buttons' blog ramblings of a rabbit

from the heart

2012-02-17T16:42:00.002Z

roger and sheila came over yesterday to help brian and david with their book-packing (i did mine age's ago: the tale of peter rabbit, the adventurers of br'er rabbit and, obviously, watership down) and they bought me a mysterious package from 'a secret admirer'! ;)

...thanks hippolyta!

sheila said you made them yourself. not just beautiful but talented: in my experience, a rare combination in a hippo!

swalk

2012-02-14T00:01:00.001Z

it's valentine's day and a young rabbit's fancy lightly turn to thoughts of love...

bird-brained

2012-02-03T12:55:00.003Z

a terrifying memory from last year that I have been too traumatised about to blog before now: david took me bird-of-prey-watching and, in a moment of madness, seemed to be contemplating using me as a lure for that evil, hawk-eyed creature...

so, obviously, i skedaddled...

dozy outing

2012-01-12T11:16:00.003Z

david and brian took me to the theatre on new year's day...

but the show took so long to start...

that i eventually fell asleep waiting...

ears cheers to the new year!

2011-12-31T23:01:00.000Z

hoping you have
a hippity-hoppity
2012

gingering up christmas

2011-12-26T23:01:00.003Z

i had some nice seasonal goodies from friends and admirers: chocs from sharon while hippolyta and the ascot hippos kindly sent me these ginger bears (that's bears not beers) for christmas.

there were so many of them to begin with that i felt as if i was in gulliver's travels – until, that is, brian started eating them!!

it's christmas day...

2011-12-24T23:01:00.002Z

...so make it a really good day!

one of the things in the photo below is not a Christmas tree decoration: can you spot him?

let it snow, man!

2011-12-19T00:01:00.001Z

a hoppy christmas
to all my readers!

precious moments

2011-11-17T14:54:00.001Z

he seemed quite nice really, not all the way he acts in the movies....

dreamtime

2011-11-08T17:05:00.006Z

i spent a rather jolly day last saturday visiting with hippolyta...

but back home, later that night, i woke in a sweat having had a really strange dream...

there was organ music and my cousin buttons hippo was telling me that he was my best man and had the ring safe and sound and there was hippolyta by my side and a voice saying, do you, buttons, take this hippo...?

i must have eaten a dodgy carrot...

frank'n'bunny

2011-10-31T00:01:00.003Z

hoping you have a horrendously horrid halloween!

of course, in case you wondered, that isn't really frankenstein's monster, whereas, this really is you-know-who...

lucky me!

2011-10-28T17:12:00.003+01:00

never let it be said that brian didn't look after me! in fact he gives me a treat every now and again – like this bag of good luck buttons he bought me in new zealand (the green thing on the packet is, apparently, a lucky tiki); they weren't actually quite as exciting as i'd hoped - chocolate buttons covered in hundreds-and-thousands.

still, chocolate is chocolate...

bun voyage

2011-10-22T21:02:00.003+01:00

brian's planning on flying home - i've been thinking about returning via a rather more exciting route...

bored bunny

2011-10-15T00:52:00.003+01:00

i am so bored: brian is not well (he says) and i'm stuck in a hotel with no view out of the window other than other people's hotel rooms and no escape! this photo shows me having a much better time on my last visit: as you can see, the women down here are big!

off we go again

2011-10-07T00:01:00.002+01:00

life is weird: months go by when practically nothing even remotely interesting happens and then suddenly it is one ceaseless whirl of activity!

scarcely back from our greek odyssey and it's time to pack my bags again in preparation for a trip to new zealand where brian (he tells me) is going to be studying the habits of hobbits – whatever they are!

not sure when i will be able to blog, but i will report my adventures on my return, if not before...

cat-nap

2011-10-05T08:45:00.003+01:00

i thought my stories of life on a greek island were pretty riveting, but zebedee could (as you can see) scarcely keep his eyes open! cats!

time to go home

2011-09-27T00:01:00.003+01:00

back home, alas, to autumn!

still, there's always next year...

yummy!

2011-09-25T00:01:00.002+01:00

what will i miss most about kalymnos? oh, little things like (not so little) portions of walnut and honey cake with ice-cream...

goodness, my tie won't fit soon!

censored!

2011-09-22T00:01:00.003+01:00

uh-oh! how did this photo get in here...?

oh, well, you know what rabbits are...

radio daze

2011-09-18T00:01:00.004+01:00

last year, our hostess brought this very jolly radio from a travelling shop and i was livid with brian for not getting one for me! i thought it might have made having to listen to his programmes a bit more fun...

crumbling remains

2011-09-14T00:01:00.003+01:00

thinking back to an earlier greek holiday when we visited athens, i found this photo of me and an old ruin – and, on this occasion, i am not talking about brian!

reunion

2011-09-10T00:01:00.006+01:00

i've been catching up with my old friend hasi from austria who, as you can see is a bit of a snappy dresser. also not sure how he keeps his fur so white – i'd be envious if i wasn't very aware that the great thing about being brown is that it doesn't show the chocolate stains!

obviously, as a brit and an austrian in greece, hasi and i converse in our universal language of 'rabbit' without (like our human companions) necessarily having to keep rabbiting on all the time!

on my way

2011-09-07T00:01:00.006+01:00

trust you'll overlook a bunny having a bit of a gloat, but the guys and I are on our way to greece and the island of kalymnos – which you can see coming into view through the ferryboat window...

i can already feel the sun on my fur – or what passes for it in my world!

a visit to uncle ray

2011-08-22T02:12:00.005+01:00

brian's friend, the author ray bradbury is celebrating his 91st birthday today so i thought i'd post a couple of photos which brian took when we went to visit him a few years back...

château moi

2011-08-19T11:40:00.003+01:00

another possible new home if mr disney doesn't mind!

goodbye kitty!

2011-07-28T00:01:00.001+01:00

when we went to brighton the other week, i was about to go for a quick spin in – or, rather on – a rather jolly pink-and-red car until i realised that the driver simply wasn't looking where she was going...

Typical cat!

jaws 2

2011-07-18T00:01:00.003+01:00

more dangerous goings-on in disneyland...

if you thought i was brave in confronting monstro the whale, well, that was nothing compared with this bit of derring-do...

radio rabbit

2011-07-10T00:01:00.002+01:00

is there nothing i can't turn my paw to?

here i am at the bbc the other week helping out with brian's new series of radio plays, 'the history of titus groan', which starts going out on radio 4 this afternoon...

rabbit in wonderland

2011-07-04T00:01:00.002+01:00

today, as brian points out on his blog, is the anniversary of lewis carroll having told the story of 'alice in wonderland', so i thought i'd mark the day by posting a photo of my own encounter with one of the most elusive of the wonderland-folk – the cheshire cat.

smile please... say cheese!

home from home

2011-06-25T14:28:00.003+01:00

still on the look-out for somewhere to live when brian and david have to move, i came across this bijou place: waddesdon manor...

if it was good enough for the rothschilds, it will do for me.

just one problem how to get rid of the national trust...?

what's jaws?

2011-06-14T01:27:00.003+01:00

this is me, a few years back, having a whale of a time in disneyland!

mad man

2011-05-17T12:02:00.003+01:00

the other day david was asked to perform magic at a birthday party as the mad hatter (yes, i know, no comment!) and i kindly offered to play the white rabbit, a suggestion that got unreasonably turned down on account of my not being white!

david did, however, try to get me to impersonate the dormouse, but whilst i didn't mind sitting in a tea-cup (on the basis that one should have a go at most things, however wacky), i absolutely drew the line at getting into the tea-pot...

the rabbit of oz

2011-05-08T00:01:00.001+01:00

many readers of my blog have contacted me (or, should have done if they'd only thought about it) asking me to share some more of my snaps from my 2001 visit to australia.

so here, ten years on, are a few memories of my sydney scrapbook:

on duty on bondi...

and hiding from the vicious seagulls...

looking at the Bridge...

and the sydney operas house...

and here i am at the zoo.
how brave is this?

actually, it's not brave at all – it's a sculpture!

playing 'where's wally' at the rocks puppet cottage...

trapped in a really weird art installation thingy somewhere between bondi and bronte beaches...

and the view i woke up to each morning...

hoppy wedding day!

2011-04-29T09:45:00.004+01:00

it's royal wedding day in london and i just wanted to raise a toast to the happy couple before hopping off to the abbey for the big event...

birthday bunny

2011-04-25T00:38:00.003+01:00

yesterday was my birthday: annoying that i have to share it with easter, but since i arrived (quite a few years ago now) in a box with a cadbury's buttons easter egg, that's how it is.

anyway, i had a very jolly time with my cousin, buttons hippo, and the always vivacious hippolyta hippo who says she is my inamorata – whatever that means.

they very decently clubbed together and bought be an easter birthday mug which turned out to contain – big surprise, this – another cousin, named buttons bunny.

buttons bunny is quite a cute little chap but he is ridiculously young and so doesn't stop talking and asking questions: it was a long day and it's now getting on for one o'clock in the morning and he is still, if you'll pardon the pun, rabbiting on! i've suggested he kips down in the mug for the night, but he doesn't seem to be taking the hint...

hoppiness

2011-04-22T09:32:00.009+01:00

easter greetings
from me and the pink-polka-dot-gingerbread-rabbit!

buttons ahoy!

2011-04-20T00:01:00.004+01:00

knowing that we are shortly to be evicted from our home, i am now thinking of running away to sea...

wot no custard?

2011-04-16T00:09:00.005+01:00

last weekend we took a jolly jaunt to hastings by the sea and sophie treated me to a trip round the aquarium where i saw some moon jellyfish. one or two looked quite small, so i guess they must have been jelly babies!

bedtime for buttons

2011-03-27T11:15:00.004+01:00

it appears that brian and david are going to have to move out of their flat, so i've been checking out alternative accommodation. this will do very nicely...

buttons on bondi

2011-03-20T09:12:00.002Z

in case my last post about my passion for opera gave the impression that i am rather effete, then i'd like to counter that with an image from a few years ago when i was working as a rabbit-lifeguard on bondi beach.

as if happened, i didn't have to save any surfboarding bunnies during that particular day, on account of its being the middle of australia's winter just after a heavy hailstorm! In fact, the beach was deserted apart from a lone jogger and his dog, myself and whatsisname, my photographer.

but, had my services been required, i was fully prepared!

hoppera nights

2011-03-15T11:06:00.003Z

some of my regular readers may not be aware of me in my role as an arbiter of high culture, but i can tell you that i know what's what when it comes to the arts.

here i am, for example, waiting for the curtain to go up on an opera at la teatro fenice in venice.

in the background you can see the presidential box where i was obviously invited to have a seat but graciously declined so as not to upset brian and david who were having to sit with the plebs...

the big guy and i

2011-02-22T09:54:00.008Z

here i am taking a stroll in the park with the big guy...

in case you wondered, the big guy is not brian (although i can see why you might have thought that!) but a statue in crystal palace park by david wynne of a(nother) gorilla inspired by one of the london zoo's most famous (but now long gone) inmates – guy...

kung hei fat choi

2011-02-03T23:11:00.004Z

happy chinese new year!

it's the year of the rabbit!

pet peeve

2011-02-01T12:37:00.004Z

i'm a bit miffed at the moment: firstly because brian is always so busy i never get a chance to get on the computer and do a bit of blogging; and, to make matters worse, he and david swanned off to oxford last friday and left me behind!

in an attempt to make up for the disappointment of missing out on my annual trip to the groves of academe, they bought me back a 'pet'...

his name's 'cheshire' (which is odd enough and even odder when you think he comes from oxford) and he's turned out to be very dull company since in the middle of a conversation he'll suddenly disappear – occasionally (and this is very disturbing) leaving just that cheesy grin behind.

last splurge

2011-01-04T18:12:00.003Z

one last bit of venetian yumminess before going home, tomorrow!

buon anno

2011-01-02T00:01:00.005Z

here i am enjoying new year in venice

the clock's struck twelve...

2011-01-01T00:01:00.007Z

...so it is time to wish you all––

a
happy, healthy,
peaceful and prosperous
new year!

...trust you had a great celebration last night and that, come the morning, you aren't too much in need of a hair of the rabbit!

normal service resumed

2010-12-28T15:25:00.003Z

hot chocolate in venice! It doesn't get much yummier than this!

14 karrit kristmas

2010-12-27T10:48:00.003Z

my best-ever christmas present * (from the lovely hippolyta; my cousin, buttons hippo; mellors and the other hippos from the ascot hippodrome): a whole box of marzipan carrots!! yum!

only problem: how to keep brian from nicking them?

* after gill's lovely hand-knitted scarf of a few years back that still keeps me warm in winter!

hoppy christmas

2010-12-25T00:01:00.002Z

hoping you all have
a fun-filled
holiday!

it's almost here...

2010-12-22T00:01:00.002Z

...and i'm ready!

white rabbit!

2010-12-18T00:01:00.001Z

snow's back!

So, watch out for snowballs!

boo!

2010-10-31T00:01:00.000+01:00

have a horrid
halloween!

hare today

2010-08-13T11:53:00.002+01:00

this week i went to the summer exhibition at the royal academy which, as usual, was full of stuff i didn't understand. maybe it's just because i'm a rabbit, although i'm not sure humans really understand it either. what i'd like to know is why are there never any paintings of carrots, these days. i bet the old masters did a few.

anyway, this year - for a change - there was something of interest for a member of the family leporidae: a trio of sculptures of my cousins the hares by barry flanagan.

obviously, i had to have my photo taken admiring them...

you'll find more of my photos on brian's flickr set, buttons

ascot mascot

2010-07-27T00:01:00.000+01:00

the day we went racing the queen wasn't there, but I had this fantasy about what might have happened if she had been....

And being a guest of h.m. would, obviously, have enabled me to sneak into the royal enclosure!

racing rabbit

2010-07-25T17:42:00.004+01:00

last friday, brian and david went racing with roger and sheila at ascot and i went along too thanks to a special admission badge made for me by roger which, happily, totally fooled the bowler-hatted ushers!

racehorses, it turns out, are big and this statue of a horse's head was bigger than most real horses: that's me just under its nose...

brian and david were very stingy and wouldn't give me any pocket money to bet so i came home with nothing. still, the horses they bet on didn't run as well as they expected and they came home with less than nothing!

greek geek

2010-07-03T00:01:00.003+01:00

it's just like a scene out of mama mia! here i am sunning myself in sunny greece! hoppy holidays, folks!

bigger game

2010-06-21T00:01:00.000+01:00

i tame lions, too!

big game

2010-06-14T13:20:00.006+01:00

there has been some speculation of late about my relationships with hippos, but i've also been out elephant hunting...

spring outing

2010-05-18T15:37:00.003+01:00

i had a very entertaining day last saturday (brian and david were hanging around but, fortunately spent most of their time talking with the friends sheila and roger) leaving my cousin, buttons hippo (who, you may remember, went to live with s & r) , to have a good time playing amongst some huge plants in the garden at a place called great dixter...

...and playing knights-in-armour (but without the armour, obviously) at bodiam castle...

It turns out, however, that climbing on the ruins (it was, by the way, in ruins before we got there) is not allowed...

photos by brian sibley and sheila shrigley

buttons' birthday bash

2010-04-05T10:23:00.004+01:00

yesterday was my birthday - i arrived something-teen years ago with an easter egg - and i celebrated the event in ascot with my cousin, buttons hippo, and that divine diva, hippolyta hippo with whom i have corresponded, but never met. i have to say she's quite a gal...

of course, i had to take brian and david along but they nattered endlessly to hippolyta's people, sheila and roger and stuffed themselves with sunday roast and pretty much left us to our own devices...

buttons hippo played gooseberry a bit too much for h and my liking, but we had fun in the garden hunting for easter eggs and sent buttons h off to look behind the compost heap while we got to know one another better...

photos by david weeks

hoppy easter

2010-04-04T00:01:00.002+01:00

i hope you are having a nice easter - i was until this lot arrived...

...hang on! I think they might be chocolate!!

s.w.a.l.k.

2010-02-14T00:01:00.001Z

whoooah!

my first ever valentine's card! does this mean that i am possibly on the brink of a new life i wonder...

mind you -- odd to put hippos on a valentine's card to a rabbit, don't you think?

hoppy new year

2010-01-01T02:35:00.000Z

bear-faced nerve

2009-12-27T00:01:00.004Z

have you ever had visitors descend on you out of the blue and stay and stay and stay and stay...?

these two turned up just before christmas. they said their names were 'buttons' but i wasn't having that, so i've called them 'kris' and 'kringle' - and it looks like they're here for the duration. they maintain that they are more long-lost cousins of mine, but i'm not that gullible: i may have a hippo for a cousin, but i know i'm not related to any bears even though some of my best friends are.

apart from which, they are quite disruptive - it's one long christmas party with these two 24/7. when i get back home i'm going to have to get bodge and the other bears to try and take them in hand -- or paw!

all about me

2009-12-26T04:49:00.002Z

i can't ignore fame when it comes knocking: here is my greatest fan, hippolyta hipp, and my coz, buttons hippo, reading my blog, yesterday...

now, tell me honestly, is this blog becoming too self-referential - or even, heaven help me, too self-reverential?

lucky bunny

2009-12-25T00:01:00.006Z

this is me with one of my christmas presents from my friend hippolyta and my coz, buttons hippo...

very acceptable, although chocolate hippos would have been bigger!

hoppy christmas

2009-12-24T00:01:00.000Z

i hope you all get lots and lots of goodies
and have a very jolly time!

merry christmas!

hippo christmas

2009-12-20T08:47:00.005Z

had the following greeting from the president of my fan club, hippolyta (looking ravishing on the right below) who is a house-mate of brian and david's friends, roger, sheila and my coz, buttons hippo...

Hi Buttons,

Well, here we are again: it's Christmas time and you're probably about to go jet-setting off to some exotic holiday location while I'm stuck here.

I wanted to let you know that R & S are sending a parcel to B & D, so your cousin and I have taken the opportunity to put a little something in it just for you! I would have sent you some champagne (my favourite tipple) but Buttons Hippo said it would be wasted on you, so we drank it ourselves. I must say, your cousin does go on a bit, doesn't he? After a glass or two of bubbly, there's no stopping him. I've heard more about life up the Limpopo than anyone would ever need to know.

Well, I'm sure I hope you have a lovely holiday and we'll all look forward to seeing your photos some time in 2010 (actually I just put that bit in to be polite).

And maybe, just maybe, I'll actually get to meet you in 2010 - that would be a wish come true ...

With love from your no. 1 fan,

Hippolyta

xx

thanks, hippolyta, have a great christmas and do your best to keep buttons hippo off the sauce or the stories about the limpopo will get longer than the river itself and you'll want to go there - and drown yourself!

and here's a picture of hippolyta's garden in the recent snow with, i assume, one of her entourage taking a constitutional.

hippolyta's personal assistant, roger, wrote:

"Hippolyta won't go out in case she gets her Jimmy Choos dirty (unless a chauffeur carries her to the stretch limo to all the balls and parties) and Buttons Hippo is sulking because we won't let him make a snow hippo until he gets some wellies."

i never cease to be surprised by the differences between rural and city life!

hoppy hanukkah

2009-12-19T16:03:00.003Z

belated hanukkah greetings!

greek daze

2009-11-18T23:57:00.008Z

this is getting - correction: this has got - ridiculous!

with brian monopolising the computer morning, noon and night i just never get a chance to blog any more.

it's a long time ago now, but to be honest i've not done much lately. i went with himself to milan the other week - just for the day - but he was so busy rabbiting (if you'll pardon the pun) about snow white and the seven dwarfs that i never even got out of the bag, let alone getting a chance to be photographed.

another opportunity sadly missed.

anyway, i've finally managed to get my paws on the keyboard so i'm going to post a few of those long overdue snaps from my trip to greece in the summer before it's time for my christmas blog!

so, here's some of the stuff i got up to on kalymnos, 'my island in the sun'...

here I am, not unlike botticelli's venus - without the sea, of course...

i found a boat that was just my size...

and this thing that brian said was a sponge although, frankly, it was pretty dry and much in need of some jam and cream...

where's stephen spielberg when you need him?

thought about moving in here...

and did a bit of climbing...

and enjoyed a game of footie...

i sat in the sun and enjoyed the views...

socialised with friends like roger who, as you can see, insisted on holding on to me so that he didn't fall of the balcony...

i also had some stimulating conversations with an austrian rabbit named hasi...

and, at the end of the day watched the moon come up over the bay...

photos by brian and david; photo of me and hasi by astrid haslinger

venetian buttons

2009-10-03T13:16:00.012+01:00

i never thought you'd get to see these pix! they were taken months ago when we were in venice, but brian has taken so long to sort out his photos, making lame excuses (as always) about work - which, as we all know is a joke because he's hardly ever got any work, at least not to write home about - I mean, personally speaking, i don't call poncing about on tv talking about the adventures of stuffed bear, work! well, do you?

anyway, i've also got some photos to share from our recent trip to greece, but they are going to have to wait until i've put up some of my venice snaps, so here goes...

we went in july for brian's 60th - i know, it's amazing he's still capable of rememebring when his birthday is, isn't it? - and arrived at festival time, hence the paper lanterns hanging outside our hotel which, touchingly, brian thought were here in his honour...

normally we go to venice when it's freezing cold (don't forget those promised ear-muffs, gill) but this time we went in the summer which was lovely as there were lots of flowers alongside the canals. here i am, for example, up to my armpits in geraniums....

we also went - as you may have seen - to an every-other-year-art-festival-thingy where i found this rather comfy chair. of course, i'd absolutely no idea that there was a rather naughty picture hanging on the wall behind...

a rather less comfortable experience was my attempt at be-post sitting in our bedroom at hotel ala which was pretty eye-watering, i can tell you...

i also hung out for a while on this extraordinary knocker on the front door of the police headquarters in saint mark's square...

which reminds me of some goats i saw in greece... you may get to see my greek photos sometime within the next five years depending how many more tv interviews brian does about teddy-bears!

in at the deep end

2009-08-31T00:01:00.002+01:00

i was telling you the other day about our trip to the venice biennale arty-thing... well, i got bored halfway round the russian pavilion and went outside for a breath of air and noticed something absolutely terrible going on outside the nordic pavilion...

not a policeman in sight! just a load of people, taking photographs and discussing the meaningfulness of its post-modernist expressionism or something.

naturally, I hopped over to see if i could lend a paw, but it turned out to be art...

still, say what you like, it's pretty damn clever: he was in there for ages and there's certainly an art to holding your breath that long.

i asked brian whether, if he took a picture of david in the bath, that would be art and he said (rather enigmatically, i thought), "it depends..."

image: david weeks © 2009

sunny bunny

2009-08-20T00:01:00.003+01:00

here i am in greece and, yes, it's time to chill out on the beach once more!

so, if you'll excuse me, i'll be getting on with it...

dottiness

2009-08-17T08:03:00.003+01:00

i'm no art expert - naturally, i know what i like, but paintings of lettuces are, i've discovered, pretty far and few between - anyway we went to a thing called the venice biennale when we were in venice (obviously) and brian and david hauled me around a load of house-type places that didn't have anything in them but art or what (if you'll pardon my cynicism) passed for art...

At lunchtime we popped into the cafe for a spot of lunch and discovered more spots than i'd thought possible in one room.

it quite put me off my carrot cake...

on plinthable

2009-07-29T08:30:00.004+01:00

when i heard that the artist antony gormley was asking people to take part in an event entitled one & other and stand on a plinth in trafalgar square as living statues for an hour every hour of the day and night for 100 days, i told brian to put me up for it.

of course, being a b.o.f. (work it out!), he said rabbits couldn't apply.

then, yesterday, what do i see on that plinth but a rabbit!!!

and not just a rabbit on a plinth but a rabbit on a plinth on a plinth!

as it turned out, it didn't do very much and i don't know how he managed to breath under that dome thing for almost an hour, but he was definitely up there!

you can see the film of the whole thing - if you have an hour of life to waste - but i doubt if you'll be much wiser at the end!

naturally, i confronted brian about the whole thing and guess what he said? he said the rabbit was stuffed!

as if!

a piece of cake

2009-07-25T14:52:00.004+01:00

did i mention i went to brian's 60th birthday party last week?

well i had to, didn't i? after all, when you're that old you need all the support you can get - and, apart from any other considerations, there was chocolate cake on the menu...

round and round the garden

2009-07-12T09:21:00.010+01:00

brian and david took out in the garden the other week - not their garden of course which is filled up with the playhouse of the people downstairs and populated not only by occasional children, but - worse - frequent foxes!

no, we went to a place called marle place gardens (funny that, a place called 'place'!) and while there i had a bit of swing...

met some strange birds...

and had a chat with humpty dumpty who, i'm glad to report, is back on his wall...

i also found myself on the horns of a dilemma...

...at least that's what brian said it was and he ought to know because he's been on them often enough!

the photos are by brian - he insists i put that in, he says for copyright reasons, but we all know its just feeding his vanity! - and you can see more of his and david's garden snaps (though i've no idea why you'd want to!) on his flickr album, up the garden path.

who's zoo

2009-06-10T00:54:00.016+01:00

here i am on a trip to the zoo.

this way....

when i got there i went a bit ape...

and then did a bit of tiger-wrangling...

kewing for a look

2009-05-19T08:21:00.002+01:00

brian said they'd be a lot of big things in the palm house at kew gardens - he wasn't wrong...

as for the thing in the lid of the box, i'm really surprised they were allowed to show it in public - especially with children, old people and impressionable rabbits about!

disappearing bunny

2009-04-24T15:04:00.005+01:00

i went to the magic circle the other day.

one minute i was there...

...the next minute---

all mine!

2009-04-12T00:01:00.001+01:00

look!
my very own personalised easter egg!

oh, yum!

happy easter!

eggsclusive

2009-04-08T16:20:00.002+01:00

spot the hidden easter bunny...

hippopotanews

2009-03-22T00:01:00.005Z

there was a knock at the door last week - well, more of an almighty great bang - and when i opened it, there, on the doorstep, was a hippopotamus who announced that he was my long lost cousin from africa...

personally, i thought this was unlikely as i didn't think rabbits and hippos were related, but he said his name was buttons hippo and, sure enough, he had his name written on the bottom of his feet which struck me as a very practical way of introducing yourself...

anyway, buttons hippo was soon going on and on about living beside the nile and about the beauty of the pyramids at sunrise and how surprising it was that a "world traveller like you hasn't ever been to egypt".

and, as if that wasn't bad enough, he was soon eating me out of house and home! it didn't take me long, therefore, to come to the conclusion that one of us had to go - and that it wasn't about to be me!

i decided to pack him off to live with brian and david's friends, sheila and roger, who have a kind of hippo sanctuary that is home to (among others) hippolyta hippo about whom i have written before.

so, happily, it looks like we've seen the back of him and apparently he's settling down ok in his new home in ascot.

ascot? you ask! well, yes, i know what you mean and I have to say if sheila and roger are thinking of trying to race him, they're probably in for a bit of a disappointment!

expressing myself

2009-03-18T11:46:00.003Z

it's been ages since i blogged and i might not have got round to it this time but sheila sent me this cartoon by giles from the daily express on 24 july 1969 and asked if that was me on the right paw side of the picture?

me? 1969? just how old do you think i am, sheila?

in point of fact, it was my great-grandfather who used to moonlight as an artist's model.

i'm snow fool...

2009-02-02T18:24:00.004Z

bunny bravery

2009-01-22T13:06:00.003Z

snow where to go

2009-01-20T23:00:00.004Z

first venice, now new york! here i am freezing my tail off in central park...

good job gill knitted me that scarf... a tail-warmer next time, please, gill!

photos: © brian sibley 2009

funny folk

2009-01-07T00:01:00.002Z

it's almost time to go home, which is a pity because although i'll be pleased to see bodge, waterloo, fraser and the rest of the gang, there are things here that are not like anywhere else...

for example, i could have sworn these statues moved...

odd place, venice!

but nice odd, if you know what i mean...

by the way, i did - finally - get to sit in the sun while brian and david had one of the smallest and most expensive sandwiches in the history of snackdom...

photos: © david weeks & brian sibley 2008/9

ear-warmers

2009-01-03T18:32:00.003Z

when you're a rabbit it gets a bit chilly round the ears - those being the longest and most vulnerable bits of bunny anatomy.

fortunately i can now borrow brian and david's mr funny and mr grumpy hand-warmers and defrost the extremities...

thanks men...!

photo: © brian sibley

misplaced hop-timism

2009-01-01T11:10:00.009Z

when i chose a picture (from my extensive photo library) for my new year's day greeting i expected to be sitting in the sun...

...not in the
snow!

pinch, punch, first of the month...

2009-01-01T00:01:00.003Z

yes, it's january 1st and, after all last night's jollifications, it'll be time for a sit in the sunshine with a little light lunch - carrot and lettuce ciabatta, natch - and to wish all my readers...

a truly, really wonderful
new year!

stocking filla

2008-12-24T12:20:00.002Z

wishing everyone a very
hoppy -- sorry, happy --
christmas

xmas fan mail

2008-12-23T01:09:00.004Z

it's always lovely to get fan mail - especially at christmas time and today i got a very sweet message from hippolyta hippo who i got to know through sheila and roger with whom she lives...

hippolyta wrote (i copied and pasted which is why there are big letters as well as small)...

Hi Buttons,

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from your No.1 Fan!

I thought you would like to see me getting ready to drink your health in Grappa:

Lucky you, having a holiday in Venice.

It's going to be Really Boring here. She is finishing an essay on the main factors in the development of the Anglo-Catholic revival in the 19th Century (whatever that means) and He always has his nose in a book, when he's not sneaking into the kitchen for another mince pie.

Have a good one & don't forget the Hippolyta motto:

PARTY - PARTY - PARTY!!

Love,

Hippolyta
xxx

i wonder if there could be some future in this relationship -- beyond the usual friendship existing between rabbits and hippos, I mean...?

'abbottonatura'

2008-12-20T09:33:00.008Z

in case you wondered that's buttons --- in italian!

so, why am i writing in italian, you ask?

well, i'll come to that, but, first, i have to say that i never thought i'd get to blog again! brian has been so busy (he says) that he's monopolised the computer and I've not been able to get even near the keyboard...

anyway, right now, he's in the kitchen making himself a lemsip - like all humans he gets those strange sneezy-coughy-runny-nose cold things - so i'm grabbing the chance to send a quick missive just to tell you that in three days we'll be in venice which will be fun because i get to be photographed in neat places like here...

and here...

as you can tell the photos were taken in the days before gill kindly knitted me my nice red scarf which i will obviously taking with me.

just wondering whether, this year, i'll need a bunny-sized pair of wellies, too...

you can see more of my venice-ventures here.

size matters

2008-11-15T10:41:00.004Z

this is me on my recent trip to the british museum...

i just want to make it perfectly clear that i'm not that small --- this thing is very big!

photo © david weeks

roman in the gloamin'

2008-10-08T21:00:00.001+01:00

another day, another outing...

where am i?

italy?

er... no!

i'm at that place where england and scotland used to meet, marked by what's known as hadrian's wall and here i am sitting on top of it...

oh, all right...

i suppose the line down the middle is a bit of a give away! the truth is i was killing time outside the british museum, while brian and david went round the hadrian exhibition.

personally i wondered, once they'd gone in, whether someone as old as brian would ever be allowed out again! but guess what....?

photos © brian sibley

wet behind the ears

2008-10-07T08:14:00.010+01:00

i like brighton. everybody does. it's fun ------ when it's nice! i mean, when you can laze about on the beach in the sun...

there can be the odd disappointment: such as when you don't quite measure up as being tall enough to go on one of the rides on the pier...

...but there's still the good old merry-go-round...

...the opportunity to have your photo taken with an odd-looking mermaid...

...or a chance to take a spin with noddy and tessie bear.

but this is my one souvenir snap from my trip to brighton last weekend - playing gooseberry on the boys' anniversary day out. they may have found it romantic, I just found it damp...

frankly, i'd have had more fun staying at home playing i-spy with bodge and the gang - which, by the way (being a bright - as opposed to a brighton - bunny) i always, win!

photos © brian sibley & david weeks

keeping my cool

2008-09-29T13:27:00.003+01:00

i've been getting pretty steamed up over the fact that brian has been 'too busy' to help me blogs some of my holiday snaps, especially since - as you may have noticed - he finds time to blog his own silly photos of goats and donkeys...

anyway, i'm trying to keep my cool by reminding myself how i did just that in the afternoon heat of athens...

fossil remains

2008-09-01T00:01:00.003+01:00

this is me with a lot of very old shell fish.

brian said they are fossils and that they are probably the oldest thing i'll ever be photographed with...

i said i didn't think that was possible, because i'd already been photographed with brian!

photo © brian sibley