Beautiful Franchesca in the Sun

There aren't many shows during the summer, Franchesca is all groomed up but no place to go.






Here is another shot of Franchesca sitting pretty in the sun.





 

Black vs. Tort

Black is a self color, the genetic make up is

aaB-C-D-E-

Tort is also a self color, the genetic make up is

aaB-C-D-ee


Comparing the two, the only difference is in whether the black color is extended or not extended.

  In black the E indicates that the black color is extended all over the body, the color of the wool is lighter due to the characteristic of the wool being different from normal fur.

Tort has ee the non-extension gene that restricts the black color to the face and ears.  The paws in theory also have some black color but due to the characteristics of wool, the black/gray color is hard to visualize.

E is dominant of e, two black rabbits could produce tort offspring if both are Ee, two tort parents cannot produce black offspring.  

Found on the Net: Giant Rabbits at Newport Beach

 

 

 

Those who visited the Newport Beach Civic Center were all curious about the giant rabbits in the landscape.   What are these rabbits for?  Why giant rabbits?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to the City of Newport Beach, CA website:

About those Civic Center Park Rabbits...

The 16 rabbit sculptures in the Civic Center Park have passed their six-month birthdays and we continue to answer questions about them. The most frequently asked questions include - "Why are they there?" and "Why rabbits?"  We've also been asked - "What did they cost?" and  "Are they art?"   The Civic Center "rabbit story" is this -

They are not intended to be art. They are a feature for kids. The landscape architect for the Civic Center Park, Peter Walker Partners (PWP - the same firm doing the 9/11 Memorial Park in Lower Manhattan) wanted to place unique children's elements in the park. To PWP, a traditional tot lot with manufactured play equipment just wasn’t the right fit for this site. There's room to roam here and the landscape architects didn't see a need for a specific play area. They want visitors of all ages to explore the different features throughout the park's approximately 14 acres.

The project budget included $225,000 for adding fun, play elements that would appeal to children. (A standard tot lot costs about $250,000 and up.) PWP looked at various climb-able sculpture concepts based on wildlife (giant sea turtles, spider webs, and more) and even one of Patrick Dougherty's willow sculptures (his sculptures are alive after planting and stay alive for some time). The costs ran too high for some of these ideas, while durability and lifespan were in question for others.

So how did we end up with rabbits? As the project team considered the wildlife sculptures, all agreed that the design should be based on something actually found in Newport Beach (unlike giant sea turtles). Desert Cotton Tails are the real, live bunnies that are native to this area and a number of them consider the park site home. So, rabbits became a sculpture option. About that same time, PWP held an office reception and someone brought in real rabbits to help entertain the young children. As Peter Walker tells the story, the bunnies were a hit not just with the young kids, but with the older kids and the adults all evening. People were just drawn to them. Soon after, PWP decided rabbit sculptures would be the right fit for the Civic Center Park.

So why are they gigantic? While the rabbits have an element of reality (going back to the idea that Desert Cotton Tails are native to this area), PWP also wanted them to be whimsical… to have an element of surprise and encourage imagination. They wanted something that would draw kids and grownups into the park and then from one area of the park to another. They even thought – and it’s turned out to be true – that drivers might pull off of MacArthur or Avocado to see what those gigantic rabbits are all about.

The rabbits do command attention and their large size also makes them awfully fun for kids. They are practically indestructible (the rabbits) and it seems that children can’t help but climb on them and they often pose with them for pictures. (By the way, we’ve noticed quite a few adults having their pictures taken with the rabbits too.)

So what did the rabbits cost? The final price for grading, placement, manufacturing, design, painting, and graffiti-protection was just over $221,000, or about $13,800 per rabbit. After watching a steady stream of kids (and parents) interact with the rabbits over the last six months, we know PWP got it right. Those quirky, huge bunnies have drawn more people to the park and been at the center of more fun and imagination than a solitary tot lot ever could.

Another question we were recently asked, "Can someone buy one for their own yard?"

Meara in Different Forms

 

 

 

Here is an original photo of French Angora HGF Meara.
 

 

A French Angora with dark color is ideal for the photo software program to turn it into a watercolor portrait.
 

This is a softer version of the watercolor portrait of Meara.

 

And a pencil sketched form of Meara.





 

Photo Software Magics

 

 

 

 

This is a photo of original bunny line-up.

 

With a photo software, now it looks like a colored pencil sketch.

 

Then a dark pencil sketch.

 

Then a lighter pencil sketch.

Now a very light pencil sketch.


Which ones do you like better?




 

 

 

Meara Mittens

 

 HGF Meara is a chestnut agouti French Angora.

 

 

French Angora color is very intense, here are two skeins of yarn made from Meara's wool.  Chestnut agouti has white tummy, in order to make the yarn even in color, it's better to separate the wool from the back and from the tummy.  These two skeins of yarn are from Meara's wool on the back and the sides. 

 

 

Here are three pairs of fingerless mittens made from Meara's yarn.   It's interesting to observe that the two pairs with off-white cuffs look smaller in size than the pair with the black cuffs.   Actually they are made with the same stitches on the same needles.   The main reason is that the black yarn is thicker than the off-white yarn.  As a result the pair with black cuffs expanded the size of the mittens.  

 

 

Rabbit "Diapers"

 

 

 

 

English Angora fawn doe sits on her white towel.
 

English Angora white buck sits on his white towel.

 

French Angora chestnut buck also likes his sitting towel.

 

Two white babies have a blue sitting towel in their indoor accommodation. 
 

 

 

All these towels get soiled pretty fast, they need to be washed every day or every other day.    Betty has a dedicated washer for these sitting towels; in her hubby's words, these are the "rabbit diapers".   Such "diapers" are actually hand towels that can be purchased for no more than 50 cents each at stores such as Dollar Tree, Kohl's, Big Lots, ...

 

The exercise pens are not only good for rabbits' exercise, they are also good for solar drying of the rabbit diapers.  With the heat and dry condition in CA, it takes only a couple of hours for these towels to get dried.