Just Nicky

The face of evil June 8, 2008

Dog cruelty charges that shocked Bendigo

‘Evil’ is one of those words that gets over-used and inappropriately used, but it feels entirely correct to me in this case.

I first heard about this via the dog forum that I read. At the time forum members who lived in the Bendigo area suggested that it was well known who the culprit was but a lack of hard evidence prevented him from being charged. It seems that evidence has since been found. I’m dying to check the forum to see what people are saying, but it’s down for maintenance so I’ll have to wait.

A picture of one of the dead wolfhounds was printed on the front page of the Bendigo paper and someone put it on the forum as well. It was graphic and made me feel ill. I know the paper was criticised for publishing it, but it helped bring home the horror of what this man did and I think it may have made the general public take these crimes seriously.

What he did to that dog was a cold calculated act aimed to cause a slow, lingering death - the kind of thing one would have to think about carefully to do successfully. In other words, I don’t think this guy’s just a nutter, he’s a particularly heinous nutter and I sincerely hope he spends a long, painful time in jail.

RIP Lola June 4, 2008

The Lone Chook by Nicky P

Our chooky girl left us during the night. I knew it was a distinct possibility, but I really wasn’t prepared to find her this morning.

When I thought about her life recently I realised that she’d probably been ill for quite a while and we’d just assumed she was going through a flat patch or a long moult. I feel bad that I didn’t pick up on it earlier.

Mark came home from work because he didn’t have any classes this morning. He buried Lola and has planted my little fig tree on top of her. We’ve explained to Finn that she will become part of the soil and help feed the tree and make it healthy. I’m not sure he completely understood what we were getting at so I imagine there’ll be a lot more questions over the next few days and weeks.

We’ll miss Lola.

Crook chook update June 3, 2008

Finn and I took Lola to the vet last night and I’m pleased to say she came home with us. I really wasn’t sure she would so I didn’t want to take Finn, but he insisted on coming with me. Most vets know little or nothing about birds and chooks in particular so I wasn’t sure we’d get any kind of diagnosis. The vet we saw grew up on a farm with lots of chooks and is partial to them which helped a great deal, I think.

We don’t have a definitive diagnosis but it seems that our feathered friend has some digestive issue which led to a build up of undigested seed and a resulting infection. I’ll spare you the details of how we found that out, but suffice to say it involved a glove and smelled dreadful. She hasn’t been eating much for a while and I’m pretty sure she’s eaten and drunk virtually nothing in the last few days so she’s lost a lot of condition.

We came home with antibiotics to be syringed into her mouth twice daily and instructions to syringe as much water as possible down her throat at 2-3 hourly intervals. I gave her some water last night before putting her back in her house and she really didn’t resist at all. This morning she looks a little brighter and the antibiotics went in without a problem, but she was less happy about the water and it took 3 or 4 attempts to get 15ml of water into her which is definitely a good sign.

I’m going to restrict Lola to her house while she recuperates so that she has nothing to do but eat and rest (and so that the wild birds aren’t pinching all her food). After Finn and I have taken Leila to childcare we’ll head off to Bunnings and get some fresh straw to put on the floor and freshen up the nest boxes so that she’s warm and comfortable. The fridge is stocked with silverbeet and we have a vitamin tonic to put in her water. I’m cautiously optimistic that our chooky girl will recover. Fingers crossed.

Crook Chook June 2, 2008

Lola and Mark by Nicky P

Lola is not well. Not well at all. For the last week or so she’s been listless and is not eating much, if at all. Her comb has gone all floppy and is hanging over one eye. She seems unsteady on her feet and just sits in the sun all fluffed and looking miserable.

I think a trip to the vet is in order. I’m not optimistic.

The Game May 31, 2008

The Game by Nicky P

1. I’m Gonna Get YOU!, 2. Sweet Juicy Peaches, 3. Stars of the Sea, 4. Purple Rose, 5. Deborah Conway, 6. vintage tea set with cupcake, 7. Relax, 8. Raspberry - Swirl Cheesecake, 9. The Gardeners, 10. Leila and me are being artisters 1, 11. Optimistic Pencil, 12. Share me your Thoughts

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

Found via Pea Soup.

The concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker).

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name

I think I’ve found my dream home … May 30, 2008

Carl Larsson’s Home by ilovecake

… and it’s in Sweden.

I’d never heard of Carl Larsson until I read Loobylu’s blog entry this morning. Now I’ve fallen in love with his work, but it is nothing to the way I feel about his wife’s work - their house.

The pictures quite literally take my breath away. For the first time I know exactly how I want our house to be. The lightness and airiness combined with the sense of comfort the house exudes is what I want. I want to transplant everything from their home to mine.

My pocket money for next month will be going on books about the Larssons. I can hardly wait.

This morning

Leila and me are being artisters 3 by Nicky P

Finn is home from kinder due to an explosive bottom. He’s fine, it’s just that his bum is being unpredictable.

He and Leila have been being ‘artisters’ and now there’s an horrendous mess to clean up.

School May 29, 2008

Finn has been enrolled in school for next year. It’s a small school contained in ramshackle old buildings and portables strung together by covered walkways. Finn won’t qualify for an aide but his likely teacher has a hearing impaired kid in her class this year and he will spend time with the visiting teacher of the deaf. I have confidence he’ll do well there.

I liked that the school is a Finn-sized environment, that they didn’t parade kids in front of me, that they were up front about their shortcomings and there was no sales pitch.

A quote and a book I think I might look for May 28, 2008

First the quote:

If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies. — Anonymous

Now the book:

I’ve begun to think of my depression as being as much a lack of a quality/skill, as the presence of an illness. This is (I think) a constructive thing as skills can be developed. In this case the skill is resiliency … or should that be resilience. Either way, I mean the ability to work through difficulty and to come back from set backs reasonably quickly.

This post on The Happiness Project is an interview with a woman who has written a book about this very thing. I think I might go looking for her book on Amazon. If nothing else, the bouncy red cover will brighten things up.

Knitted Stuff May 20, 2008

Haiku Jacket by Nicky P

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about knitting. I finished a couple of things recently, though, and thought it was time.

The first is this cardigan for Leila. It’s the Haiku pattern from Knitty, knitted in Anchor Magicline cotton which has been discontinued. It’s a bit big for now, but I’m hoping we’ll get some wear out of it for the next twelve months. When it’s outgrown I may pull it out and reuse the yarn like I did with this. It became this jumper. The yarn is Anchor Magicline as well.

I also finished this jumper for Finn from a Debbie Bliss pattern. The yarn is a discontinued alpaca/acrylic mix by Patons. Finn likes it but finds it a big scratchy so it’ll only get worn over long-sleeved tops. It’s also rather big so it should do for a couple of years at least. I think my days of knitting for Finn might be numbered as he gets bigger. This jumper took a while to do because it’s all in moss stitch and it got quite heavy on the needles. I like little stuff better.