Pet Portraits and Wildlife Art

After visiting Heather Page's blog and reading her list of 25 things about her I decided to join in, that is if I can think of 25 things!!

It may go a long way to explaining my quirky nature but maybe not! If you are interested then please read on....
1. I have lots of pets, you have probably guessed that if you have visited my blog before, hopefully I'll remember them all but I apologies to my animals if I forget a few
3 dogs, Zac the springer spaniel, Gypsy the terrier and of course Willow the black german shepherd puppy.
5 rabbits, Rag, Bob, Rex, Willy and BB, Willy is the only official pet rabbit all the others have been rehomed by myself
4 guinea pigs, Sooty, Sweep, Pickle and Treacle, Treacle is the only female and lives indoors to prevent chaos from rampant guinea pig hormones in the shed.
2 large fish tanks of tropical fish (400 litres each)
3 budgies, Mr and Mrs and Casper (all female?!?)
about 30 ornamental pheasants
about 100 chickens
14 geese and 30 ducks, some have names but it does get very difficult to remember them all!!!

2. I work for the Forestry Commission in the Royal Forest of Dean District, I walk through the woods all day, off the beaten track selecting trees for sale in auctions and tenders. I did work in the offices before but it was just too restrictive and now I'm so glad I made the change because I love what I do now.

3. I have one younger sister, Zoey, who still lives with my parents.

4. I love films, especially war films, Vietnam films in particular, I've seen Apocolypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket at least 20 times each!

5. My favourite programmes are Inspector Morse, Ice Road Truckers, The West Wing, there are more but it would take forever.

6. When I was young and deciding what the future would hold I wanted to be a policewoman, an astronaut, a pilot and an inventor! None of which came about, I either changed my mind or forgot!

7. My favourite actor is Clint Eastwood, I love Dirty Harry but I'm not keen on his spaghetti westerns.

8. I try to complete the Daily Mail crossword everyday, sometimes I get stuck, sometimes I get lucky!

9. I love the internet, although my day job keeps me physically fit, I like to learn things and keep my mind alert as well, the amount of information on the internet will feed my mind for centuries.

10. I wear an mp3 player at work, as we work up rows of trees, I listen to music, the radio or cds and sing to myself rather loudly and not very well at all. I get depressed if I forget to take my mp3 (it doesn't happen often) and I even bought a spare one incase it breaks down!!!

11. I have a vast selection of cds, I love the Rolling Stones, but have all the Ministry of Sound cds as well, bit varied!

12. I'm fascinated by tigers and wolves, I watched Born Free and wanted a pet lion, I bought my black german shepherd because she looked like a wolf!

13. I've travelled quite a bit, all gone out the window now though as my other half will not fly, we went cruising which was great, I spent everyday exploring a new country so perhaps he'll go again?!?!?

14. I used to have a lot of penfriends, I had arab, german, french, brazilian penfriends to name a few but with the advent of the internet no one posts letters anymore. I visited my french penfriend in Toulouse many years ago.

15. I learnt german, french and latin at school, I can manage the written word but am very poor at speaking any of them (no one speaks latin anyway)

16. My great grandfather was shot in WW2 and received a letter from King George V, we still have his diary he wrote when travelling through Germany.

17. I'm left handed, I have to work backwards on graphite portraits working from right to left to prevent smudging, my Mum is left handed as well.

18. I cannot use a scissors, I need to buy left handed scissors as the edges are bevelled the wrong way and it just folds the paper, try cutting with a scissors with your left hand, see if you can do it!

19. I have to wear contact lenses for my poor eyesight, I wanted laser surgery but I have one long sighted and one short sighted eye (freak I know) and it may not be successful.

20. I wore glasses as a very young child and was teased relentlessly, now specs are all the rage!

21. I'm obsessive about dental hygiene, I clean, floss and swill as often as I can, I get very annoyed if food gets stuck between my teeth, I've even taken floss to work to use (I did say I was a freak didn't I?!)

22. I was a bit of a clubber during my twenties, I would travel far and away with my friendswhenever possible to go dancing (and get drunk)

23. I worked two jobs for more than 10 years, I had a full time day job and in the evenings I worked in pubs to pay off my mortgage.

24. I don't have a credit card, I hate them and they seem to be so easy to get into debt with so I pay for everything with cash.

25. I feel the cold when I am sat still, when I'm at work I get lovely and toasting because sometimes it's quite physical but sat still my blood just stops pumping, I wear layer upon layer to keep warm or go for the burn!

Well how did I do? Was it interesting or did you lose the will to live at number 3? Don't worry I won't test you later!