple cooked chips for our mains, and then a Creme Brule topped with heart chocolates for dessert. All of which was accompanied by a sparkling Lemon & Rose presse drink.
I also found a cute and very apt bunny card to give to my hubby too, which again you can see below.
As I have mentioned in the past the hubby and I don't really tend to do presents for each other for things like Valentine's, birthday's, or Christmas, unless there is something that we would specifically like. But this year we both got the best Valentine's present ever, and that was the arrival of our new Niece who's baby shower I mentioned in my last post.
My sister an law was due to have a planned c-section on 20th Feb, but after she began to go into early labor the cesarean was bought forward to the 13th Feb. The hubby and I didn't know anything about it until it happened, but we were over the moon for them when we had heard that she had arrived safely, especially after the long and hard journey that they have had to get her. She weighed a healthy 7lb 7oz, which was pretty good considering she was just under two weeks early, and mum and baby did so well that they were sent home the evening after! So as we only live a 10-15 min drive from them we were fortunate enough to see her the evening after she came home, when she was just two day old! We had a bit of a nightmare journey getting there though! As I went to pick my hubby up from work, which meant going past where they live and back again, but got stuck in heavy traffic on the way to pick him up, and standstill traffic going from his work to his sister. Which meant that a journey that should have taken under an hour even in rush hour ended up taking three hours! We got there in the end though, complete with cold Mc Donalds for both them and us. But the queues were totally worth it in order to have squishes with our gorgeous little niece, who was just beautiful and already has a full head of dark hair! Below you can see her gorgeous little hand clinging onto my finger.
In Flo news, she got in on the Valentine's act too as you can see below!
As well as this we have continued to have more problems with her over-grooming and doing pearly poos over the last month or so, which has coincided with her molting. She's not been pulling or chewing on the fur but just seems to swallow a lot of it regardless of brushing. I'm not sure why it keeps on happening, but she does feel the world through licking more than any bunny I have ever had. To add to this our little one has not been well twice since I last blogged, and both instances were within two weeks of each other.
The first was back towards the end of January, and the other was at the beginning of Feb. Like the last time when she was ill back in September she again went downhill very quickly after having been really hyper that afternoon, and once again I knew that something wasn't right as soon as I went to feed her in the evening. She kept sprawling out, was very lethargic, and once again looked like she had instantly lost lots of weight. Which I think is because she breathes very fast and shallow when this happens, and as she is so slender across her ribs it really shows. Once again I got her out and gave her tummy rubs before returning her to her hutch to rest, where she was again refusing all food and water. I talked to her and comforted her, and within the space of 45 mins she went from being quite ill back to eating and being her normal self and full of beans again! I've never seen such a quick turn around as it lasted 9 hours last time, and could last up to 12 hours when it used to happen to Mill and Moll. But obviously I was glad that she had bounced back so quickly! Then again the same thing happened in the evening exactly two weeks later, this time for about an hour. So once again we went through the tummy rubs etc, before she once again she bounced back to her usual self.
I don't know if it is connected to her over-grooming as she often passes big and miss-shaped pearly poos after these episodes. But if it is the case than I’m not sure why, as she has always had a good high fiber diet of a few Burgess pellets morning and night, lots of high quality mixed herb hay, dried dandelion mix, fresh water, and basil (as she is a fussy little miss and doesn’t like any other greens or fruit and veg that I’ve tried her on including banana!) The only other thing that she has is the occasional sparing few bites of a food stick which she adores, but doesn’t seem to co-inside with any of the episodes! She also generally passes poos fine before hand, and they generally seem normal and consistently sized.
I have searched an searched and sought advice from others as to why she might be ingesting so much hair, plus having these episodes, but can't seem to find anything concrete. I’m pretty sure that she is not stressed as she isn’t pulling at the fur or leaving patches, she has plenty of enrichment both in and outside of her hutch, plus she doesn’t get left alone for long periods of time as I generally work from home. She also shows no body language signs of being stressed, but she is quite OCD about everything, and where everything goes in her hutch. So whether it is just behavioral or maybe hormonal as she is not spayed yet, I’m not sure. GI statis was a possible, but it doesn’t seem to go on long enough for that, and again I don’t know what would be the cause if this was the case. I've also read about the use of pure pineapple juice in water or Infacol in-case it’s trapped wind, which can be fatal as bunnies can't pass wind or be sick.
However even though we haven't found anything concrete we have invested in a "Furminator" brush rather than just using her normal brush, as it helps get out the undercoat. I wasn't sure that it was making much of a difference to start with, as she was still doing the pearly poos. But we are a few weeks or so on from when we started using it now, and she has seems to not only have stopped molting, but the pearly poo situation has gradually improved hugely. Plus we have also changed her from her usual Burgess pellets up to the adult Burgess pellets. Again I wasn't sure it was making a difference start with, but touch wood once we haven't had any pearly poos or episodes for a good month now! So hopefully we are making progress, as I hate to see our little baby in pain! The increased frequency of the latest episodes was worrying though as it would only happen once or twice a year with Mill & Moll. So now every time she sprawls or starts breathing fast at the moment it puts me on tender hooks that something is wrong.
The vet didn't seem to have many ideas when we took her to have her annual mixi jab either, (which was the week after the second episode) saying that she’s a good weight of still 2.26kg, is breathing well, her heart is good, and she has no parasites in her fur. However we haven’t managed to find any rabbit specialist vets around us yet, so this may just be down to lack of knowledge that they had no other ideas.
When it came to having her jab itself she was once again a little angel as with last year, but I did wonder if she would be now that she had reached bunny adolescence! We did however have drama as usual when it came to her nail clipping, and with the vet trying to check her teeth though! I thought that we had turned a corner with this after she was so good with it last time with her new basket, and having my hubby there, but apparently not! She was more stressed in the basket this time than last, and was dribbling whilst we were in the waiting room. She then kept bucking when the vet tried to check her teeth, which they said that she had got down to an art! She then wasn't too bad having her front nails cut, but was a pain as usual when it came to the vet touching and clipping her back feet!
Once home she got over the drama pretty quickly, but wasn't happy with me at all, and turned her back on me even when her favorite food was offered. It didn't take long for me to be forgiven though! Little monkey! I think I got just as stressed if not more about taking her than she did though! Below you can see her pulling one of her funny Flo faces.
In other bunny news I bought these gorgeous bunny night lights in the sale at work the other week. I think that they are probably for children, but they do give out a lovely glow, and how could I resist the bunnies! Below you can see them.
As well as the night lights I also did some other January sale shopping within the last month with my Christmas money, including buying the gorgeous Pandora bangle below! I love it so much, and it so sparkly, but the pics don't really do it justice! One half of it is sparkly, and the other half is a plain baby pink band, and then inside it has a lovely heart detailing that runs the whole way around. I love how versatile it is, and you do have to treat yourself every now and again after all!
As well as this I also treated myself to another Pandora item which was the beautiful wishbone ring which you can see below. This wasn't in the sale, but I' been waiting for it to come back in stock in my size for sometime! Again it's so sparkly as you can see below, and again the pics don't do it justice, but like the bangle it's so versatile, and was so worth the wait!
Then lastly my new 4Ocean bracelet turned up from America. This time not only does it support the removal of a pound of rubbish from the ocean, but 10% of the profits also got towards breast cancer research. I'm really happy with it and the baby pink of it contrasts really well against the grey and white of my existing one, and you can see it below.
On the weather front as with most of the rest of the country we finally got snow last week, which I have to say that I was pretty happy about being that we had missed it all up until that point! We didn't get anywhere near as much as most other parts of the country, but on the plus side, as much as I'm like a kid when it comes to snow we didn't get the major disruption that many others had either! Having just a small coverage from Monday night into Tuesday morning, which had nearly all burned off in the sun by mid day Tuesday. This was then followed by another covering on Friday afternoon which was more un-expected after storm Emma ended up completely missing us in the end, by moving further west than first thought! Due to this we ended up being sent home from work early, so I seized the opportunity to go and capture a few images of the snow before the light faded (being that I had the afternoon tea in Brighton the next day.) Luckily I managed to get home and back to my favorite spot in time, and you can see some of the pics that I got below.
They don't really do justice just how pretty it was, but I was glad that I seized the opportunity when I did, as come the next day it all burned off pretty quickly in the practically tropical 10 degree sun! A vast comparison to the -10 low that we hit the weds before. So by the time that I got to Brighton for the hen afternoon tea later that day, there was no snow left at all! But there ended up being plenty of dreary rain later in the afternoon instead! The same couldn't be said for my uni friends however, who were meant to be traveling down from both Salisbury and Warwick for the afternoon tea, but who were unable to because of the amount of snow that they had. Which was a shame as I haven't seen them since one of their weddings back in June, plus it meant that I didn't know anyone else but the bride! I still enjoyed myself though, and everyone was lovely so I soon got talking to people.
I hope that if you are in the UK that you didn't get hit too hard, or inconvenienced too much by the snow, and if so that you are all thawed out now! It's mainly been a mixture of wet and sunny days here so far this week. But even though there is still a chill in the air, the birds have been out tweeting and the nights are noticeably starting to draw out, so it does vaguely feel like spring maybe on the horizon!
I hope that the weather is good or perking up for you wherever you are, that you have all had a good week, and that you all have a fab weekend. I'll leave you with a few pics of some of the pretty sunsets that we have had on crisp sunny days, and thanks as always for visiting! x
