A Week in the Life of Raffy and Pip - May - and general bits and pieces

[Coco61]

Lovely update all round. Raffy was giving way to no one with the sunflower head!
Heartwarming to see the lamb doing so well and closely bonded with mum even after that first night away.

 

[Maz]

Day 3 - Saturday

May flowers today - and some plants

I bought a couple of plants/shrubs on my birthday recently. And need to get round to planting them out at some point. The red one is a Chaenomeles (Quince). I have always liked these and never had one before. I've walked past a large mature one locally a number of times and so when I saw one the same in the garden centre, decided to get one. The other is potted pansies for planting out. I really don't do much gardening and it's not much of a garden - but both are low maintenance.






Apart from all the lovely May blossom around at the moment (which I haven't photographed as haven't been near any recently!) the Bluebells are out. These are Spanish Bluebells.






And some Cowslips. Which are my favourite flower and remind me of childhood, when there used to be a lot. We'd sit on grass verges full of them and pick them. And now they're an endangered species. They are also a herb and you can make tea from them, although I don't have enough for that. I have tried it once and it tastes nice and flowery. They are also used in herbal medicine.

 

[Daisy]

Ooh I missed this thread! What lovely photos and Raffy looks like he's loving the sunflower head. I must get some for Leo and the gerbils.

 

[Maz]

Hello Daisy .

And a few photos of Raffy out and about tonight. Being the energetic Raff-monster. Mission accomplished with the sunflower head and tonight he was clamouring to come out and is bouncing around and whizzing everywhere. Overdose of sunflower seeds perhaps. He's sneaked over to the door barrier a few times, but can't get out.

Something seems to have given him a new lease of life! He is very perky tonight. Either the new cage or the sunflower head. Or a bit of both maybe - a positve change to get him out of his rut and he is enjoying the space in the cage.

 

[elusive]

Love that photo of Raffy in his wheel, he looks adorable in all the photos & sounds as though he’s having a lot of fun, a bit of spring fever maybe! The new cage must be exciting for him not to mention all those sunflower seeds!

Lovely photos of all the plants & flowers, I love cowslips too & have quite a few in the garden, such beautiful flowers.
I have a bit of a love hate relationship with my quince It’s flowers are gorgeous & really brighten things up when it flowers early, just wish it wasn’t quite so vicious with all the thorns, pruning it isn’t my favourite job!

 

[RainbowBrite]

So lovely to see the flowers. Raffy looked full of beans last night. He really does seem so happy.

 

[Frida]

Beautiful flowers and gorgeous Raffy... Perfect

 

[Maz]

Love that photo of Raffy in his wheel, he looks adorable in all the photos & sounds as though he’s having a lot of fun, a bit of spring fever maybe! The new cage must be exciting for him not to mention all those sunflower seeds!

Lovely photos of all the plants & flowers, I love cowslips too & have quite a few in the garden, such beautiful flowers.
I have a bit of a love hate relationship with my quince It’s flowers are gorgeous & really brighten things up when it flowers early, just wish it wasn’t quite so vicious with all the thorns, pruning it isn’t my favourite job!

Elusive - Thorns?! Eek . Yes spring fever is probably it! Warmer weather and lighter nights.

Thank you Rainbow and Frida

 

[Member ID2]

I love this thread. Gorgeous wild flowers and the adorable Raffy in the same place is a fab start to a day. The photo of Raffy on the saucer is my favourite today and very much looking forward to more.

 

[Maz]

Thanks Beryl That was a lucky, if blurry, snap. I heard him in his wheel under the table so went round the other side of the table with the camera and he actually stayed still and looked at me from the wheel then hopped onto the saucer, ran for a few seconds then hopped onto the tube. So he was interacting a bit, looking at me. Then he was off! I like the one in the wheel but it’s out of focus

 

[Rio’s Mum]

Day 1 - Thursday

This "week in the life of" thread for May, will be about my hamsters - Raffy (Syrian hamster approximately 16 months old) and Pip (Roborovski hamster approximately 22 months old), plus the occasional other random thing going on.

I have just got this out of the freezer. It's a sunflower head. I had decided to get one after seeing the one Rainbow got This will be for Raffy and it will be interesting to see what he makes of it. You could order various sizes by weight, and I had no idea how to gauge how big each one was so I plumped for one in the mid range. It's actually smaller than I imagined it would be and the sunflower seeds look quite small, so I wish I'd gone for the biggest one now. But hopefully it will still go down well.

From the back I think it looks a bit like a mushroom!

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I also made a digging box for when Raffy is out of the cage. It's an Amazon box with Finacard in it


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Raffy waiting to come out of the cage at night

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Raffy is soooooo handsome! Lovely colour.

 

[Maz]

Aw thank you so much Rio's Mum I shall tell him that!

 

[Zara]

Fantastic thread Maz! Great photo of little Pip, there‘s just something about the robos and their little feet that’s so cute. He’s lovin that spaghetti too

Raffy really was impressed with his sunflower head, what a wonderful treat for him. I wonder where he’s stashed the surplus or maybe there is no surplus and he really is on a sunflower seed high. Great idea with the dig box, I’m definitely going to do this for Hams, he enjoys a good forage around too.

I love all things garden and we too have bluebells out at the moment, such a pretty flower, the quince looks beautiful too. Looking forward to more updates.

 

[Maz]

Thanks Zara. I think it was Frida who first thought of having cardboard in a dig box I couldn't face tearing up that much cardboard - but then remembered I had a bag of finacard! Which is torn up strips of cardboard. I'd call it a foraging box rather than a digging box as there was no digging!

I am also wondering where all the sunflower seeds have been stashed ..................

 

[Maz]

Day 4 Sunday

It's been really gorgeous sunny weather today/yesterday. Real "ice cream in the garden" weather. So thought I'd take some more outdoor photos using the longer zoom lens (last year's birthday present). I need to use it on a tripod or everything comes out blurred. It wasn't a particularly expensive one, as lenses go, and not the greatest lens for long distance - I've never been quite happy with the sharpness but it's ok. It's not bad for close ups though.

A few more flowers - closer up.








This little lamb is from a nearby farm - as are the other sheep below. This one is a cross breed. Assume the little coat is because he's needing extra care.

 

[Maz]

I photographed a few birds as well - they are still quite small even with the longer lens. And of course they won't keep still or look in the right direction . So these are cropped enlargements and not very sharp - but I just wondered if anyone could identify any of the birds.

Bird 1





Bird 2



Bird 3



Bird 4



Bird 5



Bird 6

 

[Maz]

Bird 7



Bird 8



Bird 9



Bird 10

 

[Member ID2]

I'm no good identifying birds so won't even try. All i do is feed them.
What a variety of birds though where you live. Some of them look like young ones. I think the little fat one in photo 5 is my favourite. They are all beautiful photos though.
The flowers are so colourful and the nosy lamb is cute looking over the fence.

 

[Maz]

I like number 5 too I've worked out what some are, now they are enlarged, but not sure about number 5.

 

[elusive]

Love the photos of the flowers, they’re all beautiful but especially love the berberis, one of my favourites.
The lamb is so sweet & there’s something very relaxing about looking at sheep out in the sun.
You did well to capture the birds, not sure about bird 10 but the others, apart from the starling all look like house sparrows to me.