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For the past week we have had rain, rain, rain. It’s been kind of wonderful though, because we have a lot in the ground that needs watering. I have a little corner by our front door that I think a normal person would make look pretty, but I have it full of potted things that need to go in the ground but I haven’t chosen a place for yet, corkscrew willow cuttings from the tree at our old house rooting out in a bucket, and beehives operating as tables to hold little flats planted with seeds. I planted lots of flowers, many of them for dye: hollyhocks, marigolds, hopi sunflowers, calendula, nigella, golden marguerite, cock’s comb, and a few more.
Speaking of Marguerite, that is the name of one of a pair of baby bunnies I brought home to cheer up Benjamin Bunny a few weeks ago. (He just hasn’t seemed himself lately.) It worked, and he’s much happier now, but I sure do have my hands full trying to get the babies litter trained. I am comforting myself with reminders of how poor our soil here is, and how much all the rabbit poop is going to help improve it. The other baby bunny, the one Mabel is holding above, is named Splotch. I tried to convince Beatrix that she should be called Cleopatra, or “Cleo” for short because of her black eyeliner, but I lost that one. Marguerite is named for the lovely heroine in Calico Bush, a wonderful read aloud we finished a few weeks back. Splotch is named for the black “splotches” on her fur.
Our latest read aloud is Julie of the Wolves, a book I remember reading more than once when I was about Larkspur’s age. There is one mature part that I had to censor a bit, but otherwise we love this book. Next up they want to read The Hobbit. I want to read Strawberry Girl.
I cast on a sweater for Mabel last week called Pixie Dust. I knit the baby version of this pattern last year, and wanted to knit a long sleeved version for this fall. The yarn is some of my dk that I dyed with logwood. It turned out differently than I was expecting with lots of shades of purple and taupe. I don’t usually knit with yarn that has that much variegation, but I think I am going to like this sweater! (If you want to knit one in size four or smaller, I have two skeins of dk left in my shop in a nice olive green.) I’m also knitting away on the body of my South Bay Sweater. I had more time to knit than usual this week because my musical kids had dress rehearsals and a concert this week. The lights were bright enough during the concert that I could knit the whole time!
I’ve got another project to share, but I’ll save that for later this week! I hope you all had a great weekend!
p.s. Can you spot Bea?
p.p.s See if you can find Benjamin Bunny in the photo of the green cabinet full of books and olive green yarn hanging on the drying rack.
Laura says
Ginny, I have a question about your bunnies. My daughter is getting a baby bunny in June. We were worried about him being lonely as well and thought about getting two. The woman we are getting him from though recommended against it unless we kept them separated. She said that if we get a male and a female, they could not be together unless we wanted babies – they will mate in a matter of seconds. She said that two females are iffy because females tend to be territorial and may fight one another. And she said that two males will most definitely fight one another – sometimes to death – even if they are siblings and raised together. Will your bunnies be together? How are you keeping them from fighting? I really don’t want a lonely bunny!
Ginny says
Hi Laura!
It sounds like she is talking about bunnies that aren’t spayed or neutered, but maybe I’m wrong. My males are neutered, and the females will be spayed when they are old enough. That being said, it can be super cost prohibitive! I recently found a vet down in Richmond that does the surgery for much cheaper than most other places I tried. (around $125 for a spay or neuter). If I could start over with rabbits, I would adopt an adult bonded pair through a rescue group. The baby bunnies are very cute, but they are a lot of work to litter train! My best advice if you get babies is to get two females. I think it would be really tricky to time spay/neuter of a male/female pair and not end up with a pregnancy. I’m not an expert by any means, though. I may end up in trouble with the two females I got, but I am hoping that as long as I spay them, it will work out. Also, there are lots of informative posts on this site: https://rabbit.org. The short/long story of my bunnies is that we got the first male, had him neutered. Got a baby male to be his friend, had him neutered, but he is still very aggressive towards my original/older rabbit. I gave up on trying to socialize them. Should have never tried it-didn’t know better! I got the pair of females (had only planned to get one, but had Lark and Bea with me…) and I was able to put them with my older male rabbit pretty much right away. He is a very sweet, laid back rabbit. So far all three are together and minus the fact that the babies are still pooping everywhere, it’s going well. They all three bonded and are happy. That may change as the females mature, but hopefully spaying will remedy any issues! Sorry for the long winded reply–I’m still figuring all this out! Let me know if you have any other questions! I think the bottom line is that you will save yourself a lot of trouble if you adopt an adult bonded pair that is already spayed/neutered!
Joy says
We had 2 adult male cousins, 1 neutered 1 not, from friends whose child got to an age when pet rabbits weren’t their interest anymore. They got on great together but the non neutered one got away and we never found him. The remaining rabbit was bereft as they are naturally social creatures, used to living in groups. We got a baby female and were able to bring them together and they lived very happily as a pair until the male died about 2.5 yrs ago now. The female lived on until last summer, but she was subdued and not so much her usual self without a companion. i wish we had realised that you can socialise rabbits (including females) to have a new companion, but it takes work. We never got the female rabbit spayed and never had any babies, but our garden is walled so no other rabbits could get in or out. We left them run free in the garden when we were home and had them in a run when we went out. I agree that having adult rabbits might be a better option, ours were still v cute and they might come spayed to save costs. Just have to make sure they are used to being handled and handle them yourselves daily. They will have a nip at your hand sometimes which scares little ones, but frequent handling reduces this.
Laura says
Thanks Joy! I’m so glad to hear that your rabbits were friendly towards one another and you are able to socialize them! I would love to have my daughters outside in a similar setting, but unfortunately we can’t where we are. We’re moving in a few years so hopefully we can then!
Laura says
Ginny, thank you so much for the info on the rabbits! I guess I didn’t think about spay/neutering the rabbits – or getting an already bonded adult pair – I wish I had! My daughter has talked about eventually getting a second one and breeding them occasionally, but we aren’t sure about it. She has already put a deposit on one. Your reply definitely has me wondering about getting another and thinking we should! Do you have any tips on litter box training them? She wants to do it so that she can bring him inside as well (and I hate seeing them in a cage all the time). Or any good books/websites to learn more? Thank you so much!
Flyingkids says
Lovely post! The Strawberry Girl is indeed a nice book.
Kelli Ann Wilson says
You must have stolen our rain – it’s been dry as a bone here in southwestern NH! Mabel with her little barrette looks so grown-up, and I love that warm, golden sun behind the goats. Beautiful pictures, as always.
Ginny says
I hope you get some rain!!! We’d share if we could. 🙂
karen says
looks like life is treating you well, you have spring, the kids are doing well, you’ve got some knitting, and you are growing things. Life is good!! I started a new project over the weekend and I’m just giddy about it. this makes life grand 🙂
Stefanie says
Jenny you make me smile.
We could use some water on all our flowers …. not to mention the rabbits have eaten all my corn.
One win some and lose some.
Sylvie says
I am just curious about the bunnies. Mister Bunny plus 2 lovely young bunny ladies….that might make a l LOT of bunnies really soon!!! 🙂
Ginny says
Benjamin Bunny is neutered! Otherwise, yes, we’d be in trouble!! The girls will also be spayed in a few months. 🙂
Christy says
I love your bunnies and goats!
We just started Strawberry Girl and it’s delightful!
Clémence says
I love those pics! Bunny cuddles and good words to read… plus some flowers, well that’s just real life! : )
Elizabeth says
that’s so lovely!!! I totally missed B the Bunny! so many good things in your life, I am so glad!
Marilyn says
I spotted Beatrix right away. Beatrix’s pretty face stands out. Your girls will enjoy “The Strawberry Girl”. Thank you for always sharing your family and their doings. I look forward to your posts.
Marilyn
Allison says
As soon as you mentioned reading The Hobbit to your girls, I immediately thought of this article: http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/12/bilbo_baggins_is_a_girl_until_children_s_books_catch_up_to_our_daughters.html As a kid reading it for the first time, I would have liked the book much better if Bilbo was a girl, and I bet your daughters would like it too.
I think the variation in shades will look lovely in a simple pattern of mostly stockinette, which pixie dust suits perfectly!
Splotch is such a good name for a bunny. I named my rabbits Lisa and Honey Bun when I was a little girl.
Cindy in NC says
I have a friend whose husband is a great nephew of Lois Lenski. Shortly before they met he passed on a chance to acquire a set of his aunt’s published books (she had recently died). All these years my friend has regretted that her children (and now grandchildren) didn’t have the chance to read their great, great aunt’s personal copies of these books.
Joan says
All of your daughters are so cute with their animals. I have read the “Calico Bush” and the “Strawberry Girl” but have not read “Julie Of The Wolves”. Will look into it.
Joan
Marion says
Love the photos of the girls holding the animals( well Beatrix has the animal on her shoulder). I loved the “Strawberry Girl”. Probably one of my favorite books.
Marion
Nicole Spring says
Eeek. You know what I haven’t read that book in years but K read it about 3 years ago…gulp…what type of mature parts??
ginny says
Maybe just one mature part… There is a scene where Julie’s “husband” Daniel tries to force himself on her! I skimmed and omitted most of it while I was reading. I think it would have been pretty confusing for my girls.
Nicole Spring says
Eeek!!! Good gracious. I don’t remember that as a child. Hoping K didn’t quite grasp it all. I guess I should have read it again first. 😛
ginny says
I’m sure she didn’t!!!
Sarah says
“Strawberry Girl” was one of my favorite books as a girl. I enjoyed it so much that I loaned it to my great-grandma. She read it while recovering from a knee replacement. We had such fun discussing the story and characters. Grandma loved it as much as I did. : ) “Strawberry Girl” brings back sweet memories for me.
I love the pictures of your bunnies! Little Mable is adorable! : )
Emily DeArdo says
I love your bunnies! 🙂
We’ve had thunderstorms and rain on and off for what seems like the last week and a half. Chance for more today, but then we’ll dry out for a few days. I sort of wish we’d have a day of just straight rain because I want a day to sit inside and read and knit and to recover from my brother’s wedding last Saturday!
Eileen says
OMG, that Moosewood Cookbook took me back to the mid-eighties with some of their first self published books. If you were a cool MOM and slightly off the grid, you had those books and cooked from all and everything Moosewood for the next couple of decades. We loved the black bean burgers and potato soup!
The picture of you driving over the bridge with the water below and rain pouring down…I would be scared!
Love all you pictures, beautiful. Great start to my Monday reading your blog. Thanks!
Rosie says
I got The Hobbit on audible, I can’t manage all those voices! That’s one I decided I had to outsource early on ? One of my younger readers got Strawberry Girl for Christmas and it ended up being the very first chapter book she ever read on her own, the sweetie! She’s probably read it 10 times since then and now it’s lost, just in time for strawberry season!
Nathana Clay says
It has been rainy here too–hut our garden is growing like crazy! Everything is so lush and green. Julie of the Wolves was my favorite series as a kid. I can’t wait to read it again with Rebekah! I just finished Glass Castle, Accidental Saints, and am reading The Silver Star and Timothy Keller’s book on prayer (it has been really challenging in all the right ways). I love that shade of yarn!