Look Terry, your very own critter page. As good as you are with the digi and knowing how many great small creatures you have, this seemed like a very good idea. Anyone can start their own thread too, by using the 'create new conversation' button at the end of each topic title list.

Oh Maggie, the pressure, now I've got to find critters.....here little critters come and smile for the camera....hey where did you all go.....

Give an artist a new canvas ... and they clam up everytime ! Right Terry? How about some colorful shots of your mature livestock - the mommies and daddies of those babies you raise, in full color? And post a link to your tropical bird page for us too, please.

Maggie every time I try to post a pic I am getting the following error:

Formatting Error
The formatting code Image does not exist.

This comes at the preview stage.

As far as I can see I am doing nothing different.

I'll try one to test it.

Well you got further than me Maggie...
I'll just try again...
Chickens, small one is Old English Game Bantam, other two are unknown crossbreeds and still laying every day or so at four years old.

Hello Maggie

O.K. now we're on a roll a couple of froggies, both common English frogs, but notice the different colours and markings, no two are alike.

No prob at this end.
Maybe Carolyn did it ;-)

are you doing \image....
{Text description}
without the dots?
then hit preview
then browse / open
then load?
Maybe my earlier instructions got you fouled up, or its all these baby fowl pics on the pages.
(ok to cringe)

I just tried to post this message w/o hitting enter before the curly brackets text - it gave me the same error message as you are getting. so that means you have a space or something else wrong in the /image code thing. Maybe my keyboard dyslexia is contagious.

We did it AGAIN! - You posted while I was writing. Very strange. Anyway, glad to see you got it going... Bantammmmmmsssss that's what I've always wanted! They are beautiful. My family has been hearing about it for years and keep bringing me the wrong kind. I will start my own creature page tonight to show what I end up with.

Terry, I loved seeing your frogs! Here is one of the frogs I photographed last year - if I can manage to post it. We hear frogs often, but rarely see them.

Maggie, Are Bantams legal in our area? Do we care? I've always wanted some too. Of course, then I want a duck. Then I want a bunny. And the duck needs a pond, right? Another....shhhhhhh, don't-tell-Sonny post. Love the pixes. Let's see... I could share a picture of my black plastic...anybody wanna see that??

Oh yeah, and here's a stupid question. I thought merry ole' England was opposite our time? You and Terry writing and posting together...who's the night owl and who's the early bird? Does the time shown on the board, reflect USA time even though Terry's posting from afar? Maybe that's a puter question. Heck, at this point, I don't even know what time it is. Another day of changing my mind 15 times on tile, vinyl, paint, tile, paint, vinyl, tile.....eeeeeeehhhhhhhh...I'm worn out!

Terry, The photos are great! Are your bantams in a chicken tractor? Do they get lots of grass and weeds to eat? In other words, are the egg yolks orange?

When we moved the chicken tractor this evening, we let the little turkeys out and they went crazy chasing the baby grasshoppers. Its so neat to see when they catch them.....and eat them! Good turkeys!

T and S, those frogs are so elegant compared to warty ol' toads, but I'm still fond of our fat croakers. I am wondering if your frog is the same or related to what they call tree frogs in East Texas and Houston area, Susan. The tree frogs are about 1-2 inches, head to tail.

On the time thing Gail, UK is 6 hours later than us, cause sun rises in the East and takes 6 hrs to get here. Make sense? My forum shows postings at FW time, so it is 6 hrs later for Terry than what the page says. Stay with me here ;-)... He posted 11pm his time, when it was 5pm here. He and I are night owls for sure. Yet, sometimes when I'm working late at night, he is on early in the am. I'll be having a nightcap when he's having a morning cuppa, sorta thing. Its really tricky to catch my relatives on the phone at the right time what with the time difference.

On the remodeling,,, maybe you are doing too many areas at one time. You sound like me tho - let it all go 'til it all needs doing at once. Then all whatever breaks loose.

I'll go make my Creature thread and show you some of our foul fowl.

Now let me get this right, Carolyn farms in a swimsuit and Gail decorates in black plastic....I really must get over to Fort Worth....and we English are the eccentric ones??

Touche

Sorry Carolyn, I never answered your question about the chicken feed/yolk colour. Ours get most of the leftovers, including rice when we have a Chinese take-away, and they do catch the odd mouse every now and again. Yokes are still yellow, the eggs are about half size of standard chickens, but the yolks are full size, and crumbly soft when hard boiled.

My Father-in-Law pickles the quail eggs, he has much patience, can you imagine how long it takes to shell enough to fill a jar.

We do not have "tractors" for the chickens, just and outside run, but we do for the guinea pigs. My lawn such as it is, has little rectangles of short grass where they have been, and little torpedos of fertiliser (do not sit on the grass).

We thought of allowing the chickens to go free range in the garden to control the slugs, but they have been in the pen for so long, they would not come out, even with the door open, and the cat's seemed a little too interested in the soft dry earth in the run.

Maggie, I forgot to ask, who has been giving you a "hand" in the garden?

Terry, it's time for you to confess something odd...surely you have a bit of eccentricity too....? Do you sing to your flowers? Dance at midnight in the garden? Plant by the moon?

Terry, be sure to read my post about chickens and flower beds before you try to let your loose in the garden.

FYI, the orange color of the yolk is caused by the chlorophyll in the grass and weeds. Isn't that cool?

To Terry de Wit, I wish I could get a real-working "helping hand" in the garden more often!
The assemblage hand bits were collected off the beach of a little French fishing village, right across the channel from Brighton. The beach is a mirror image of the opposing UK one: white limestone cliffs laced with flint, which erodes into the ocean, then is tide-rolled into cobbles. It was a challenge to find the digit shaped ones among the mostly bun ones. The ring is sea-rolled green glass set in winkle shell, also found that day - probably a wine bottle remnant, appropriately !
Gail, about Terry's eccentricity - I'll let him answer.
About mine... one would be the strange things I bring back from our trips - not the expected souvenir fodder. I'll try to find a pic of my potato bricks soon, from Cornwall.

Eccenticities, hmmmm let me think, nope, non, not one unless you count getting up at 1.30a.m. and going down the garden with a torch because it's raining so heavy, and you have just finished building a fish pond complete with freshly mortared stonework, that you have tried to protect from the weather with a tarpaulin, and which has now collected in it enough water to half fill the pond. So there I was soaked to the skin, trying to scoop away the water, then adjusting the support ropes to try to make sure it didn't trap the water again, and this is what we do for pleasure. Funny when you look back expending so much effort to try to keep water "out" of a pond.

I have also stopped out in the garden on guard all night long, after someone got in and stole a bamboo plant, of course they didn't come back.

Bet not many would try to steal Carolyn's plants, not after reading about the shotgun.

p.s. My chat name is Duckweed (eccentric? never)

Maggie you are real artist, that hand is a real piece of sculpture, I assumed that you had photographed it at some exhibition on your travels.

I know what you mean about the potato bricks, I've found those myself, it is amazing what the action of the sea creates. I am a confirmed pebble addict myself, can spend hours on the beach looking for unusual ones (eccentric, never).

I saw something really simple but so effective at the Harrogate flower show, small rough blocks of wood, each about three inches (7.5cm) cube, with a hole through the centre and with opposing ends stained, then skewered onto a dowel or garden cane one on top of the other, until a column about two feet (60cm) or so high has been produced. The blocks are then twisted to face at slightly different angles. Very cheap but effective garden decoration, looks much better than it sounds, trust me.

Allow me: tarpaulin/tarp
Your 1:30 jaunt may seem eccentric to non-gardeners Terry, but not this bunch, right? Here, it would be admired as you having that successful-garden-making quality: discipline. And an occasional bout of that is what causes me to do a lot of seeming weird (to my family) things out there.

Was that a Black bamboo? I saw a freshly up-rooted at David's house last week. Be careful, he may have had C riding shot gun for him. And yes Gail, I have put in a request for a piece of b bamboo.

But did you bring the potato bricks home for the garden, Terry?

Did you get a shot of the thing at Harrogate Terry? I'm thinking it would be even more interesting to string objects on a bend-able stout wire to give the structure extra shape. I adore handmade garden art, esp w recycled bits. My latest began with a piece of sewer pipe - doesn't look (or smell) like it now. Would love to start a page (sep from forum) on homemade yard art using site-guests pics. Think it would fly? Do I have any takers reading this now?

Duckweed, I like. I don't have a chat name, any ideas... Let's see, if David is Shadester, I could be Sunshine! How's that?

OK. I give up. What are potato bricks?

I'm so glad someone asked ;). I'll show you C., when I get that new page up. Must finish writing Giverny first.
Big news Terry, I will soon be able to manage even more of the site w/o being dependant on poor tired ol'Larry, after he has messed with commercial putors all day. He has upgraded my chine, so I will now have more of the sitemaking programs in my office. Hurray!! and if you start seeing very weird things on my pages soon, now you will know why.

Just one thing Maggie, I never said "black" bamboo, but that is what it was. Were you in England on the night of 12th of June 1992? I must caution you that anything you say may be taken down and used in evidence....lol

Awww its just kismet - like the potato bricks. Who else would know what they were; I just made up the name and you've admired them too, enough to know what I meant.
How's that for alibi? Now, where was David on the night in question? He's the one with the incriminating evidence.

BLACK BAMBOO! Dang it! David, Terry, I'll pay big $$ for a small piece..of bamboo, guys!

Weird things to bring back from trips? I made Sonny stop in Childress, Texas roadside so I could break off the pods from some Texas plant, looked like a yucca...I came back with a trunk and back seat full. Give them away when friends say they love 'em. I know, I know, one day you'll get to come to my house, Maggie. They are great dried decorations for the fall but stay up in the corners my rooms all year. The teeny spiders love 'em too! Also, I have two pods from California palms tree that I got back in the 60's when I lived there. I was collecting even then. I have a tree stump bigger than a large end table (the tree that has the knees on it...shoot what's it called?) It was collected by my gramma and grampa on the ranch one year after a HUGE Texas flood washed it below their dam. My grampa saw it after the flood and walked about up the 1/4 mile hill to get my gramma and they rolled the wet HEAVY thing up the hill and to the house. After they got back to the house all proud with it, they looked over at their tractor/trailer used for hauling things and had a good laugh! Anyway, I am blessed to have inherited it and it sits in the corner of my living room with elves and air plants. Even Sonny has forgotten how heavy it was to bring home and has fallen in love with it. Rocks, pinecones....don't get me started! I have a friend in California who hikes into some mountains that have these pinecones that are about 14 inches long. She boxes them up and sends fresh ones to me every few years. They are everywhere. Okay, okay, I'll stop now! But trust me, there's more!

Gee, Gail you have seen Maggie's Garden alot and you want to see mine......You know you can come see mine as soon as you take Maggie on a tour of your estate???? If it is next year or five years it all depends on YOU........

I wonder if the collecting thing makes us gardeners, or if being gardeners makes us collect things.....I think you have a term for it in the States "Pack Rats?", well we are too Gail, our bungalow is not very large, but I built lots of wardrobes/cupboards into all the bedrooms and they are all packed to bursting point with all manner of things(rubbish). We have now started on the loft, I foolishly part boarded it out for easy access, now that is getting full also. I expect the roof will collapse one day under the weight.

D is pressuring you Gail. Right, have us over in the middle of remodeling and yard renovation. Sure Dave.

I blame my pack-ratting on creative drive - as in, 'everything has possibilities and you never know when you'll need it'. That, and my admiration of all things organic, like G's stuff. Our problem here is, we cannot floor up our loft (attic) without rearranging the studs (beams, supporting joists, can't remember which is Am & which is Brit) to make a large enough opening for wide pull down ladder and wide items. Sooo every closet, shelf, cupboard and niche is crammed with wonders I can't part with. I still have my first car - a 61 MGA, somewhere in the garage. Now all you other pack rats pull out that stash and make some yard art with it ... this is going to be fun. Gail and David, you can drag yours over here for pic making. Maybe some of our silent readers will even be motivated to assemble and send in.

Don't know if its redundant or not, but ...
bungalow = one story house. I know the true origins of the term Terry, but think this one amusing: lazy builders said 'let's finish this up and bung a low roof on.'

Or in our case Maggie let's not finish this up and bung a low roof on, the cement screed on the floors was still wet when we finally moved in, late.

We only have a small opening into the loft, and when I look around up there I am sure half the stuff must have grown, it surely never fitted through.

61 MGA, what you need Maggie is a drive in loft.

Bet you think I have nothing better to do than hang around here waiting for messages to appear...

Oh I just remembered something, did any of you folks have a bamboo that flowered about two years ago? I did, Arundinaria murielae, I believe. I had read in the books that when they finally flower they usually die and sure enough it did, after doing a good impression of an eight foot high seeding grass (which is what it was).

The thing is bamboos are propagated by division and each plant retains the bio clock for flowering, so at garden centres all over the country £50.00+ bamboos died in their thousands. I felt sorry for anyone who bought the year they decided to flower, expensive annual. Mine had been with me about eight years so that wasn't too bad and it did produce thousands of seeds. I have just two seedlings left now and they are after two years, about eight inches high, so it will be a long wait before they reach the splender of the old one.

One is going spare if you want to pop round Gail.

Terry, be right there! I'm so wishin' and hopin' for black bamboo. WOnder what the hubby would if I told him I have to pop over to England for some bamboo? Poor guy! I'm surprised he hadn't left years ago! Every spring I expect him to pack his bags for a non-gardening, non-collector's abode. My attic is floored so we could store my Christmas treasures. Sonny swears every box (at least 20) is Christmas. I say at least one box is his memorabilia from high school.

David, you are welcome to come see my plastic and half patio roof, half painted house and displaced bathroom tiles. It's quite lovely right now. I had a maid come through today for several hours. Wasn't that smart?!?!?? Oh well, at least my kitchen is clean -- til they tear up the vinyl to replace with tile.

Back on my own creatures page and another reason why I keep guinea pigs, they have such cute babies, here's dad and three of them.

Now for something larger, not mine unfortunately, just grazing in the field beyond my garden, but Maggie did want horses and he is rather good looking.

Yes!! those babies are precious - I had never seen little ones before. They have such a different shape at that age than when grown. It is thought that one of the reasons why human babies are so cute to us is because of their heads being proportionately large than their bodies and it seems the same for the g piggies too. They say that's why cartoon characters are designed with oversized heads, to appeal to our instinctive affection for babies.

Nice backyard view - He's gorgeous!!! Lucky you, having that scene instead of someone's back fence!

Please keep posting these wonderful country scenes. It's the only thing keeping me sane right now!

Another guinea pig gave birth yesterday (Saturday), and here she is with one of her three babies, yes it was that size at birth. I searched for the zipper, but couldn't find one, how on earth do they get them out????

and here are the other two...

Wow! Those do seem like awfully big babies for such a little creature. Sure are cute. I suppose this explains your absence...busy delivering babies, playing with babies, ....cleaning up after babies??

Instead of wow, I'm thinking YOUCH! They are cuties...but you couldn't convince me they are worth the pain...I'm a wimp! Thus my passion for gardening and not kiddies...(none of you male(s)-types need make any comments in response to my comparison of myself to a g-pig).

It's not painful Gail...I didn't feel a thing.

Snowflake escaped from her cage. She is my white chipmunk, and literally fell out of the cage as I was holding a peanut for her to take. The wire inner shed door was closed so she couldn't get outside, but the little devil managed to get under the bottom guinea pig cage and up a tiny gap at the side. There was no way that I could get to her up there, so I went away for an hour and then popped back. She was out but as soon as I opened the door she shot back to her new hiding place. Determined not to be outsmarted by the little squirrel I set about making a wire covered framework, complete with small upward hinged door, to fix across the opening under the guinea pig pen. My idea being that I could operate the door with a length of string from outside the shed and prevent her from going back under once she came out. Two hours later and it was completed and ready to install. I entered the shed and spotted her behind her own cage, quick as I could I popped the new frame in place. Then I pulled forward her cage enough to allow me to reach behind, after putting on a very strong pair of gardening gloves. As soon as she realised what I was doing she made a bolt for her new hiding place. You should have seen the look of dismay when she saw the new frame blocking her exit. She recovered her composure and shot straight up the front of all three guinea pig cages, and ended up in with Mama pig, Daddy pig and Baby pig (perhaps she thought she was Goldilocks, not Snowflake). I made a grab, she shot up the back of the cage, and I caught her. Was I glad of the gardening gloves, she bit so hard I was sure she would get through them, but she didn't quite make it.
She is now back in her cage with her mate, and has forgiven me, I knew she would, she just loves her peanuts too much.

I didn’t know you had chipmunks or that there are white ones! Can we seeeee please :-)?

Alex and Larry were playing a very similar game last night. He woke up in the wee hours to a loud noise outside. Went out to check on it, found nothing amiss, decided to ‘do a few things out there’, making more noise which woke up Alex, who ran around checking on things. Thinking she saw 2 big lumps under our duvet, she roamed further and found the back door unlocked. So she locks it and runs back upstairs. Larry finishes puttering around and nearly breaks the now-locked door down trying to get in, making enough noise to further horrify Alex. The dogs slept thru it all and the cat just sat in the window looking at Larry with a superior air. I was apparently asleep enough to have looked like 2 duvet lumps and am now drawing up plans for wire mesh doors for the bedrooms.
Thanks for the tip Terry.

Here she is, Snowflake, superglued to the wire mesh so she would stay still for her picture to be taken. It took 15 shots before I finally got this one, they can certainly move.

Terry, I can totally relate to your story. Amazing how all animals always want to be somewhere besides where they are. Good thinking on the trapping apparatus. Snowflake is really pretty. I've never seen a white chipmunk before.

Terry, are there more than this one white chipmunk in the entire world? Is this common? I'm with Maggie and Caro, never seen one white. Seen a white squirrel but it was years ago in Kiabab Nat'l Park.

They are pretty common over here, but only as pets, they don't live wild in this country..YET!!!

What a WONDERFUL shot you did get Terry. Thank you :-), she is beautiful!

O.K. Terry nice picture!!!!!Lovely color for a Chipmunk!!!!!!

Not for the sqeamish.
I nearly fell over this little slimer.
In case your wondering, I didn't kill it, might have had a go if I had Carolyn's shotgun, but they do get nasty when wounded. Besides it's only fair to let the young ones go...lol

Holy Moly!! That's the biggest ... what the hell is that anyway?!? Snail? Slug? No shell? Man, I wouldn't step on that either. It would squish all the way to Nicola's place, wouldn't it?

My VWXY, you could put a saddle on that and RIDE it down to Nicolas!!!!!!!

I have a friend who sits on his porch and shoots the grasshoppers with a bb gun. Really. Says its his organic remedy. You know you're in Texas when...

So you see not all things are bigger in Texas, and I'm not kidding when I say they come bigger than that one. I know Nicola will back me up on that, I noticed hers are the same species, but she is probably more diligent than me and gets them before they reach such proportions. The worst feeling in the world is when you place your hand under a pot to lift it and one of them is stuck there. They can move pretty fast too, it was lined up with the ruler, but by the time I focused and clicked it had moved as you can see.
Just imagine the scene two years ago when they were really bad, I went out one evening and about 30 that size were sailing in convoy across my drive. In wet weather in spring when food is in short supply they climb up into the branches of my cherry tree.

Oh yes, they do get that big but as you say Terry I generally get to them first. Do you get the grey ones with the orange edge? Have you ever found slugs eating a slug or snail that you have previously despatched to sluggy heaven? Now that is really yucky.

Even worse, Nicola, they eat parts of dead mice and birds that the cats leave lying around, and they crawl across the kitchen floor to get the cat food. Do you ever find that at certain times a lot of them die for no apparent reason, we find them on the paths shrivelling up in the sun with no sign of damage and I use no poisons. We usual do a little dance and sing a lot when we find them like that, does it mean we are not really nature lovers? J I really must type the code for that thing as a note so I can copy and paste. J

I REALLY haven't been this grossed out in a LONG time! Ugh! I'd rather go back to the X-rated conversation and forget about these icky things. Spiders and even mice don't make me squeemish but I'm afraid if I saw one of these crawling across my dining room floor, I would be leaving the country! Ick!

Sorry to be such a wus!

I'm with you there Gail, I can handle most things that the animal kingdom has to offer, but I do have a revulsion of slugs and leeches.

Seven baby guinea pigs made it into the world this morning. Mum and little squeakers doing fine, pic to follow if I can get all seven to stand still long enough for a group shot.....better than slugs, watch this space.... Hopefully tomorrow...
See what you mean Carolyn, about the long load, just start to type and another pic loads and pushes you off screen...lol

Congratulations! Anxiously awaiting picture.

Here they are, one is buried under the pile.

How cute! I'd forgotten how large they are at birth. You would think they would be tiny like o'possums.

Maggie, when you get time will you please start a new thread for Terry. It took 5 minutes, I kid you not, for this thread to load.

Sorry Carolyn, I should have started one myself, it is getting out of hand.

You guys, with Maggie gone I'm thinking we should talk about her some. Don't you agree? New thread? I'm a numskull on how so someone will have to start. We want her ears to burn a little bit, don't we?

Who's this Maggie? don't remember her. Oh wait it's coming back to me now, is she the bossy one who doesn't like Star Trek?

I'd rather call it persistent Terry ;-) and who says I don't like Star Trek? - think I'm living it most days!
Anyway,,, I snuck over and found your November garden to be as delightful to wander in as springtime. So I'm inviting others over for a wander too. See, if I was bossy, I'd be telling um where to go, instead of
You Are Cordially Invited to Visit Terry's Yorkshire Garden in November
Am I supposed to ask you first, if I can do this? But if I did ask, and you said No, I'd keep asking, right? see,,, persistent ;)

How funny! I just finished reading Terry's November pages before I looked at the forum. I agree, Maggie. Its amazing how much Terry finds to photograph in the winter. Did you look at his bird pages as well?

What wonderful pictures! especially for November. I'm looking at snow today, so I really enjoyed viewing your gardens while warming up from the morning farm work.

Thank you people, sort of makes it all worthwhile. Wish it would snow here mamakane, then I would have a good excuse for no December pages. J
Hey! Maggie took you a long time to get around to answering that one, thought I'd got away with it.

It took me this long to find that widesnide again Terry ,,, but I hadn't forgotten it ;-)