Franky Smells the Roses

 

Franky is a boy, you wouldn't think he'd be interested in roses.

Franky likes to smell the roses.

Franky also enjoys the beauty of the roses.

 

Moon Cake

In the US, the festival that is associated with rabbits is the Easter.  In Asia, the festival that is associated with rabbits is the Mid Autumn Festival or the Harvast Moon Festival.   One of the food items that is traditionally eaten around time is the "moon cake".   This is an image of a tin box of 4 regular size moon cakes.    Moon cakes are made of very dense material that include flour, sugar, fat, nuts, egg yokes, ... and various flavors. The degree of density is equal to or greater than the Christmas fruit cakes.  They are quite expensive.  This box with rabbits is listed for $48 with 4 pieces of moon cakes, each about the size of 2 credit cards. The flavor listed on the box is "Double Egg Yokes in Sweet Red Bean Paste ".   

 

These are samples of mini moon cakes at about 1-3/4",  half the size of a credit card.  Due to the high fat and high sugar contents, people are not as inclined to eat a whole regular sized moon cake that is about 3 inches square.  The Asian bakeries now offer these small size ones.  However, as tiny as it is, one could go for around $5.

In case you wonder when is the Mid Autumn Festival, it's on the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar; in 2023 this festival falls on Friday, September 29, 2023, 3 weeks from today.  It's especially interesting as this is the Year of Rabbit and the Mid Autumn Festival is also the Chinese "Rabbit" festival!

This is a close up of one of the mini moon cake from the upper left corner above, mango flavor. 

The inside of the mini mango flavor moon cake.  Yummy.

Old News is New Again: Franchesca's Guinness World Record

A few weeks ago, I received communication from the Guinness office that they would like to feature Franchesca again on their newly designed website. Since Franchesca's world record was set 9 years ago, it's a surprise that the Guinness website is featuring her again.   Here are some of the old news:

Franchesca's official Guinness photo taken in 2014, published in 2015.   

Franchesca set the "Longest Fur on a Rabbit" world record on August 17, 2014.  Per the Guinness requqirements for the publication of the hard copy, the announcement was made in September 2015 when the 2016 edition came out.   It's long time ago, I'm sure that most have read it over and over and probably bored of seeing the same sights.    

This is the photo of me with Franchesca published in the 2016 edition of the Guinness World Records book.  

Over the years, I had been contacted by many news outlets and even received invitation from TV stations in Germany and Italy to travel there to either show off Franchesca or take my other English Angora to set the record again.   Being a homebody, I did not accept any of the overseas travel, and thank goodness that I did not get stuck when COVID hit.  That's old history.

 After a whole lot of questions and answers, here are the screenshot of the top part of the September 2023 article and the link to the full article on the Guinness website:

https://guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2023/9/rabbit-with-the-longest-fur-never-had-a-bad-hare-day-757759

There are some additional material that were not included in the 2015 publications.  If you have a moment, may want to click it.

 

Veggie Garden in Bloom

The veggie garden is growing well.  

The winter melon vines are spreading like weed.  

The cucumber vines are supported by wooden sticks, so are the tomato plants. By the way, the cucumber vines and winter melon vines look about the same because they are in the same family.

 

Tomatos on the plants are all green, not ready to eat yet.  Or, is it really nothing ready to eat?

Not really, the ripe tomatos are already harvested and stored in the refrigerator.  You'd think the rabbits would be more interested in them, well, kitty is interested in them too.  

Boys Love Roses

Roses are lovable.  

Kitty Bao Bao smells the roses.

Bao Bao guards the roses.

Bao Bao invites his brother Bei Bei to enjoy the roses together.

 

We Are Growing Up

We were babies.

We were cuties.

Look at us now.

We are still cute but we are also pretty.

 

A Special Birthday Card for Carolyn

Carolyn received a specially designed birthday card from her sister Kathy who designed and created the card.  The printer who made the card was so impressed with the design that the card was featured on their business website:

The printer got it right, sister Carolyn loved the card when she received it, now tresaured and displayed at her home.