boo!

have a horrid
halloween!

hare today

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

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

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

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

bigger game

i tame lions, too!

big game

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

spring outing

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

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

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.

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

bear-faced nerve

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

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

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

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

merry christmas!

hippo christmas

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

belated hanukkah greetings!

greek daze

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

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!

images: brian sibley and david weeks © 2009 uploaded by flickr.