Reflections on our Favourite Things A to Z

On May 8, 2017May 7, 2017 By PercyIn a to z challenge3 Comments

Percy: We’re supposed to say what we thought about the A to Z Challenge today. Mummy helped me record this conversation with Kevin last week. What did you think about it, Kevin?

Kevin: I thought it was a lot of hard work. It was okay setting the posts up ahead of time, but it was hard going to see people. I could say something to the people who visited us, but I didn’t know what to say to anyone else.

Percy: Did you remember to go to the A to Z post and link us up?

Kevin: No, although Mummy did it for me sometimes. I think when she did that early in the morning we got new visitors. I stopped noticing when I wasn’t feeling well.

Percy: I know, but I did that for you. You did a lot of the posts. I had a nice time chatting to people, especially to Kristin, Noelle, and Hilary. And Nick came sometimes, he was nice.

Kevin: yes, we got to know our Aunties and new Uncle well. I’m sure when Dylan and I did it last time we had far more visitors.

Percy: I think Mummy’s saying the same on her blog. Would you do it again?

Kevin: No, but then, I feel too old to bother with it, really.

Percy: It does take a lot of time. Then again, if the weather is cold like it was last week, we haven’t got much else to do.

Kevin: That’s true. Well, I’ll leave it in your capable hands, Percy. I expect young Bertie will soon get the hang of it. I’ll be here if he needs any advice.

Percy: He’s not much of one for asking advice, Kev. He reminds me of Dylan, even though I didn’t know him very long.

Kevin: I think Mummy thinks so too. Good luck if you do it again.

Percy: Thank you. And thank you for blogging for all this time, too. Happy retirement!

dylan-kevin — Kevin with Dylan, Feb 2016

Z for Zebra stripes #AtoZChallenge

On April 30, 2017April 30, 2017 By KevinIn a to z challenge5 Comments

Hello! I’m Kevin. I’m a ginger and white guinea pig and I look after both George’s Guinea Pig World and our Facebook page. Percy and I have been sharing the workload for our A to Z Challenge this year, and I’ll be doing this last week.

Our theme is “Our Favourite Things” – and I hope you’re not tired out from all this blog-visiting (I am)!

Zebra striped snuggle sack

Our zebra snuggle sack is everyone’s favourite. It’s quite old, but it’s worn really well, especially when you consider it gets sat on, sat in, and washed quite often too. It’s got cotton fabric outside and thick fleece in with an extra bottom layer to make it even comfier.

Mummy got it originally for Hugo, who was black and white with a Zorro stripe on his side, just like Auntie Dawn’s Mariusz. They were pretty hard to tell apart, which is why, when Mummy wrote her books, Hugo and Mariusz were the same person!

Bertie bides his time

Percy in camouflage

Percy and Bertie love zebras

Hugo’s birthday present

Humphrey in the zebra sack

Hector hides

As far as I know, Mariusz never hid in the zebra snuggle sack, which Mummy calls the camouflage sack. All our black and white pigs use it to hide in plain sight. Humphrey’s and Hector’s white noses disappear very well into the general stripeyness. The grey and white piggies have used it too, and at the start of the A to Z it was Percy’s, although Bertie & Biggles put in a strong bid for it. Mummy eventually gave it to Percy and Midge, and they’re very pleased.

This is the end of our A to Z 2017 and I hope you enjoyed learning about Our Favourite Things.

Did you see the interview we did on Mummy’s blog?

Apparently we have to do something called Reflections on Monday week. Come back and see us then – and every Monday. We’ll be here, probably with a new apprentice!

S for Snuggle sacks #AtoZChallenge

On April 22, 2017April 20, 2017 By PercyIn a to z challenge9 Comments

Hello and welcome to George’s Guinea Pig World. I’m Percy, and I run this place with Kevin. George set it up in 2009, which is before I was born. I moved into a new cage with Midge on Thursday, and left Bertie and Biggles in the next door cage. I miss them. Midge used to live next to Kevin, but Oscar moved in there instead It’s all very new and confusing..

Our A to Z theme is “Our Favourite Things”

S is for Snuggle Sacks

All I can say is: Snuggle sacks are the best things that have ever been invented!

Mummy discovered a long time ago that we like snuggle sacks. She likes knowing that we always have somewhere warm and cosy to go if it turns cold in the night. Although we like spending lots of time in them when it’s warm in the day, too.

We have a number of snuggle sacks, each with a history:

the blue and gold one which I’ve never seen, which belonged to Fred and George
the zebra striped one known as the camouflage sack for black and white (or just black) piggies. It was originally Hugo’s, but Humphrey, Hector and now I have all had it and loved it. It’s really soft and cosy.
the purple and grey one, which has been retired (but kept for emergencies), and the purple and pink one which Kevin thought he’d lost but Mummy gave him back in February. He posted about that (it’s a bit of a rant, but he’s happy now). Both of these were originally got for Hector and Humphrey, to go in the grey cage.
The green and purple one. I’ve never seen this, but apparently it’s a small one which goes with the old green and purple tunnel in Oscar’s cage. It’s too small for most of us. I think Mummy hunted for it when Bertie and Biggles arrived and couldn’t find it, so maybe she threw it out.
The stripey one which goes with the tunnels for the upstairs run. Midge had it before the big reshuffle on Thursday, and Mummy gave it to Bertie and Biggles for the time beingat the moment.
The blue patchy one which Kevin has. That’s pretty new and it matches my bed and Midge’s tunnel. We got these for Christmas in 2015. They’re lovely.

See if you can spot each of them in the pictures below!

Kevin resting

Humphrey in the zebra sack

Dylan investigates

Fred & George take grass on the way back from Devon

George trying out the new fleecy pocket aka snugglesac

Kevin asleep

Oscar with Kevin

How come Kevin gets in so many pictures?

This is my last post of the A to Z Challenge this year, unless I do the last one, Z as well. Kevin will be back on Monday to take you through to the end. I’ll be back on the 1st May when normal service will be resumed!

R for Running around #AtoZChallenge

On April 20, 2017February 22, 2017 By PercyIn a to z challenge7 Comments

Hello and welcome to George’s Guinea Pig World. I’m Percy, and I run this place with Kevin. George set it up in 2009, which is before I was born. I live in a nice cage next to Oscar, and his brother Midge lives next to Kevin.

Our A to Z theme is “Our Favourite Things”

R is for Running Around

I love running around. We have a huge kitchen to run around in every morning. There’s a step halfway along, which can be a bit scary to jump down until you get used to it. Mummy’s put a towel on the lower side to give us a soft landing. Midge and I often sit on that and look cute.

Apparently everyone has been running around in the kitchen except Fred and George who hated it. It’s odd, because we know they loved running around in the garden. Fred would just cower on the floor, not wanting to move. I don’t know why. Various combinations of the rest of us have been running around there for years.

Mummy is very embarrassed by most of the photos of us on the kitchen floor, because it always has a lot of hay and poops lying around. It’s because she cleans up after we’ve finished, and of course she takes photos and things when we’re running around. We have tunnels and boxes to play with, and also we can hide under things and behind things just for fun, too.

Here’s a moving picture of Victor, Humphrey and Hector running around, when Dylan and Dougall were just itty-bitty babies so they had a small run fenced off so the other boys didn’t bully them.

Here’s a short one of Colman deciding whether to jump down the step or not!

… and here’s one of me and Oscar. Oscar is trying to climb into the bucket with the waste bedding after Mummy’s cleaned our cages in the morning.

Come back tomorrow to see what S is!

Q for Quiet #AtoZChallenge

On April 19, 2017February 22, 2017 By PercyIn a to z challenge18 Comments

Our A to Z theme is “Our Favourite Things”

Q is for Quiet

We have a nice quiet home. It is more noisy in the morning, because the music machine comes on in the kitchen at seven, which is usually when Mummy comes downstairs and starts doing things. The music is generally nice. It’s something called Classic FM. We like it, but it goes off later when we’re all back in our runs after cuddle time and our run around the kitchen, so we can eat our breakfast and snooze in peace.

Also in the morning, during cuddle times, Mummy has a moving picture box on in the corner of the cuddle room. That sometimes has people talking, and sometimes it has ticking noises and small bursts of music. Sometimes it has loud noises, too. Most of the time it’s not too noisy, though.

The rest of the day is pretty quiet. If the door to the garden is open we’ll hear the birds singing, and sometimes we hear people moving about next door, or noisy traffic on the road at the front. If Mummy’s in, she’ll be upstairs next to Kevin and Midge, working. Apparently she sits tapping away on this keyboard all morning and most of the evening. I wouldn’t like to do that. Doing these A to Z posts is hard work. I’d rather stick to one a week. But she’s not noisy, unless she has to stop and talk into her handset, or sometimes she reads whole books out loud to her computer. That’s when she’s doing something called editing. Kevin told me about it. She makes lots of tutting noises to herself then, too.

I spend quite a lot of time sleeping during the day, until I feel ready to have a little run around and a bite to eat. Mummy sometimes feels like running around and having a bite to eat too, and then she comes and talks to Oscar and me, and gives my head a scritch or Oscar a smooth. She knows what we like best!

And very soon, we’ll be going out in the garden to eat grass. That’s usually quiet, except for flying things overhead and the birds singing and rumbles of machinery in the distance.

Do you have a quiet life?

P for Pellets #AtoZChallenge

On April 19, 2017February 22, 2017 By PercyIn a to z challenge, Food2 Comments

Our A to Z theme is “Our Favourite Things”

P is for Pellets

There are two kinds of pellets, and our favourite is the kind you eat (not the kind you poop).

They come in a bag with the name Harringtons on it, and it says ‘Optimum Guinea Pig Food, no artificial colours or flavourings and no added sugar, made in North Yorkshire.’ There are pictures of two piggies on the front, both of which look a bit like Kevin. It always seems to me that pictures of guinea pigs mostly look like Kevin, with ginger cheeks and a white stripe down his face which goes over his mouth. Why is that? Is this a body image thing? Aren’t black guinea pigs just as handsome? Apparently red-eyed guinea pigs get a bad deal too, but Fred and George were red-eyed, and they were all-over ginger, too. But anyway, I was talking about pellets.

They are nice and tasty and crunchy and good for our teeth as well as our tummies. But we shouldn’t have too many or we could get fat. Hay is best. Or grass. With pellets as a supplement. Apparently.

Mummy says other brands are available, but she thinks we like these best.

I don’t like tomato, by the way. Kevin loves it. He would.