Cockpitfest Day 2

Well yesterday happened and most of the day was wet and the rain came down!

Overnight we have dried out and the day is looking good so far - I can even see a bit of blue sky!!!

I have taken a couple more photos this morning so have attached them to this post - 2 are of a couple of cockpits and one is of Jimmy with Delta :)

Cockpitfest Day 1

The Cockpitfest weekend has arrived!

Ok, first of all I can here you all asking what is Cockpitfest? It is a celebration of aviation history, as it is not always practicable to preserve the whole aircraft many people preserve just the Cockpit.

This weekend sees over 30 cockpits gathering at Newark Air Museum, Notts.

We attend with the owls as part of the 'family' attractions.

The weather for this weekend is forecast to be 'Unsettled' - so far this morning we have had rain & wind!!

I have attached a couple of photos of the kids (the feathered kind) & our stock table (with all the items I made this week).

Library Visit

Once again we have been out with the Owls. Today was another library visit, the first since losing Ufo.

Delta & Jumanji both behaved very well. And Delta had a nice hug with his daddy.

The Library staff were pleased as they had approx 170 people through the door (double the normal Saturday visitors!)

Here are a few pics...



Jumanji - Looking Grumpy as usual



DH getting a Hug from Delta

The table containing our Stock to help fund raise

Month in Numbers - January 2012

Over on the Notes on Paper blog you will find the 'Month In Numbers' challenge, to document each month based on various numbers.

So for January 2012, my Month in Numbers is...

1,000's the number of pieces DH Kidney stone was smashed into when he had surgery at the beginning of the month - Thank you to all those who have posted good wishes for his recovery, he is doing very well and recovering nicely :)

6 lbs of weight put on over Christmas & New Year.  Now the work starts to loose the weight again

7 years since Holly, my first Barn Owl, died. She was 11 years old & like Ufo (read about Ufo here)she had her own personality, however in many ways Holly was the complete opposite.  Holly was very reserved and her relationship with us was very much on her terms. 

She came into my care when she was about 2 years old, she had been released into the wild by her previous owner (who was never found), we also know that she had been mistreated and suffered a broken hip which was never treated by a vet! 

Over time & with much love and kindness Holly trusted me (and later my DH) and allowed us into her life. 

16 New Stamps: During this month I have brought 1 Tatty Button stamp and 15 Lili of the Valley (although 12 of the Lili of the Valley stamps were in one pack).







47 People who attended the Cambridgeshire Family History Society Computer Group Meeting in January to listen to both DH & myself - DH was covering 'What is a Computer?' as part of the new Back to Basics series of talks. My talk was 'Explaining Blogs' and it went down very well - So a Big Hello to anyone from CFHS

10 Eddie Stobart vehicles that I have been able to identify by name - taking me to Number 3400 in the Spotters League Table!!  I know it is slightly sad LOL, but it is also fun :-)

6 1/2 lbs of weight I have lost this month.  I am so pleased that I have been able to loose all of the weight that I put on over Christmas/New Year, I can now start working towards my next 'Sliver Seven' :-)

8 Snowdrops in the Garden.  When we had the fence replaced last month I was afraid that my Snowdrop bulbs might have been disturbed.  Over the years I have put so many Snowdrop bulbs into the garden, but they only ever grow in one little corner (right by the fence!!)  However they have now burst into flower. I only ever would get a single flower, but the bunch has slowly got bigger over the last few years.

Spring is in the Air

Well, as far as our European Eagle Owl (Delta) is concerned Spring has started & he is looking for a Girlfriend.

What he can't seem to understand his that DH & I are not European Eagle Owls (LOL) and every time we go outside he starts trying to woo us. 

Every evening when we give him his food, he tries to give it back to us, which is exactly what he would do with a female owl.  Boy is he confused!!!!

I have just been outside to photo the Snowdrops in the garden & decided to try and get a few pictures of Delta as well.  I did try to upload a video clip but I could not get it to work :-(

Here is Delta in his next box, he is doing his impersonation of a Chicken with his tail stuck up through his wings and hooting at me.

Sorry about the scary looking eyes - the flash on the camera turns them red/pink

10 Things... January 2012

Shimelle Laine runs 10 Things on the 10th of each month.  
This list of 10 things has been hard to put together, I have been planning it for 2 months but needed to find the right time to work on the list and find the photos.

On Saturday 19th November 2011, Ufo our Little Owl (the picture on the Right of my banner) died.  I had fed her as normal on the Friday evening and she was fine, on Saturday morning I found her in her nest box.  It looked as if she had fallen asleep and did not wake up.

So my list of 10 Things is month is...

10 Things about Ufo:

1. She hatched on 8 June 1996 along with a brother & sister

This photo was taken when Ufo was 6 weeks old.  It was the first time that I had seen her and I fell in love...

2. On 8 August 1996 she moved in to live with me & my parents

Ufo at 10 weeks old, she was now starting to bond with me, she would even sit on the glove for short periods of time (plenty of patience was required!!)

3. Initially she lived in the Kitchen until she was fully feathered and could move outside to the aviary.  Back then I would eat my breakfast while sat on the floor with Ufo running around the floor.  One morning she found a current that had fallen on the floor (mum had been baking) and she ate it!!!  An owl is not designed to eat currents (only meat) and I was really worried about how her digestive system would cope.  Later that evening the panic was over when I found a pellet (the leftovers) which included a current!

4. When Ufo was 10 1/2 months old DH took her picture for the first time & she cast her spell over him too!

Ufo's first photo shoot, and she behaved very well.  This was to be the first of many photos taken of her in various trees over the years

5. As Ufo started to show her personality we soon found that that she was no Angel, she would regularly get into trouble, but she kept looking so sweet and innocent...

After a quick flight she landed on this candle holder... luckily the candle had not been lit.  She was always getting into everything that a Little Owl should avoid!

6. When DH & I got Married in 1998 Ufo (& Holly, my Barn Owl) joined us at the Wedding. They sat in their travel boxes in the Registry Office and were present for the Reception - After all both Ufo & Holly were my babies!

This is not the greatest picture of us, but the only one we have with the Kids... when this picture was taken we were both talking to the kids!

7.  For Christmas in 1999 I asked DH if we could have a real Christmas Tree, he agreed (provided I cleared up all the needles LOL).  Once we had decorated the tree we needed a special Fairy...

Our Little Christmas Fairy

8.  Ufo loved to have a shower, but only when it rained (and the rain was not too heavy). We found it very difficult to get any pictures of her having a shower - as soon as she saw the camera she would stop!  But when she got wet, she really got very wet...

Is it a Little Owl or a Drowned Rat??

9. Each year Ufo would scare us, normally on 22 April (or within 3-5 days) she would start to lay her eggs.  This is one of the most dangerous things any female bird can do and over the years we have known several owls who have died while trying to lay eggs. 

Each year Ufo laid between 3 & 6 eggs, she would then spend 30-40 days sitting on them.  Not that the eggs would hatch!

10. Over the last 15.5 years Ufo has met and touched many people, even helping some of them overcome bird phobias.  Ufo loved to be the centre of attention, she loved to be hugged and stroked. All of our other owls preferred to be stroked on the tummy - Ufo was different!! She preferred to be stroked on the head & back.  To make life easier for Ufo if we had visitors who wanted to meet her we would sit them down and cover their lap with her tea towel, Ufo would then sit on the tea towel.  If you stopped stroking her she was even known to head-butt you to encourage you to continue!

In many ways creating this list of 10 things was easy, I have so many memories of Ufo, but there are too many to include here today.  In another way it was also very hard, especially to realise that she was 1 in a million and no other owl could ever come close to being the big hearted creature that she was. 

Over the last 10 months her health had started to decline, she had a cataract in her left eye and was starting to lose the sight in her right eye (if she had not already lost it completely).  She was also having problems keeping on weight and I had needed to increase the amount of food that she was given to keep her weight stable.

While writing this list I have rewritten it several times and cried many tears.  Despite this, Ufo brought so much joy into my life as well of that of so many other people. She was even partly responsible for getting DH & me together as a couple. How something so small could make such a difference in so many lives I will never know - but she did.

I will always miss her as she was so special, but I know that she is now truly flying free.

RIP

Ufo, Little Owl

(1996 - 2011)

Trip to the Library

I really was not sure what title to give his post, so I finally went with the one you see... the reason behind by indecision was this: it was not an ordinary trip to the library, we arrived before the library opened and did not leave until after it had closed! 

I can hear you asking: WHY!

So I will tell you... On Saturday not only did DH & I attend the library but we also took our kids too.  Now this was the challenging bit - the library has nice clean carpets and our kids are not toilet trained (and they don't wear nappies).  So that we don't upset the Library or cleaners we cover the area we are going to use in dust sheets (or any other type of sheet), this will ensure, hopefully LOL that the carpets stay clean - however just in case we do carry a 'Carpet  Cleaning Kit'!

Once we had covered the area, we brought in the Kids and sat them on each of their bocks.  We had been told by the staff that the library would normally have about 60-70 visitors on a Saturday morning (it is open between 10am and 1pm).  At 10am the doors were open and the rush arrived.  We were busy the whole day with a steady stream of people who came to visit the owls.

Towards the end of the morning the number of people visiting started to quieten down, and we got chance to take a few pictures...

This is Ufo our Little Owl on one of the Book Towers, all of the children's books featured owls

Delta our European Eagle Owl reading one of the children's books

The photos were taken as a bit of fun (no owls where harmed in the taking of these photos :) LOL).  The event had been organised by the Library for 2 reasons, as an event to benefit the library and encourage people to visit & secondly to help raise money for the Raptor Foundation (all of the money we raised on the day goes to help pay the vet bills).

It was a very enjoyable day (and extremely busy!!) the Library had new visitors and a total of 265 people visited the library on Saturday and we also raised money to help pay the vets bills.

All in all a very good Saturday morning.

Who's Been a Naughty Boy?

On Saturday we were invited to take our Kids to a local village fete, it was only for a couple of hours in the afternoon. 

About 10 minutes before DH & I went to get the Kids out of their aviaries, Delta had decided that he wanted a bath - To look good for the public.  When we went out he looked like a punk rocker, with feathers poking in all directions, he was soaked.  By the time we arrived and had our stand set up he was slightly drier, it took about 1 1/2 hours for him to dry out completely. 

Along with some of the more traditional stalls, (we won a bottle of Coke on the 'Bottle Tombola') the village had also arranged for the Police to attend with a van & 2 Community Support Officers.  The fete was good fun and the weather stayed dry, which was a big bonus.

As Delta is such a wimp we had a chat with the Police and they agreed for us to put him in the back of the Police Van to take his picture... Delta can now add a Police Van to the list of vehicles he has been in/on.

Delta in the Police Van



The only way to get Delta in was to send DH in as well



Shower Time for Ufo

Last night when we went out to feed 'The Kids' Ufo our Little Owl had been sitting out in the rain and had a shower.  This picture is not brilliant as it was dark.. but you will have to believe me when I say that she was wet. 

My Kids

Late last night before drifting off to sleep I was thinking about what to include next on my Blog... Do I talk about my anxiety or the Kids. Well the Kids won!

So this morning I am going to introduce you to my 'Kids' - our kids have feathers and live outside in aviaries

The youngest is Delta, he is a European Eagle owl who is now 11 years old...

.

Our middle child is Jumanji, an African Spotted Eagle Owl who is now 12 years old...


Our oldest child is Ufo (this stands for the Unidentifed Flying Owl) who is a British Little Owl and is now 15 years old...

DH & I have had all of the birds since they were young chicks and together we are a fundraising team for the Raptor Foundation in Cambridgeshire.

I guess over the life of this Blog you will get to hear & see more of our kids, this is just an introduction.