Tagged!

I've been tagged for a meme by Amy. The idea is to type my birthmonth into wikipedia, write down two historical events and one holiday that happened therein, and tag five friends. According to Wikipedia, on Sept. 12:

* 490 BC - Athens defeats Persia at the Battle of Marathon
* 1609 - Henry Hudson discovers the Hudson River.
* 1575 - Henry Hudson, English explorer

Okay so there were things that were way more socially important, but I thought it was interesting that Hudson found the Hudson River on his birthday.

I'll tag anyone who reads this (which is likely way less than five) .

Knitting away

I've been mostly working on the Ruana Wrap lately, as well as forcing myself to knit on the shawl that I was commissioned to make.

I've also been rereading Diana Gabaldon's series, out of order, as I find the books. I love her work. It makes me laugh and cry and, most importantly, think. I've long been fascinated with Scotland and her history. While I know that these are a work of fiction, she makes history seem so alive and vibrant. So many of the history books I've read make Culloden seem flat; just the facts on paper. I find myself wanting to read more (non-fiction), but loath to plod through more dry history books. Does anyone have any suggestions for a more interesting read I would love to hear about it. (Come on invisible readers - hit me with your best shot .)

The bunnies are all doing well. Harvey is recovering well from surgery to get rid of the last of his cellulitis. Jameson has moved on to a sanctuary home as we just learned that he has kidney failure and likely only has 6-12 months to live. He'll get spoiled rotten there and enjoy whatever is left of his life. We just got a sweet (but very skittish) new pair who we renamed Tristan and Isolde. We are working on teaching them that people can do good things, like pet and bring food and treats, and not just "bad" things, like pick you up and trim your toenails. The hard part about that is that Tristan is a Jersey Wooley and needs to be groomed every day. Oh well, he's learning.

Must go make dinner and get some laundry done. More later.

A new quiz...

I found this on Amy's blog and thought it was too cool not to share. This is another "test" that is pretty much right on for me. Apparently Amy and I are somewhat alike. :)

Your Power Element is Water

Your power colors: blue and aqua Your energy: deep Your season: winter Like the ocean, you evoke deep feelings and passion. You have an emotional, sensitive, and spiritual soul. A bit mysterious, you tend to be quiet when you are working out a problem. You need your alone time, so that you can think and dream.

What's Your Power Element?

What I've been knitting

There was a small explosion of (human) babies in the local rabbit community, so I finally had my excuse to knit some of the adorable patterns in Mason Dixon Knitting.

The baby kimono knit in Lion Cotton, color sea foam:










I wanted cool buttons for the kimono, but they needed to be unisex since the baby's gender was unknown and I wanted it to be usable for any future babies. I found these darling, but not too cutesy, Peter Rabbit buttons:











To go along with the kimono, I also knit a burp rag and three bibs. The colors aren't nearly as pastel as they look in this picture, and I was done knitting before I realized that I had picked purple and yellow - MN Vikings colors. :)




















I found cool star buttons for the bibs:













I found a cool pattern from Red Heart Yarns (when I actually unearth the pattern I'll post the name) and knit it up in a soft baby yarn from the stash. I did two of these for two sisters who were due within weeks of each other. I chose a light green and a medium purple.














These were fairly easy to knit, but not so mindless as to be boring. There is a lovely 8-stich cable as well as a "plume" pattern in each quarter of the sweater. You can see the details in these pictures, as well as the cool bunny shaped button.




























The kimono is a very fun knit and I think I might have to start knitting them for charities or something since my friends tend to have children like mine - four-footed and furry. :) The bunnies don't really appreciate my knitting efforts being directed their way.

I'm off to clean some bunny litterboxes. More later.

Much delayed post

It's been a crazy few weeks here at the Bunny Palace. The partner was seriously sick for a few weeks; not serious enough to be hospitalized, but serious enough to require a lot of care and TLC. In addition, we had three or more medical bunnies in the house at any given time. Yikes!

Lance, from the last post, was neutered successfully and the vet was able to determine that whatever was in the one testicle was fully contained and had not spread. We treated his sore feet with plain diaper ointment and they started looking much better very quickly. When other sick bunnies started coming in, our fostering coordinator "borrowed" Lance to foster, with the hopes that he would bond with one of her two girl bunnies. She was successful and now Lance has a permanent home and a bunny friend, too. According to his new mom, "Lance would bond with a brick wall if it gave out food or pets." Gotta love those big white bunnies (BWB).

Then Ghost, another BWB came down with sudden head tilt and we noticed that the weird growth in his ear was suddenly growing (it had been the same size for the month or so that we fostered him prior to head tilt). Two rounds of antibiotics and his ear infection (the cause of the head tilt) is mostly gone and he has stopped rolling uncontrollably. He still rolls, but now he can stop himself after one revolution. The vet poked a hole in the growth last week, hoping to find enough material in it to send out to the lab for analysis. We all expected the growth to be full of something solid, like scar tissue, but instead it was so full of "goo" that the vet was able to completely empty out the growth. The weird part if that Ghost has improved dramatically since the growth was cleaned out. There is nothing we know of that should link a growth on a rabbit's ear flap to head tilt. Head tilt is usually an inner ear issue. Weird, but we'll take it. :)

About the same time, Harvey, yet another BWB, came in to the vet in critical condition. He had been in a bunny fight while being bonded to another rabbit and instead of developing abscesses as bunnies usually do, he developed cellulitis. Within 48 hours of the bites he nearly died. Once the vet got him stabilized, he went on heavy duty antibiotics for a week. Then the vet tried to remove the cellulitis to see if she could make any improvement. Unfortunately, the cellulitis was too involved with the muscle tissue. I've spent the last two weeks putting hot compresses on his leg every day and picking at the scabs to try to make sure that anything in the wounds could come out. The really good news is that after two weeks the wounds are much, much smaller and less inflamed. We've gone from not being sure he was going to live, to not being sure he was going to keep the one leg that was the worst, to knowing he's going to keep all 4 legs! Woohoo!! He goes in for surgery later this week to try to remove the last of the cellulitis.

On the knitting front, I've been too busy to do much knitting, but I have been working on the Ruana Wrap from Lion brand yarns. It's pretty mindless and very tactile so it's fun. :) Hopefully after this week I'll be able to actually write some knitting content instead of all the hoppy reasons I haven't knit.