Friday Video: Make it Possible

Have a nice Wheekend!

Guinea pigs in paintings (in the low countries)

Slaves visited the newly re-opened Mauritshuis a while ago.
This is a museum gallery in the Hague in the Netherlands which has many portraits of Dutch and Flemish masters from the Dutch Golden Age. Masters in painting, not per se masters to Guinea pigs ;) One of the most famous paintings there is 'The girl with the pearl earring' by Johannes Vermeer.

It was there that their friend pointed out these Guinea pigs in a painting by Brueghel and Rubens depicting 'Adam and Eve in paradise'. There are many animals surrounding Adam and Eve, two of those are Guinea pigs! Brueghel and Rubens were totally right when depicting some of our kind, of course we were there in paradise!

Being the Guinea pig enthusiast as she is our slave (@pandameisje) was tweeting that Rubens and Brueghel were absolutely right in depicting guinea pigs in paradise! With this picture attached

We were totally surprised when we got a reply of Peter Paul Rubens (the painter himself, of course he no longer lives so his account is managed by someone acting in his name)

Tweet by Peter Paul Rubens informing us Guinea pigs were his friend Jan Brueghel (the elder)'s signature creatures!

So apparently Brueghel the elder used guinea pigs quite often. Of course this made our slave curious and she did some research online.

She found an article about the first archeological find of a guinea pig in the netherlands, mentioning Brueghel using guinea pigs in his paintings. In the first painting (The garden of eden with the fall of men) the guinea pigs looked really unrealistic, which was probably because Brueghel had used a stuffed and badly mounted guinea pig. Not sure what that means, but it sounds nasty... 

According to the article there were other painters from the low countries who painted guinea pigs. Both Rubens and Brueghel had acces to the menagerie of the archdukes of Brussels, where they probably saw their first live guinea pigs.

Slave also found this site which lists lots of paintings (many by Brueghel the elder) and other art works depicting guinea pigs.

Have you ever seen a painting with guinea pigs in it?

By the way, if you ever visit the Netherlands, slave says be sure to visit this museum, it is a good size and has loads of gorgeous and fairly well known paintings. And let us know if you need a piggy fix, we live in The Hague...

The Guinygirlz: Woopy, Daisy, Roos, and Bérke

Chaos at Piggyfriends Episode 2. Lola and Florence investigate.

EEEK!!! Our pig room has been ransacked.
The chairs have gone, the cupboard is empty
 and where are all of Slave's plants?
What shall we do Lola?

I can see some of the plants Florence.
They are in the garage but Slave's car has gone.
How is she going to go and buy veggies?
We'll starve!

Give me the camera Lola.
We need to record all of this.

Can I take a selfie? Yes!!

That's not very good Florence.
Let me take one of you. Climb on that brick.
That's better.

EEEK!!! Help!! Look, Lola, there's a man in the cupboard.
Shall we tell Slave? Oh no! He's knocking down the wall.
Quick, hide!

To be continued...............

Friday Video: Marsvin

We found a Danish/Swedish/Norwegian(?) Guinea Pig song! Don't worry, we cannot understand it either, but we love how it sounds (but we're pretty sure marsvin means guinea pig)



Have a nice Wheekend!

Chaos at Piggyfriends. Episode One.

Florence says 
"Hey, Angelina, our pen has been moved!
 There's no wall behind us - just a lot of junk 
and look, Bosworth and Rafferty are right next door. 
Hi boys. Do you know why we have all been moved?

" I don't know, " says Bosworth. 
"Rafferty is too scared to come out of the box 
and this isn't even our box. Look at the state of it."

Florence says, "I'm going to find out what's going on. 
Will you come with me, Angelina?" 
" Not likely. It's too scary out there. 
Besides, Slave is going to give me a pedicure
 later today and I might miss lunch and....er....." 
" Never mind," says Florence. 
" I'll ask Lotte and Lola. They'll come"

"I'll come," says Lola. Lotte can stay here
 and pretend to be me. Now, where is Slave's camera?

(Observant readers will now know 
what we were plotting over breakfast.)

" We are off to find out what's going on in the pigroom," 
say Florence and Lola, " are you coming?" 
" I'll just finish my breakfast," says Bosworth 
" but Rafferty is staying here. 
He can keep Angelina company"

" Hello Polo!" say Florence and Lola
 " We are off on adventure. Sow Power!!"
 " Take care!" says Polo.

We are 6!

Two of the Piggyfriends are six years
old today. Who can they be?

Wake up sleepy piggies. It's your birthday today!

Agent Big Red and Agent Bouquet aka Garnet 
and Petunia are enjoying their birthday breakfast

Are all these veggies for us? 
Our favourites - Carrot and Chicory!

Chicory is good to eat and 
makes good party hats too!

This has been a good birthday. Shall we share
the remains with our friends Garnet?
I think that would be a nice idea Petunia.

Garnet and Petunia have been at Piggyfriends since they were little piglets. In case you are wondering about Petunia's coat, she was part of a huge RSPCA rescue. All the little piggies had dreadful coats and, although most of her coat grew back in, she has always had a couple of bare patches. Garnet was unwanted by his breeder as he has slight entropion, which doesn't bother him one bit. They are dearly loved members of the Piggyfriends clan.

Friday Video: Wet Dog

Sorry we're a bit late! We hereby present you a video of a wet dog:



Have a nice Wheekend!