Humanitarian Op – Bunny Rescue 2013

In August we noticed a black rabbit hopping around the site at work.  A notice was put out asking if anyone had lost a bunny, but no one replied.

Lucky2013 01To start with, it looked as though it had integrated with the wild rabbits but after some reading and some watching it was obvious that he was out on his own.  He seemed to disappear for about 3 weeks but then we saw him again in the car park – not the safest place for any bunny!  To my surprise as I approached him, he hopped over and looked in my hand for food.  We decided he was hungry and started to leave him some food in the undergrowth where he appeared to be living.

After seeing him a few times and happily eating out of my hand, we decided to seek approval for capture and re-homing.  The re-homing was easy, I decided to keep him!  The capture not so easy!  I had built up some trust as he would spot me offering food and bound 4-5 hops to come and see me, but he didn’t seem to like being stroked so instead of breaking the trust I had gained, I carried on offering food.

We had put hay in an area where we knew he sat and had seen him sat munching it.  So we replaced the hay with a cat box full of hay and a little carrot hoping that he would go in.  We knew he had ventured in as the carrot had gone! The only problem we had was being in the right place at the right time to shut the door!

On a Monday after work, we waited Lucky2013 04next to the cat box with string at the ready to close the door. He was over the other side of the hedge on the grass so I went over with a bit of carrot to say hello.  He excitedly hopped over to get his treat.  Walking back over to the box I asked him to follow and amazingly, he did! Poking his head in the box for carrot, he finally went fully in the box and we pulled the string! He stamped his foot once then settled down for his journey home.

Lucky exploring‘Lucky’ is now happily living with me, to start with in a pen in the kitchen while his hutch was renovated!! Give a Dad a hutch and they turn it into a mansion!  He has now settled in and likes to run around on the kitchen floor and is happy to be stroked but not picked up, so a little more work needs to be done before he has a trip to the vets.  We still don’t know if he’s a boy or a girl! But he has a great friendly personality and is very intelligent and tidy, rearranging his hutch all the time! I have plans to find him a bunny friend for company in the future 🙂

Camping in East Fleet, Weymouth 2013

01 EastFleet2013-04Having had a busy few months, I decided I needed a weekend getaway so started trawling the internet for campsites. We decided on a visit to Weymouth and stayed near East Fleet. Although we weren’t on the campsite very much it was a lovely site. Thankfully we got there when it was dry and got the tent up and organised.  The one thing I like about tents is, you get to organise a new home each time you go away 🙂

I didn’t really have many plans for 09 PortlandBill2013-25what to do, our decisions were made on when the weather map said it was going to rain! I haven’t been to Weymouth since I was a child so visited the normal ‘visitor’ areas.  Portland Bill was the first stop which was nice to have a look around and watch the crazy people jumping off of the cliffs! However, in typical British summer weather style, we could see the rain coming in so headed back into Weymouth where we got drenched!! The best place to go when it’s raining and you’re camping? The cinema!!

12 DurdleDoor2013-03Thankfully, our final day had a good weather outlook so we headed over to the very picturesque Durdle Door. Some of the coastal paths were still shut due to the landslides earlier in the year but there were still plenty of people out enjoying the summer sun. If you visit be warned the walk back to the car park is a little steep!

Despite the on/off weather, Weymouth is a great place to getaway and it was nice to relive some childhood memories and have a much-needed break!

Birty Dastards Off-roading – West Harptree 2013

I was putting my foot down this time…‘The tent’s just not big enough, we need more space!’ As I’ve mentioned before, camping is not high on my list of favourite things and I have decided space is one of the problems.  So we headed off to Go Outdoors to get a new tent. It’s so much better – about a third bigger than the last one, you can stand up in it and it has carpet to put down! The result? A much happier me! All it needs now is central heating 😉

Birty Dastards - West HarptreeFor the off-roading trip this time around, we were off to West Harptree, a new site we had never been to.  From the top of the site it looked quite flat but once down over the dip, there were loads of places for the trucks to play.  I normally walk around a lot of the site but this one was a little too steep and rocky, so I had to get a lot of lifts. It was nice to go to a new area with new challenges and the guys think there is a lot more to explore next time.Birty Dastards - West Harptree

We did unfortunately have a few breakdowns and one tip over, something I have never seen before but it was very slow so no injuries, just a lot of muddy water in what was a fairly clean truck!

It was a great weekend and nice to get out into the countryside. The tent was that nice that I might even venture off for the odd weekend camping! 😉