SWS 2013, Delivery #2 - Oliver's Garden

My box arrived yesterday.

It was left on the porch - ironically, I happened to be home on Friday, but the post employee didn't bother knocking so I only got notice of it when the Boy came back home from work.

Out of the three orders I made during the Sidewalk Sale (SWS), this happened to be the "smallest" one. I mostly stocked up on Chunky Monkeys, one of Shade's favourite toys, as well as getting a few other flock favourites.

Here they are -

6 "Chunky Monkeys" - for just about any bird, except maybe Piper who would find the wood a bit too thick.





2 "Mackerel Snackers" - will probably be hung in common areas, where I expect a number of the Littles to partake in their destruction.



2 "Rainbow Trout Jr." - which will probably have a similar fate as the above Mackerel Snacker toys and meet their "demise" at the same beaks...



1 (modified) "Big Daddy" - this one was purchased with Léa in mind. I said "modified", as it came with plastic beads which I removed, since I don't really give hard plastics to Léa given she can snap them really easily and create sharp edges. I quite like this look!



Finally, a little freebie included in my order. A little foot toy fish!



Thanks Susan!

I claim these as mine!

The pictures aren't the greatest; I was being silly and pushing my camera in a very low light situation where I should have just gone and used my external flash (but I can be stubborn that way). However, I found these too cute not to post!



All mine I say!




Now where to start?

Happy Hatchday Pixel!

She turns 9 today.

While I had set reminders elsewhere, none of them really worked and the realization that it was her hatchday came suddenly to me this morning...which prompted a little guilt trip that I almost forgot.

But I didn't and she got to enjoy some extra time out with me today, one-on-one. She wasn't too keen on having her picture taken so after taking ten or so, I stopped and gave into scratching her head, something she likes far more at the moment!





Happy Hatchday Pixel!

The lovely Léa

A few pictures taken yesterday.

Bullet bird

Here he was letting go of the rope to fly towards me. When he takes off from a higher location, he always lets himself free fall for a just a little bit, all tucked in, before actually flapping his wings. It's constant and it's rather funny!

The little pink tongue

I find it adorable!



Although taking pictures up-front isn't always very flattering (as, let's say, a sideways shot).



But she always make sure the dainty side prevails!

Purr!

Joey just loves to purr, lately it has really become his "go to" sound!
He was doing it as I shot this picture.

And he also apparently found a toy that had some blue dye on it and most likely "gave it a wash" in his water bowl and stained his beak in the process...sigh.

Blue-beaked red-bellied parrot?

SWS 2013, Delivery #1 - Crystal's Bird Toys

Because I was gone for quite some time, I had indicated to the three vendors with whom I made purchases during the Sidewalk Sale on Avian Avenue earlier this month that my orders could be shipped later, as I wasn't interested in boxes arriving during my absence.

But since Crystal from Crystal's Bird Toys is local, I had three bags waiting for me upon my arrival.



Let's say I took advantage of the sale and took the opportunity to re-stock my dwindling collection of CBT toys. And because I really love the look of "natural" toys, most of them are not dyed.

The hanging toys

4 "Mario Blocks" - for some of the Littles.



5 "Snappy Stars" - again, for the Littles.



5 "Make it snappy" - mostly for the Littles, although given Piper and Petey don't chew much, one might end up in Léa's cage.



2 "Pine's up" - I bought these for Shade and Joey, the biggest wood chewers amongst the Littles.



1 "Fiji" - for Léa.



1 "Hidden Gems" - for Léa.



Everything above was what went in my first order. Yes, you read right, first order. On the last day of the Sidewalk Sale, Crystal added to her sale - buy two skewer toys, get one free AND the existing discount from the previous (if complete) or existing order would apply as well. There was no way to resist getting a few of them to try out!

Skewer refill toys

"Just a Nibble"



"Just Balsa"



"Pressed Palm"



"Cork Popper"



"Star Struck"



I also got some balsa spacers (simply some balsa blocks) as well as one called "Slatipede". I didn't take a picture of the former because they are just balsa blocks and it seems that I totally overlooked taking pictures of the latter and was too lazy to do so once I noticed (which is as I'm writing the blog entry). If anyone is curious about what they look like, here is a link to the Skewer refill toys page on the CBT website:

CBT - Skewer refill Toys

Finally, it seems that Crystal added a freebie to my order!



Thank you Crystal!

I'm back!

The blog was "quiet" for a few days as I was gone on vacation.

For the first time, we left the birds at home and had a friend come over to watch over them once a day, as opposed to dragging them to other homes. The main driver for this was that my parents, who normally would watch over most of the group, were gone with us and it was just easier to keep everyone put in their own cages in our home and keep a familiar surrounding for them. The last time I had Piper boarded somewhere else (not my parents), he ended up losing quite a bit of weight (and this was for a trip shorter than this one). The birds seem to have kept their standard weight this time around, except for Joey who lost a little but he was also the one who seem to take our absence the hardest, surprising to me as he generally is the biggest flirt with strangers.

In the end, I'm happy to be back and the flock seemed delighted to see us as well!

September's "Cooking for the birds"

This is an overdue post in a way; I made this batch of food two week-ends ago, but never really got to posting until now (obviously).

The previous batch of food was far from being all eaten, but the arrival of the long Labour Day week-end made it very tempting to prepare another batch right away; for one, there was a great selection of produce at the Farmer's market, as well as a lovely crop of beans from my own garden, and I got to enjoy a day of "rest" on Saturday (if you don't count going to the market, which I rather enjoy) before starting the two day long procedure of chopping and cooking everything that goes into the mix.


Definitively a larger variety of vegetables than what I had in August!

I found the August mix to be a bit too heavy on the grains and legumes so I ensured I got LOTS of vegetables this time. While quite a few of them are always included, I did get a few additional ingredients and larger quantities of everything in general.

Ingredients:
-Black kale (pictured - from the Farmers market)
-Rainbow chard (pictured - from my garden)
-Beets & tops (pictured - from the Farmers market)
-(Very) sweet yellow corn (pictured - from the Farmers market)
-Red bell pepper (pictured - from the Farmers market)
-Broccoli (pictured - from the Farmers market)
-Orange cauliflower (pictured - from the Farmers market)
-Rainbow carrots (pictured - from the Farmers market)
-Brussels sprouts (pictured - from the Farmers market)
-French green beans (pictured - from the Farmers market)
-Scarlet runner beans (pictured - from my garden)
-Some heirloom type of green beans (pictured - from my garden)
-Chilies (pictured - from my garden)
-Quinoa
-Chick peas
-Adzuki beans
-Mung beans
-Organic purple barley


Day 1 - all veggies (except the beets) cut and steamed

As I mentioned before, I added more vegetables than last time, but I also cut down how many grains and legumes I added (by quantity and totally omitting adding lentils this time around). I was more happy with the end result; while there was still plenty of beans to entice the birds, they also had to at least forage through vegetables to get to them (and this generally means more veggies ingested).


Day 2 - everything mixed together!

In the end, I think I got 5 weeks worth of food out of this bath - not bad!

Concentration

I know I posted a similar picture a while back, but I really loved the lighting and colours in these, and, most of all, how concentrated Joey looks.

A wet Piper

He took a bath the other day and I got a few pictures (post bath).

Léa likes to sing!

Well singing might be a little stretch, but she likes to hum songs very softly - sounding like "do-do-dooo-do".

She's carrying a tune in any case. I love how she does it almost under her breath, it makes for a very pleasant sound. This morning we were taking turns "singing" with her. She also bobs her head ever so slightly when she or we sing. It's very cute!

100,000!

I just noticed that my blog, in a little less than 5 years, has reached 100,000 views!

Less than 24 hours to go!

The Sidewalk Sale (SWS) over at Avian Avenue starts at 12:01 AM Eastern time tonight! It'll be on for 3 days.

My "wish lists" are mostly done, I even have a card with one vendor ready to be submitted.

While my plan was to keep things very reasonable, it seems I might have gone slightly overboard again..but I couldn't help it. Some deals look so good, and I can't resist stocking up when there's a good sale, I'm arguing that I won't have to order any bird toys for quite some time after I get the ones I intend to order in.

Anyone else planning to shop during the SWS?

What a sweet face!

It is hard to resist her when she's looking this cute!

Adorable Joey

He looks simply adorable here!

Stop spinning this thing!

I wanted to take a few pictures, he wanted to see the Boy on the other side of the room. So I might have spun the atom so he would be facing me 2-3 times...In the end, the Boy came and stood close to me so I could manage getting 5 pictures or so.

The yawning Queen

Shade

I really like this picture of her. Not the greatest quality (taken with the phone) but there is just something about it that I like.

Waiting...

This is a spot where Léa will patiently wait for the Boy to stop paying attention to her and then, just as he starts to do something else, fly down to the ground.

But since I was taking pictures, the Boy was looking up at her so she stayed put...until the camera was put away...