YOU GUYS!

Dudes, I'll interrupt your regularly scheduled Makie Mischief to announce that I've been invited to the best wedding ever! 

One of my oldest friends is getting married in September which is in itself epically cool. But the coolest thing yet is that she's having a sort of 'pick your own historical costume including LARP and Steampunk and oh, there are PENALTIES for not dressing up' theme for the wedding which means, oh yes, I GET TO DRESS UP. 

I'm plotting already. 

I could rock the Steampunk look? 

Perhaps a bit Victorian?

Or... well. There's not contest really, is there? There's a certain lady who's been completely rocking the cosplay scene this last couple of years, and I reckon she's my greatest fashion inspiration at the moment... 

HELL YES CERSEI LANNISTER

I know. I KNOW. Short, rather plump things like me shouldn't even bother trying to out lion the lioness, but I've got a corset, a few months to think about it and some plans involving hedgehogs... oh, and dressing the long-suffering boyfriend up as Littlefinger. Har. 

This space, you should watch it. 

More birdies, hoorah

It was a great weekend for birdwatching last weekend. We had all the usual visitors but with a lovely snowy backdrop, a couple of ones who visit only rarely (long-tailed tits, goldfinch) and then I happened to look out my kitchen window and see six of these hopping around in the leaves along the side of the driveway.

I had no idea what they were at first, but their behaviour was a lot like a blackbird or thrush foraging for insects.

Happily, the BTO guide to garden birds is arranged for duffers like me to be able to find things quickly; I was being visited by six redwings, which are a rather rare type of thrush that visit this country in winter. The snow had driven them out of the fields and onto my driveway in search of food.

Our resident blackbird, who has been known to dive-bomb us when we get out of our cars in breeding season, saw them off fairly sharpish. I caught glimpses of them amongst the trees later in the day, but not anything as good as all six, rummaging in the leaves.

This weekend coming, I'll be setting an hour aside to take part in my 3rd Big Garden Birdwatch. Sign your garden up here!

Oh no... more hedgehogs!

We're rather fond of our local wildlife, it has to be said. As well as providing food for various bird species and squirrels, we've been feeding and keeping an eye on the local hedgehog population... Plink even managed to snap one of them wandering around the garden. We've blossomed out into two hedgehog houses, which the Bloke visits of an evening to provide food and report back on occupation status and the health of the residents.

Unfortunately, this year the hedgehogs have been rather late in breeding and producing young. I think this is probably due to the very wet Summer that we had. This means that the juveniles aren't getting to a weight where they are likely to survive the Winter. So far, we've scooped up 4 microhogs who don't look like they're going to make the weight, and I have to say that we were expecting that to be our lot for the season. Given the recent rain and the cold snap drawing in, we were pretty certain that any sub-par hogs wouldn't have made it this far into the year.

So when the Bloke came in from the garden today and announced that he thought there were two tiny hedgehogs in the house, we were pretty surprised. The kitchen scales were usurped and the weigh-in completed...

...and both of them came in at less than 350g. This is no way near enough to make it; you want your hoglets to be pushing 500-600g by now, which makes them about the size of a football.

We've taken them both inside for tonight; they're currently in a box in the downstairs loo. In the morning we'll get in touch with the excellent City Wildlife Care, who will arrange for them to be de-ticked, wormed and provided with a cosy living space for the Winter.

They provide this as a free service. Obviously, we'll be sending them a Christmas present (as well as offering the garden as a release site for hedgehogs in April next year), but if you've got a couple of pennies in your pocket, please have a think about making a donation to Operation Hedgehog. They're an entirely voluntary organisation, cover a massive area and need all the help they can get.

Calavera

Take one Makie Meet goody bag hockey mask...

Spooky Woo! Perhaps a bit too scary?

...add a wet Sunday afternoon, a Terry Pratchett audio book and a load of warhammer citadel paints, a bit of swearing, some embroidery thread and a button...

Lack of natural light = rubbish photos. Better get used to it, we're in the dark till Spring!

...and you come out with a whole new costume that needs to be made before Halloween! Pffft. Brain, give me some time off, yes? 

Fuzzy Grey Combo

We're going all Autumnal here at the Welsh Institute for Makie Sciences today. Whilst I'm indulging in a bit of nesting (soup, home made bread, gentle housework pootling, cups of tea and making up fresh beds), Plink decided it's time to show off her fuzzy grey combo set.

Light's not bad at this time of year. 

Melchett's not a bad photographer, I have to say.

O hai!

Oh, now that's just cheesy.

Don't fall off, Plink!