Animal adoption updates

Last year Cathy and I adopted or sponsored or supported an animal every month through various organisations and agencies. We have decided to continue this year. Our January adoptee was a hedgehog through Cuan Wildlife Rescue in Shropshire.

In return for a donation we received a toy hedgehog, and a few other bits and pieces including a hedgehog heroes tea towel, an adoption certificate and Cuan's latest newsletter. Cuan cares for literally hundreds of hedgehogs each year, along with numerous other animals ranging in size from tiny shrews up to deer. In total over 20,000 animals were cared for in 2021.

We have also had an update on the puffin we support through the Welsh Wildlife Trust. In addition to a lovely little annual report, the letter they sent confirmed that "our" puffin had been spotted on Skomer Island on a few occasions. 

The report was full of interesting information - including a story about a puffin they spotted with a ring the researchers didn't recognise. It turned out it had been ringed under an old scheme when it was a chick in 1992! I've got adult friends who are younger than that! The survival rate for puffins is about 91 per cent, so almost 1 in 10 puffins don't make it through year on year. The one born in 1992 had beaten the survival odds three times over.

As an aside, years ago I worked in charity communications, so I always look at materials like this from a professional point of view. This update really worked in connecting me with the orgnisation. It was personal, because it mentioned "our" puffin, and it explained how our support was making a difference without a hard sell to continue that support. But the feedback and the nicely presented additional information has made me feel very positive about continuing to support the organisation. And I'll admit the photos of puffins help to sell it too. 

When I rounded up all our adoptions from last year, I said the December adoption was on its way. I didn't know where it was coming from bacuase Cathy had arranged it as a surprise. It arrived today and what a surprise it was - an adopted manatee through the Save the Manatee Club. We are now the adoptive parents of Floyd, who is almost as old as we are.

Floyd is apparently a bit of a character who will sneak up and barge photographers trying to take pictures of the manatees. He has some scars and has lost a chunk of his tail in a boating accident. Visiting the manatees at Blue Spring State Park in Florida is one of the things on my bucket list - hopefully Floyd will be there when we visit!

Turning 40: Some of my friends brought art - part 1

As mentioned in the previous post, I wanted to have a party for my 40th but have more than enough stuff and didn't really want people to feel they had to bring me presents. So I suggested they help me fill a farmyard with virtual animals (although they are real in other places) and / or help me to 'fill a wall' with art.

Here's some of the art people brought. I've shared some of these on Facebook already. They are from the grown ups who came. The kids' art will have to wait for a separate post.

So, first of all, Cathy created this piece which I'm calling 'Rainbow Pencils'.

'Rainbow Pencils'
Artist: Cathy Matthias
Mixed Media (pencils, ribbon)

Cathy gave me this a few weeks in advance of the party. The next person to give me some art was my sister in law, Abby. She knitted me a Boba Fett and also two vikings - a warrior and his warlike wife. The boat is made from cardboard and packing tape and was mainly used to protect them while travelling, but I kinda like it.

'Knitted Bounty'; 'Warrior Couple'
Artist: Abigail Bick
Knitted wool and mixed media

The next person to bring something for the wall was Connor, who came along early to help us set up for the party (because he's a star). He managed to incorporate my favourite building toy into his piece.

'Jon breaks free'
Artist: Connor Knapton
Mixed media

Then as people arrived, the art was hung up thick and fast and I can't remember what order these came in. Anyway, my friend Tom had kept his artistic talents under wraps. I'd never seen any drawings he'd done before so this took me aback. I particularly like that he had researched which engines I had on my model railway to make sure he drew one I liked. (And I do!)

'Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0'
Artist: Thomas Reay
Pencils

The things people made were pretty diverse. My friend Kate brought me a cross-stitch.

'Lightsabers'
Artist: Kate Hammond
Cross-stitch

My friend Jo has a fine art degree and after she gave me her painting I was accused by a couple of other people of pulling off the whole 'Fill a wall' thing just to get my hands on one of her paintings. I'm going to go on record and refute that accusation. However, I do love her paintings. We already have one up in our dining room. This one is instantly recognisable if you have ever visited a certain part of Cardiff. Also I love that it has clearly been raining. (I'm also glad she didn't bring me a picture of a nude man from her life drawing classes, which she had threatened to do.)

'Llandaff North Street Scene'
Artist: Johanna Shepherd
Paint

Both Jo and the next artist to be featured are American. Katharine is a brilliant line drawing artist. A few weeks ago we were round her house and I mentioned the Wombles. Being an American, she had never heard of them so we subjected her to some quality British kids TV programming courtesy of YouTube. As payback, she drew a Womble-ised version of me for my wall.

'Jon as a Womble'
Artist: Katherine Holmes
Ink and paper

And finally, last but not least, Bryan and Elaine produced a digital collage of all the things I loved. Including a manatee. They were also the people who adopted a manatee through the World Wildlife Fund for my virtual farm. This manatee is dreaming of Lego trains, while Boba Fett swims past and Star Lord hangs out poolside reading a Douglas Coupland novel. There's really not much I can say about this. It's quirky and fun and will look great in our hall. We may need to explain it to people who come round, though.

'Jon's Loves'
Artists: Bryan Russ; Elaine Russ
Digital collage

There are some more bits I need to take photos of or scan, plus drawings from the kids. I'm saving those for some future posts.

Turning 40: My friends filled my virtual farmyard

I like virtual gifts. For a small sum of money a person who needs a sheep or a chicken or blankets gets what they need and I get a nice card saying what's been given.

As I have just turned 40 and I wanted to throw a party I wanted to avoid ending up with a ton of presents that I don't really need. I have more than enough stuff.

So I decided to ask people coming to the party that if they really, really wanted to, they could help me fill a wall with home-produced art or fill a farmyard with virtual animals and things.

Some people combined both - my niece Joy drew me a sign for my farmyard.

Every farm needs a sign

And people were incredibly generous. Most people turned up with some little envelope, or my inbox pinged with an email the day before, to say that donations had been made and virtual chickens, sheep, goats, bees (lots of bees!) and even donkeys had been 'bought' on my behalf for people who really needed them.

I was able to display all these by clipping up the cards and by the end of the party my virtual farmyard looked like this:

A full farmyard

For people who like knowing this sort of detail, here's the run down of what ended up on the farm.

• A queen bee and four other lots of bees
• At least 4 chickens (2 single chickens and a further gift of chickens plural)
• 2 donkeys
• Ducks (at least 2)
• 4 goats - one of them a nanny goat
• 3 sets of piglets (so a minimum of 6 little piggies)
• 5 sheep
• 3 vegetable gardens
• One lot of drought resistant crops
• 2 clumps of useful worms (good for the soil)
• A pile of poo (useful fertiliser)
• An adopted manatee (to go in the pond with the ducks)

I was also given a $25 microfinance loan to be loaned out to the person of my choice in the developing world. I'm going to sort that out and blog about it later but it sounds like a brilliant idea.

In a future post I'm going to blog about the art wall that got filled. But I wanted to show off my farmyard first. I'm very grateful to all the people who came to the party and who have helped so many people who are living in challenging situations around the world.