Another bunny update

Arya developed a dental abscess back in May and had to be put to sleep – which was very sad as she was a lovely, if somewhat highly-strung, bunny and she and Aragorn (whom I must remember to call Cassius) were a close bonded pair, reliably being found next to each other. Here’s the last photo I took of them, less than a week before Arya died. And a video of Arya eating banana. All bunnies love banana.

Aragorn (front) and Arya

Poor Aragorn (sometimes, Cassius) has been on his own since then, though he seems to have had a reasonable summer, spending loads of time outdoors eating things he shouldn’t.

Eating home-grown mint

Eating a cute little succulent

Eating out of the green waste bag

A few months back we made approaches to the Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary (where he, Arya and Taylor came from) to enquire whether they had an older female needing a companion. Somewhat luckily, they did have a bunny, Chloe, who had recently lost her companion. The whole thing has been delayed as Aragorn (sorry, Cassius) developed an ear infection and they wouldn’t take him until it had cleared up. Thankfully, it did, and we delivered him to the OAS last Saturday morning, where he was put into a pen with Chloe, separated down the middle initially. Earlier today Ruth received an update from Laura at the OAS saying that all seemed to be going well so far, and sent us a cute picture of the two bunnies lying side by side. I won't risk jinxing things by posting it here but we're keeping fingers crossed. The OAS appear to take rather longer over the whole bonding process than Reading Rabbit Rescue, so it could potentially be another couple of weeks before Arag Cassius, and hopefully Chloe, come home.

To finish, an amusing Catherine Howard-related snippet. Ruth and I had a bit of a panic before visiting my parents for the August Bank Holiday weekend in that our pet sitter was unable to make it and we had to briefly contemplate taking Aragorn (or Cassius) with us. Ruth contacted Steve and Sandra at RRR to see if we could borrow a large cage for the weekend, such as the one we gave them once we stopped using it to house Harley and Lola. To our surprise (as they only offer boarding to rabbits who came from them) they offered to take A/C for the long weekend as they had a free cage. When we delivered him, and had the usual sneaky look at the other bunnies in runs in their enormous garden, I couldn’t resist asking if they had been successful in bonding Pippa. No, was the answer. Sandra tried twice, but apparently on both occasions CH/P behaved in such an aggressive and territorial manner with the male bunny that she had to be removed from his presence. After two attempts they decided not to try to bond her again, and rehomed her as an ‘only’ rabbit to an owner who’s at home most of the time. Sandra theorised that Harley must have been her one true love. Sounds a tad over-romantic to me. We were surprised as CH was a mild and well-behaved little thing the whole time she was with Harley - she has clearly become more assertive with maturity.

Kintbury, Lower Green and Inkpen walk with the Berkshire Weekend Walkers

17 September 2022

The BWWs are a local Ramblers group.

We met at Kintbury railway station for this walk, led by an energetic chap called Ian. It was a small group of walkers: only five of us besides the lead.

We walked westwards along the canal towpath for a short way as far as the footbridge. We crossed the footbridge and passed the splendidly Gothic vicarage on the right. Ian noted the connection with Jane Austen’s sister Cassandra. We then took the footpath that passes alongside the garden of The Blue Ball where Ian, who had clearly done his homework, stopped to mention the Swing Riots. Apparently Colonel Dundas rounded up a number of rioters in this area (?) and they were variously hanged/deported.

The gates of St Cassian's Centre

We walked along Wallingtons Road as far as it goes. It ends at a lodge for St Cassian’s Centre on the right and a footpath leading on straight ahead, which we took. So far it was the same route as this walk I took with Ray in November 2020.

We carried on through the wood – according to the OS map, these woods comprise Catmore Copse and Winterly Copse. At a junction of paths, we turned sharp right leading back towards St Cassian’s Centre and took the path leading across the field, passing Inglewood Farm and the site of the former Inglewood Health Hydro (still marked as such on my map, though it stopped being that some years ago).

Sheep near Lower Green

When we came out on Inglewood Road, we turned left (now diverging from the earlier walk with Ray) and walked along the road for a short way before taking a footpath leading to the left through a stud farm (Templeton Stud?). We followed the well-signposted footpath that skirts the stud and then headed south on footpaths towards Lower Green. When we reached Lower Green, Ian diverted us briefly to see the Church of St Michael, which is indeed very lovely.

Footpath through stud

The church of St Michael, Lower Green

After leaving Lower Green we headed eastwards towards Inkpen and stopped at the Crown and Garter at Inkpen Common. We didn’t go into the pub (though did use its facilities) but did go into a cute little coffee shop next door to it where we bought drinks and some people bought cakes.

After leaving we turned briefly right down Westfields and then left onto a footpath, and then crossed some of Inkpen Common, near to the intriguingly-named Hell Corner.

Inkpen Common

Passed an enormous modern house in extensive grounds with a Rolls parked out the front – from the OS map it might be called Godfreys, but hard to tell.

Possibly Godfreys

This was a pleasant walk through attractive and prosperous countryside on a slightly autumnal but still warm day. It was about 10 miles in length and the latter part was a bit fast-paced for me and the two other chaps on the walk: Ian and the two other women forged ahead while the rest of us lagged in the rear. The walk was written up on BWW's website here.

Walklet to Avington, 3.1 miles

4 April 2022

Little walk from Ray's mooring at Kintbury to Avington, and back.

We walked westwards from Kintbury Lock along the towpath to the first bridge, and then up to join the path that runs from Kintbury northwards past Barton Court Fisheries to Avington.

The path, leading up from Kintbury to Avington

The River Kennet

Ray surveying the water

Barton Court is a square-looking red-brick Georgian house. It was owned for many years by Sir Terence Conran; in 2020 (the year of Conran's death), House & Garden re-published this 1984 piece which has some pictures of the house and how the interiors looked then. Evidently the house had been more or less derelict when Conran bought it. I remember that when we went for walks in the Kintbury area years ago with Mum we were always intrigued to note a bright pink flock of deer in the grounds - we couldn't get close enough to see what they were made of. Ray seemed to think that the house had changed hands a year or so ago, and there did look to be some newish-looking signage in the area.

Looking towards Barton Court

Wikipedia describes Avington as a village, but that's stretching a point: it consists of the manor and its outbuildings, a couple of houses that look like estate staff accommodation, and the 11th-century church of St Mark and St Luke. Pevsner's 'Berkshire' describes it as "a memorable little church" and the Norman font as "exceptionally interesting".

The church at Avington

The font

There wasn't any way of making this a circular walk, so we retraced steps and walked into Kintbury village. Our route in red below.

The SPACE app

A while back I downloaded one of those apps that’s supposed to help you monitor how long you spend on your smartphone, as I thought it would be useful to do less mindlessly opening Facebook, Twitter or similar. I chose SPACE. It has a cute interface and probably lots of useful features, but I became so cheesed off at the onslaught of preachy pop-ups that I uninstalled it after about a week. A selection below.

Possibly

No doubt.

No.

OH GOD

Think it might take a bit more than that tbh

Probably

YES I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME

ooooOOOOOoooo

Undoubtedly

In fairness I was probably a bit hasty as it does look as though it has some useful features, and I think you can disable or at least restrict the pop-ups. Unfortunately there's nothing the app can do about you putting down your phone and picking up your tablet to continue doom-scrolling Twitter. I suppose there's just a need for inner strength, resolve etc.

Bunny update

It’s time for an update on the trio of bunnies Ruth adopted in December 2020.

Taylor

Unfortunately, the trio are now a duo – we lost Taylor last autumn after she was put to sleep after one of those typically tricksy rabbit episodes a.k.a. a brief, vague yet apparently extremely serious illness involving all her organs shutting down. A shame, as having a trio of rabbits had been cute, especially when all three of them decided to cram together under one chair, as here.

After initially appearing less forthcoming than the other two, we had fairly quickly realized that Taylor was the dominant animal of the trio, despite being the smallest. She often assertively thrust her way between the other two for access to the food bowl, forcing them to move aside. Like the other two bunnies, Taylor loved the outdoors and, unlike the others, proved a keen burrower, up until her death working determinedly on a hole somewhere in the middle of the garden, causing some concern that she might disappear down it and emerge a few gardens down. After Taylor’s death, we did ponder whether it would be fitting to use her lifeless body to stop up the bloody great hole she'd made, but Ruth decided against this in the end. As a memorial, here are some pictures of Taylor, plus a clip demonstrating her enthusiasm for the outdoors.

Squished between the other two

Let me out?

In the garden

Unsuitable renamings

The two adorable black bunnies are, thankfully, still with us as I write this. Ruth made the IMO odd decision at some point last year to rename Aragorn ‘Cassius’, supposedly after Cassius Clay aka Muhammad Ali. I have not considered Cassius a suitable name mainly because, being sophisticated and erudite, the name ‘Cassius’ makes me think not of the boxer but of Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’, and the quote “yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look”, which makes the name seem incompatible with Aragorn’s fairly round, prosperous appearance. My father’s story about his older brother naming one of their cats Cassius because he had a lean and hungry look has further etched this quote, and association, in my mind. Also, it was a nice match with Arya's name, both beginning with A and being named after fantasy characters. However, as I am high-minded and not at all petty, I have decided to respect the change of name.

Aragorn

We have continued to bicker about it though ('Julius Caesar’ was my assigned Shakespeare play for O-level English Literature back in the day, and I remember being very taken with the performances (and general hotness) of James Mason and John Gielgud as Brutus and Cassius respectively in the 1953 film, which we watched more than once at school).

Outdoorsyness/energy levels

All (well, now both) the bunnies love going outside and show none of the reticence Harley showed about crossing the slight gap between the back door and the paving. Here they are out the garden shortly after we adopted them:

And here's Aragorn looking longingly at the garden through the closed back door:

And here, having jumped into a plant pot to try to get around the obstacle we'd placed in the bunnies' way to keep them in:

The board in the picture above is something Ruth has used for a while to fence the bunnies in to the under-stairs cupboard at night. Aragorn has proved to be the first bunny we've had who actually routinely jumps over this board to escape captivity. As he's no longer a young rabbit, we're surprised he can manage this, but clearly he doesn't like to be fenced in.

Aragorn also climbs the stairs, as Harley did, but as none of our female rabbits have done - I've no idea if it's a sex thing, or if that's just coincidence. As rabbits' hindquarters are bigger than their front legs, they've both looked much more awkward going down the stairs than going up them; as Aragorn is bigger and heavier than Harley was he has more than once slid/rolled the last few steps. It hasn't seemed to put him off though. Since I have moved back into the house and am using the second bedroom as an office, he has frequently been joining me during the day. Ruth has provided him with an empty box for his amusement.

In his box

On his box

Aragorn's intense blackness

I mean. He is SO BLACK. Even next to Arya, also a mainly black rabbit.

Update on re-bonding of Catherine Howard, aka Pippa

A footnote. As previously related, we returned CH to Reading Rabbit Rescue after Harley's death so that she might be re-bonded with another companion. Since then, Ruth and I have been amused to gather from RRR's intermittent Facebook posts that several attempts to bond her have been unsuccessful. Here's one post from April 2021 (we returned her to RRR in September 2020):

And another one from September 2021:

We are charmed that she's clearly not having any of it. Perhaps she enjoys the single life, and/or has decided that life at RRR as a "hard to bond" bunny is pleasant.