Season Change and Critter Check

Autumn has arrived so winter is most definitely on the way…. I see all the leaves flitting like delicate butterflies gently to the floor.  I also know because I slip on the pile of leaves in my drive every time I walk out towards the car.  One of these days you are going to see a rather large unladylike lump on the floor after a spectacular skid.  I guarantee that there will be an audience. I can’t imagine I’d manage to do it without being seen!

My son has a birthday looming and he will be 21! What an occasion.  I still can not believe he can be 21! I keep doing the math, fingers and toes out, and coming up with same answer.  Where has my cheeky little boy gone? I’m not sad though, because now I have a cheeky big boy.  I win!  It makes me laugh how the entire family are looking to me for inspiration for his twenty first birthday gift?  My dad is asking me his ring size…. How do I know? My daughter wanted to pay for him to have another tattoo done! I vetoed that one pretty quickly I can tell you! I’m not a fan of the body artwork on my own children. It’s ok on other people’s children. )

Then after the birthday its Christmas…. I care less about the gifts and more about the fact that I just want to ensure that I have a carpet down to put the Christmas tree on. I’d like to have all of the painting finished so I can put decorations up and I’d like to have doors fixed on so I can close them and get cosy!  Small things….. But apparently they take the longest to get right! Oh… and a sofa to sit on… and a dining table so we can sit around it and pull crackers.

I’m not getting my usual array of garden visitors now.  I know why, it’s mainly due to the fact that I have a family of Sparrow hawks living nearby. It puts a dampener on the normal feeding frenzies I used to have. Unless of course they want to become the food that causes the frenzy I think things will stay quiet for a while.  I’ve seen more foxes than usually lately.  On the way back from the cinema at the weekend with my daughter and my sons’ girlfriend we spotted a fox crossing the very busy roundabout as we left the motorway.  I also saw one crossing some waste land near my house.  I like seeing the fox as it’s not something I get to see often.  (I’ve seen quite a few asleep on the roadside….seems a strange place to snooze.) The squirrels have gone… not sure where but they have left the garden.  It will give me time to squirrel guard the feeders for spring! Destructive little devils!   I seem to have invested in the very posh Nyger seed for no reason! The nyger seed feeder is untouched, and here was I, sure I would have all the tropical birds visiting from miles around!

My house critters are all doing well.  The Dragon and the gecko seem happy, spending their days lolling! They make it look easy! We witness the occasional spurt of enthusiasm when my son puts the crickets and meal worms in the tank.   The fish seem happy…. I think… it’s hard to say otherwise, I mean, have you seen an expressive fish? Moving into my daughters’ room…. We have my favourite ladies, the degus! They are fine.  We had a moment on Sunday when one of the girls seemed to injure herself.  She was being a little over enthusiastic trying to get to a monkey nut and she suddenly slumped to the floor.  She seemed to hold up her front leg.  I scooped her up and handed her to the animal cuddler… (My daughter… that’s what she always used to say she wanted to be when she grew up) She calmed her and rubbed her gently. After about ten minutes she seemed ok. We put her back in the cage with the others and she seemed fine. However, a couple of hours later she was huddled alone in her hammock looking less than happy.  I told Andrea that she may have hurt herself and just needed time to recuperate.  I must be related to the Dolittles because right enough, the next morning she was scurrying over the log bridge like a Degu possessed!

Andrea’s hamster Polo died a few weeks ago.  We haven’t had a lot of luck with the hamsters lately and we wondered if it was to do with where we were getting them from. That being said, we have decided to call a halt to hamster adoptions. She breaks her heart over them and they already live short little lives.  This one was never very sociable and Andrea hadn’t managed to work her magic with him.  He just went to bed and never got up so I’m presuming there was little suffering.  Allen of course saw an opportunity to offload his dwarf hamsters and he knocked on her bedroom door, cage in hand, smile on face. Andrea rolled her eyes and placed the cage over by the window.  These two little guys live even shorter little lives than the Syrian hamsters! 12-18 months tops! They are cute little boys though.  We have so much fun watching them. They like to tunnel so we have found a use for empty toilet rolls! Add to the toilet rolls lots of sawdust, two wheels and some food and you have instant entertainment!  They have some terrible mealtime manners and toilet habits. Apparently there is no need to leave the wheel! Lordy there is poop and food flying all over the place as they spin a mile a minute with full pouches! So Ares and Apollo seem happy to be living with the Belle girls in Andrea’s bedroom. There is officially no room for anything else…… not even the two rats Andrea keeps smiling at in the pet shop.   Uncle Gordon has been getting a snake (Ceaser…like the salad) so he has kindly offered to make use of any future dead rodents! Andrea was appalled at the offer!