Tag: atozchallenge

Reflections on our Favourite Things A to Z

On 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 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!

Percy and Bertie love zebras
Hector hides
Bertie bides his time
Humphrey in the zebra sack
Hugo’s birthday present
Percy in camouflage

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 By PercyIn a to z challenge9 Comments

img_3626Hello 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”

sS 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!

Fred & George take grass on the way back from Devon
George trying out the new fleecy pocket aka snugglesac
Kevin asleep
Kevin resting
Humphrey in the zebra sack
Dylan investigates
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 By PercyIn a to z challenge7 Comments
Percy on the step
Percy on the step

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”

rR 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 By PercyIn a to z challenge18 Comments

img_3307

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”

qQ 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.

img_3708

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 By PercyIn a to z challenge, Food2 Comments
Percy
Percy

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”

pP 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.

Percy
Percy with 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.

O for Oregano #AtoZChallenge

On By PercyIn a to z challenge, Food3 Comments
Percy finds the lavender
Percy finds the lavender

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”

oO is for Oregano

Oregano is a green or yellow or green-and-yellow herb, and it grows in our garden in lots of places, but I haven’t found where yet. It smells and tastes lovely. It’s definitely one of our favourite things to eat.

All the boys love herbs.  I didn’t really know about them before I came here, but we get herbs most days, especially in the summer when they come straight from the garden.  During the winter Mummy brings a bunch in with her rustly bags and puts them in a pot of water.  That’s usually dill or parsley, though.  Maybe they don’t grow oregano in the winter.

Percy's birthday party in the kitchen
Percy’s birthday party in the kitchen

Sometimes when we have birthday cakes they have dried oregano in them that’s been soaked along with the pellets.  They are delicious!

N for New Fleeces #AtoZChallenge

On By PercyIn a to z challenge, Hygiene6 Comments

percy-pig

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”

nN is for New Fleeces

There are lots of things suitable for lining the bottom of a guinea pig house (or cage, or run).  We mostly have fleeces on top of newspaper (although Mummy now also uses absorbent pads* because we tend to pee in the same places which makes a soggy mess).

Sometimes we get new fleeces, and they’re lovely.  My tartan fleece was nearly new when I got it, only Hector had used it before.  Oscar got new fleeces for Christmas, because the old ones hadn’t been proper fleeces and she wanted to throw them out.  Midge says he needs new fleeces, and Mummy agrees, and says he might have them for his birthday.  And Kevin says he has the original fleeces for the run, that Fred and George had, and they are still really good, and he has the one that came with him and Colman from Jersey with paw prints on it, and also the newer butterfly one, and they are all great, so he thinks we’re sissies.  Or else he just treats them better than the rest of us.

Mummy says a new fleece has to be washed a couple of times to get it ready to be used, otherwise pee just sits on top, instead of draining through to the absorbent layer underneath.  That’s the only disadvantage of a new fleece, as far as I can see, since otherwise they are nice and soft and with no old boar glue patches that didn’t wash out.  Um, I suppose you want me to explain what boar glue is.  Well, let’s just say only boars produce it, it’s a thick liquid and it dries to a gluey lump.

Anyway, here is Oscar with his Christmas present of new fleeces (there are some food pellets on it to encourage him to step on it).

Oscar with his new fleece
Oscar with his new fleece

*Mummy here.  ‘Puppy pads’ are often used, but they tend to be treated to attract dogs, which might not be a good chemical in a guinea pig home.  Unscented pads are found in the health supplies section on Amazon – search for incontinence pads or under pads.  They work out cheaper than the equivalent amount of newspaper, if you can afford to buy in bulk! They can’t be recycled or composted though.

I get cheap fleece throws from household stores like The Range; they tend to be the right size for my cages when folded, and they are cheaper than buying by the metre in a fabric store.

M for Mummy #AtoZChallenge

On By KevinIn a to z challenge6 Comments

IMG_3004Hi, Kevin here.  We’re into the second week of the A to Z Challenge, and in case you’re just visiting, I’m a six year old ginger and white guinea pig.  This blog was started by Fred and George, Mummy’s very first guinea pigs.  She writes books about them too.

Our A to Z Challenge theme is “Our Favourite Things”

mM is for Mummy

Well, Mummy is definitely our favourite thing, but it’s very difficult to know what to say about her.  She’s pretty reliable, very kind, good to cuddle, and keeps an eye on our health and welfare.  And she loves us, and we love her.

She also writes books about us.  You probably know that.  They are called the Princelings of the East series, and they are sort of fantasy science fiction adventures, because we live in castles and do interesting things in a world without humans, and there’s a time tunnel involved.

  • George is an engineer who invents a new energy source from strawberry juice, and then gets into flying and builds planes.
  • Fred is a king, although he starts out as a princeling.
  • Hugo is the baddie, although he’s quite nice really, just has different ideas from everyone else.
  • Victor is the cute kid at the inn in the middle of everything and he grows up to become a business guru and bartender.
  • Humphrey is a loner, very shy, who has a big adventure and eventually finds friends.
  • Hector is a troublemaker but his bit of the story hasn’t been written yet.
  • Colman is a baddie, and takes control of Deeping Castle because its prince is too young to take charge
  • and I’m the prince of Deeping Castle, and I get my revenge in book 8, which Mummy has written but won’t be out till at least Christmas
  • Dylan and Dougall have short stories in each of the BookElves Anthologies, and they are the Princelings of the North, which is the title of book 8, and they help me claim my inheritance back
  • Midge, Oscar and Percy will get involved at some stage.  Percy is apparently already in there as a king of a castle, and Midge and Oscar’s father is Willoughby’s friend in book 7, but they aren’t in it yet.

jemima-promo-visual

You can read the proper details about the books in the menu page above – Books, but you can also get the first one free for your ebook reader, or the first three for a special offer price, or enter a competition to win them on Mummy’s blog Jemima Pett, Author.

L for Lavender #AtoZChallenge

On By KevinIn a to z challenge9 Comments

IMG_3246

Hi, Kevin here.  We’re into the second week of the A to Z Challenge, and in case you’re just visiting, I’m a six year old ginger and white guinea pig.  This blog was started by Fred and George, Mummy’s very first guinea pigs.  She writes books about them too.

Our A to Z Challenge theme is “Our Favourite Things”

lL is for Lavender

Oooh, lavender!  I adore lavender.  Mummy has some bushes growing in the corner of one of the vegetable patches, and when are runs are next to it during the summer I try to sneak some pieces off and eat them.  She doesn’t seem to mind, she says something about pruning doing them good.

Sometimes she uses pieces of lavender in things, and gives us a little with our breakfast, or as a treat.  She sometimes decorates summer birthday cakes with it, too.

Yummy!!