31 Days of October

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank you Coco61, Sherbet loved her beauty sleep so I have a lot of photo of Sherbet sleeping – as she looked so adorable I couldn’t resist getting a quick photo of her looking so relaxed.

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15th – Sherbet – Food and Whimzees

As from my post about Sherbet you can see that she loved sleeping, snuggling, grooming and playtimes – well there is one more thing Sherbet loved – Food!

Sherbet was very greedy and she thought all food was meant for her! This would lead her to become a little grumpy if she felt that I was hiding food from her. By far one of her most favourite treats was walnuts – she would do anything for walnuts even take horrible medicine.

Like all my girls, Sherbet also loved my dad’s homegrown sweetcorn - Sherbet would like to eat where she felt her sweetcorn was safe from being stolen like snuggled in her towel,

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Sherbet also thoroughly enjoyed chewing on her whimzee chews – you can see from the bottom left photo Sherbet wrestling her whimzee hedgehog – during a cuddle time I offered Sherbet her whimzee hedgehog and the next minute she lying on her side chewing on it!

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And I’m finishing of my post about Sherbet with my favourite photo of her …

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[cypher]

Such sweet photos of her with her corn & I had to laugh at her battling her hedgehog, no doubt who won lol!
The last photo really is lovely.

[dreamtree1234]

Aww, thank you for sharing the photos of her tiny spot on her back and a series of them above her tail. They were so adorable and made me smile. She was a real cutie! I also enjoyed seeing her eating photos. She looks so snuggly and precious in the towel while munching on your dad's delicious sweetcorn. How utterly sweet!!! Her wrestling and carrying her huge hedgehog whimzee made me giggle, too. I love her naughty side, too. She was such a character and truly, TRULY special. What a gorgeous and adorable final photo of Sherbet! I love that you use it as your Avatar photo, too.

[Coco61]

Sherbet certainly knew how to keep that sweet corn safe and the hedgehog never stood a chance!

[SunnyOy]

awwwwwww, what a cutie......I love the pinkish little paws and ears~~

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank you cypher, dreamtree1234, Coco61 and SunnyOy.
Sherbet loved her whimzees and I would often see her having wrestling matches with them – it was always so funny to watch and off course Sherbet always won! Like all my girls she loved homegrown sweetcorn – those photos inspired me to do a photoshoot a few months back of Pumpkin with her sweetcorn.

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16th – Papa Smurf

I have never gotten around to introducing Papa Smurf on here yet but before you get excited no he isn’t a new hamster. I have been meaning to share his story here before but I haven’t gotten around to it so I thought this would be the ideal time.

Back in October 2009, I had visited p@h to get a few things for Cotton and whilst I was there decided to have a look in the adoption centre (like I always do) however this time whilst I was reading about the hamsters up for adoption this one hamster description left me heartbroken – as it describe a 2 year old robo called Papa Smurf who had been returned to the store! I tried my hardest to convince my mum to allow me to adopt him but unfortunately as I had Cotton I wasn’t allowed another hamster. I kept trying to convince my mum to allow me to adopt him that evening and following morning – but the answer was still no however she then said if my brother still wanted a hamster he could adopt him. I provided my brother with everything he needed and later that day we went to p@h and adopted him. My brother and mum decided to keep his name as Papa Smurf as they both like The Smurfs and it was also a fitting name for an elderly robo.

Despite his age and also looking old and being a little bit wobbly on his feet this didn’t slow him down – he would race in his wheel and run around his cage like he was a young hamster. Papa Smurf was also a really friendly and tame robo he didn’t mind being handled, although my brother was a little unsure of handling him as he had seen Honey and Caramel bite before, which meant I got to give him cuddles instead – which I didn’t mind!

Papa Smurf sadly wasn’t part of our family for long before he peacefully went to the bridge. Even though he was with us just for a short time he did leave a huge paw print in our hearts and I was happy I manage to convince my mum that he needed a loving and caring home when he left to go to the bridge.

Here are a few photos of Papa Smurf ...

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[BorisPasha]

I've gotten way behind on your thread again SKB but I do enjoy sitting down and being able to catch up with so many lovely pictures and stories while I enjoy a cup of tea

I'm so sorry you lost Toffee while she was still so young, that must have been really upsetting for you. You were lucky to have each other and it sounds like you brought a lot of joy to each other even if it was for a shorter time than you would have liked.

Sherbert is incredible looking. I love her orange eye patches. She looks so cheeky in her pictures, what a beautiful snuggly girl she was

Aww, how wonderful that you managed to persuade your Mum to give Papa Smurf a home. Sounds like he was a great little guy and I'm glad he had a wonderful home with you before it was his time to go to the bridge

[cypher]

Aww! what an adorable little old man Papa Smurf was, so glad you managed to persuade your mum & he got to spend some time in a loving home with plenty to enjoy before his time to go to the bridge.

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank you BorisPasha and cypher. I felt so happy that I could help Papa Smurf get a loving forever home before he went to the bridge - even if that meant he was my brothers hamster I still really loved him and I enjoyed the time I got to spend with him giving him cuddles.

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17th - Garden Wildlife

Over the next few day I will be sharing some other of my favourite photo subjects apart from my pets. So today it some photos of the wildlife visitors to my garden.

I have a keen interest in wildlife and wildlife conservation, so one day every week I have a wildlife conservation voluntary job – where a big group of volunteers go out to the nature reserves in our local area to carry out different habitat conservation task. It can be really hard work but it is really enjoy it and have been a volunteer for over a year now. It is also so nice seeing such a vast array on wildlife and also learning more about them from the other volunteers – although it’s a shame I don’t have my camera to hand. However I do get quite a lot of wildlife visiting my garden.

Including this Red Admiral Butterfly, who visited my garden back in September, When I first saw the butterfly I quickly ran inside to get my camera. As soon as I get my camera to focus the butterfly, it flew off and I was really disappointed however the butterfly gave me an aerial display before landing again in almost the same place so I managed to get some photo. I even saw one yesterday in my garden despite being a little windy here – the colours looked even more vibrant due to the eerie yellow sky and red sun!

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I also get a lot of bees visiting my garden – it’s always lovely to see them pollinating the flowers – seeing them all covered in pollen and some with their yellow pollen welly boots on! (Whenever I see a bee with pollen covered legs it reminds me of yellow welly boots). It has taken me lots of practise to get some good photos of bees, so here are the photos I’m happy with

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My garden is popular place with birds too enjoying the food from the feeders. It so lovely watching them flying from feeder to the tree in my garden but they are too quick to get any clear photos however here are two birds I managed to get photos of ...

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ETA - This afternoon after posting my post for today whilst watching the birds in my garden, a female green woodpecker comes hopping across my lawn. I was watching her for a while and was contemplating whether to go and get my camera as I was worried that if I went to get my camera she would fly away - but luckily she didn't. I haven't seen a green woodpecker in my garden for a while now so it was a lovely sight. It was a little difficult to get a good photo as I had to zoom in quite a bit but I thought I would share a few photos that I took especially as my post for today is about my garden wildlife.

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[BorisPasha]

Great pictures SKB It was a very funny coloured sky and sun yesterday. The insects must have been feeling brave to fly around in that weather

I do like the idea of the bees and there yellow welly boots

Your conservation work sounds very interesting, well done for volunteering some of your time to such a good cause