Springtime Festivals at Piggyfriends.

 Today we are celebrating Beltane and May Day.

 

This is Slave's Green Man, who heralds all the green growth of Spring. We have many well behaved boars here, who will pose nicely for a photo.

Here is Rafael doing an impersonation of a Green Man looking out from the greenery and he shared the kale with his brother, Valentine, afterwards. 

A big pile of wood has been gathered along our road for a Beltane Fire but, with all these whiskers around, Slave decided that we would not be having one of our own. She says that lighting a candle for Peter is fraught with enough danger. 

We are also celebrating May Day. Slave wishes that more of our sows would behave nicely enough to be our May Queen and wear a flowery crown. Of course Heidi willl always sit still for the camera but Slave says that we cannot use her every time as she was our Easter piggy. 

Hattie and Honeysuckle are always running around madly so, although she was our St. Patrick's Day choice, Peaches had to be our victim as May Queen.

 The above photo turned out quite well....

 .....and so did this one once Slave had cropped the cushion that stopped her from running off the end of the sofa.

The out-takes are always worth a laugh. Don't worry readers. Hawthorn ( May ) leaves are perfectly safe for both piggies and humans to eat and Peaches enjoyed some of these.

Peaches had had enough by then and trashed the set so we called it a day.

May Day and Beltane greetings to all of our friends. It is wonderful to say goodbye to winter and to have lovely fresh, green grass to eat again. ;

A Prairie Easter Greeting from Our Serafina

Hello, everyone!   It's me, Serafina, the smallest, speediest and most beautiful of the Prairie Pigs (if I do say so myself).  It took such a long time but all of that snow and ice has finally melted and the sun is shining, so we are ready to celebrate Spring and Easter, the beginning of green things growing and all kinds of new life.

This is a pigture of me wearing the traditional Prairie Pig Easter Bonnet with some close personal friends (not any of the other Prairie Pigs unfortunately --- Pig Mum said she could only deal with one model at a time who was likely to try to leap off the edge of the set or eat the props).  I was very good and sat quietly for almost thirty seconds, and then I was whisked back to my cage where I got a big helping of cilantro!  If Pig Mum had mentioned the cilantro reward ahead of time, I might have been able to hold still for a whole minute...

I am enjoying life as a Prairie Pig!  Pig Mum thinks I might be a "Sheltie" because I have beautiful long locks but they grow back off my face and not forwards like Lovely Rita's Peruvian coat. I have a big girl cage now and my boyfriend Padraig lives right next door and keeps me company.  We get to visit the other Prairie Pigs in the pig room sometimes while our cages are being cleaned, but our room gets lots of sun and it's right at the top of the stairs so when snacks are delivered, we get them first!

All of us Prairie Pigs want to wish everyone out there a very Happy Easter with lots of sun, warm weather and maybe a chocolate bunny or some fresh grass as a special treat!

Happy Easter from the Piggyfriends.

 

"Why am I out of my pen again?" asks Heidi Piggyfriend. " My friends are on the other side of this wire."

"It is time to take some more pigtures." replies Slave.

"Me again?" asks Heidi." There are lots of other piggies from whom to choose."

"Yes." says Slave. " That is because you are such a good piggy and will not destroy the scenery like some piggies we know. Turn around and we will wish our readers a Happy Easter."

 

Heidi turns around and can see that the little chocolate eggs make up her initial. ( Yes, readers, I know that is difficult to tell one end of Heidi from the other. I just watch her to see which end the veggies go in.)

"Now for a close up please Heidi," says Slave, " then you can have some lettuce."

Heidi loves lettuce especially when she doesn't have to share it with her greedy little friends, Hattie and Honeysuckle.

"Yum, yum, munch, munch"

Happy Easter everyone from all of us at Piggyfriends. xxx
 

Padraig Sends Out St.Patrick's Day Greetings!

 Yes, it's me --- Padraig from the Prairie Pigs!  I was selected for this particular assignment because I have a fine Irish name and lots of red hair (like many Irish humans, including our Auntie Penny).

It is decidedly not green here in Saskatchewan at the moment (though we know the green is still down there under the snow), but there is lots of green inside.  Have you ever noticed how many of a guinea pig's favourite things in the world are green?  Parsley, cilantro, dandelion greens, romaine, kale, carrot tops --- I could go on and on.  (Hmmmm... I feel even more Irish, just thinking about all of that delicious crunchy greenery!)

The Prairie Pigs will be celebrating St. Paddy's Day with all of our favourite green things, and we suggest you do the same (even if it means slipping a bit of food colouring into your Guinness, just for today)!  Spring is just around the corner!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to our Readers.

 

The Piggyfriends would like to wish all of our readers a very happy St. Patrick's Day.

Peaches is a bit confused about wearing Slave's shamrock necklace.

Usually one of the more sensible Piggyfriends gets to do this but Slave said that not enough of our Abyssinians get to be on the blog. So, rather than have one of our good piggies. like Heidi, wear the necklace, Peaches got the job. 

 

This could have been a mistake on her part but, after several blurry outtakes of Peaches making a run for it, Slave managed to get this one. Not the best pigture ever but it is the thought that counts.

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone. 

The Prairie Pigs Light a Candle on Peter Gurney's Birthday

This year the Prairie Pig guarding our candle is Arthur Pendragon.  We don't know if you can see it clearly, but our candle holder this time is a sleeping cat.  We chose this particular one because our most recent loss here was our cat friend Hugo, who was a calm and gentle presence in our lives for many years.  

We are looking forward to seeing pigtures of all of the other piggies from our guinea pig community around the world, standing by their candles and taking a moment to remember.  Of course we never met Peter Gurney, but Pig Mum often looks up treatments and remedies for us in his books, and we are very grateful for his vast wealth of knowledge about piggies and willingness to share that wisdom for the good of guinea pigs everywhere!

Candle Lighting Day 2025 at Piggyfriends.

On March 9th. every year, the guinea pig community lights candles at 8pm. in our own time zones. This day was chosen as it was the birthday of Peter Gurney, who wrote many books about piggies, and we remember him, our pets and our humans who have passed away.

This year we chose one of our girls to be in charge of candle lighting. Here is Heidi, who is safe with a candle as she has very short whiskers.

We also picked one of our boys to light a candle and here is Benedict.

Our friends, the Piggyville Girls from Swannanoa, North Carolina, USA also lit a candle and they sent us this photo. From left to right they are Slaney, Shannon and Ceilidh.

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