Island Farm Donkey Sanctuary.

With Moon and I potentially both working in Oxford come the middle of September, we took a mini road trip over the weekend to broaden our horizons when it comes to an (as of yet) hypothetical move.


While we haven't found anywhere that's quite right yet, we did discover the Island Farm Donkey Sanctuary. We found it after spotting a sign for a jumble sale in a car park in Didcot, we were in the mood for a potter and the potential of seeing some donkeys was kind of intriguing.



The jumble sale wasn't up to much but the barn it was held it did feature some interesting décor choices. We were just about to leave before curiosity got the better of me and I found out that the Donkey Sanctuary itself was free.

I just want to say that even though Island Farm is right up my street anyway because it means I get to take photographs of cute farm animals, I think it kind of sells itself a bit short. I'd definitely pay more than a 'donation' to see the donkeys and they're clearly well cared for.


Soft and shaggy donkey.





Some of the donkeys seem to have broken out of their fields, it was kind of refreshing to be somewhere that was a bit slack on health & safety regulations.




Goose!


The donkeys are so relaxed around people and happy to have a stroke.




Spot the hiding chicks. ♥




Granted, we only spent just over half an hour walking up and down the field but I feel like they need way more publicity because they seem to be doing a really great job - all the donkeys were well groomed and seemed really chilled out and happy.

It was a nice little find and I can think of a couple of friends who'd really appreciate a trip there on their next visit.

Right Here, Right Meow!

I'm really never sorry about lots of cats on my blog, in fact, the more cats the better, and that's tends to be a general life-rule. I actually feel like I've been trying to tone it down a little recently (although that's a matter of opinion) but I'm so pleased with these recent purchases from the Cats Protection Open Day, they're a pretty satisfactory consolation prize for not being able to bring a real cat home.

These two big guys now reside in my garden, I've found myself easily confusing the white one for my real cat when hanging the washing out, just as it enters my peripherals. I think they're so cute, I do long for the days of a knick-knack shelf, but the kitschy little blue-eyed one is sitting pretty on our bookshelf at the minute, a great accompaniment to my Turkish cat I got last year.






She's becoming quite the cheeky climber, while we were out the garden the other day she was even just relaxing in the tree, I see hunting on the horizon :O



Cat hair gets everywhere!


After being flicked in the face with earth, not cool, Mr Moon!
I figured I'd mix up ceramic cats with my real cat, who I really am a little crazy about...
Have you found any neat must-haves at any jumble sales or car-boots lately? This was definitely a case of 'one person's junk is another's treasure' but was all the better for donating to charity at the same time.

Afternoon for Cats.

As I mentioned before, on Saturday, Moon and I took ourselves over to the Newbury Cats Protection Open Day. I was reminded constantly that it wasn't to get another cat - although it would be brilliant for Doll to have a friend, realistically we just don't have the space to commit to another kitty at the moment. We went mainly for something to do, but also because I just like anything where I can be near animals and I love a bit of bric-a-brac, it was just a bonus that we were helping to raise some money to help out with the cats there.


The setting and surrounding area of the adoption centre is lovely, definitely somewhere I'd love to have a little walk around.
The main motivator for going was that I'd entered some pictures of Doll into the Newbury Cats Protection calendar competition. I'm not sure what it meant as we missed the drawing of the winners but all three of the photographs I entered had wound up on a display board, I was pretty chuffed to have them on display for people to coo over in the same way I was over others.



We didn't investigate but it looked as though they were serving food too, it was just a shame we'd already eaten.


Cat Calendar Competition Pinboard.


I loved this guy, he looks like a grumpier, bigger version of Doll.


So many great pieces of cat-related bric-a-brac. ♥





One of a couple of purchases - made me so happy ♥


Rufas was our favourite of the day, sadly he's missing a tail because it was infected I would have cuddled him forever, I love his cross face.


This little lady was adorable too; weird that so many of the cats were either black or black & white.
If you want to donate to Cats Protection or sponsor a cat, most regions have their own site to do this, and also include listings for cats that are available for adoption. Newbury Cats Protection even have their own Amazon Wishlist so you can be sure that you're donating items that the charity actually needs.

What a great event, I look forward to future ones and will definitely go to the next one. I did end up just wanting to take all the sweet cats home, surprisingly I actually found myself drawn a lot more to the older cats, feeling a little saddened when it was announced by the following day that all kittens had been reserved with no mention of any older cats I'd seen. I will definitely be sponsoring, it's really quite astonishing that people can just abandon their pets - it's really confirmed to me that it's much better to rescue an animal than buy one.

Malden Fortnight; Funday Sunday.

Here goes my last official post for Malden Fortnight. I'm currently uploading the hi-res files onto CDs for both Village Voice and one of the organisers of Funday Sunday. I was supposed to deliver them this morning but things have taken a lot longer than I had initially planned, you never really realise how little space a CD has, I'm definitely taking for granted the 250GB on my external hardrive.

Yesterday I covered the family event, Funday Sunday, from which all proceeds are to be donated to The Lunchbowl Network, a charity set up to aid orphaned children in the Kibera slum in Nairobi. I must comment that it was very akin to the sports days that used to be held at my primary school and seemed overall very 'British' to me, if you get what I mean. It kind of reminded me of this advert for Churchill.
As with all the Malden Fortnight events I have shot, it was all good fun, and it was nice to go along as an observer.
Throughout the afternoon food and drink was served and later on their were different kinds of races, including skipping and 'space-hopping' and after that, Tug of War. The Tug of War was taken particularly seriously by the men, but I won't make any further comment on that.
A set of images can be found on Flickr. These are my personal favourites from the day.














It is strange to have now completed a second run of Malden Fortnight for the Village Voice, I encountered more 'professional' photographers this time than last year though, which was odd and slightly intimidating at times. I would hope to continue pursuing work like this in the future, only perhaps more in terms of a career than work experience.

In case you were thinking about asking, I didn't go to my interview this morning, I was too exhausted from this weekend's events as well as the cons that came up when thinking long term. I would be unfulfilled in terms of the pay, or lack there of and the commute, it was unrealistic to pick somewhere so far away, especially considering it was unpaid and there was no room to adjust and move closer. I'm not greedy but there is a need to afford things such as travel whether it's in relation to expenses or not, it just wasn't the right job for me at this point. I just hope these aren't my famous last words and I actually do end up finding a job that I like that uses my degree...

Current plans now that I've finished everything for Malden Fortnight involve finishing off this Glastonbury film and getting started on re-vamping my website...