Radderz’ Randomness

This year I am finally getting around to running my first (half) marathon in Hastings. I have chosen to use it as an excuse to raise money for Women’s Aid, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, a dear friend of mine and her children have been affected by domestic violence and have had a tough time the past few months trying to rebuild their lives. The second reason is that my sister adopted some children just over a year ago now, their birth mother had also been through a rough life, but wasn’t as fortunate.

I don’t publicly raise money for charities, but this is an exception as it is close to my heart, and hence anything you can give will be appreciated far more than usual. The monies will help repay the invaluable support my friend has received in protecting & relocating her and the kids, and make sure that it remains available for other people in need.

Donations can be sent via my ‘Just Giving’ page.

Also please keep up to date with my progress - Remember to look/make comments too!

Hasting Half Marathon for Womens Aid Personal, Running

Mars could be seen as the brightest star in the sky, starting quite faint at the beginning of August, and becoming its brightest mid to late August.

I managed to get these shots of it with my camera. Although it’s far too far to focus, you can make out the red hue of the planet. I was stunned, I didn’t think I would get more then a small dot, but to get a red blur seemed pretty amazing.

Personal Camera

Back in September, I tried to take a few detailed shots of the Moon. I was impressed at what my new camera could do, you can make out quite clearly craters on the edge of the moon that can’t really been seen with the naked eye.

However, a few weeks later I tried to get some different shots, but during photographing, I noticed a weird black speck on the view finder. Slightly concerned that I had something on my lense or a dead pixel, I began moving my camera around, however the black speck remained relative to the Moon whichever direction or rotation my camera was in.

Furthermore, this black speck seemed to move over the space of 5-10 minutes, eventually moving outside of the Moons glow which was how I could see it.

Having ruled out the possibility of ‘dirt on lens’, the next viable option was that it was an object, and the blackness was the effect of it being somewhere between me and the Moon, blocking the light being reflected back. However, this speck seemed quite big in comparison to the moon, so either it had to be close, or it was a huge object. I would have thought that it would have been a satellite drifting past, however even if the object was in low orbit I would guess the object would be of far greater size to be one. Space station perhaps? Or maybe a passing meteor? However, it would have been too big to miss at least some media attention to alert people when where to look out for it - maybe.. Nothing on any news sites I spotted.

Anyway, I think this will remain a mystery, unless anyone else has some ideas

Personal Camera

River was my pet squirrel. Before the wrong kind of animal loving people start attacking me, he was rescued as a baby and would not have survived an hour longer in the wild, therefore I felt sorry and decided to take him in.

Having been wandering through traffic for most of the day, and then finally being attacked by a cat, he ran up to me for safety - being the less scary option. I took hold of him, and from that moment he bonded and wouldn’t leave me alone.

River and Me

I strove from then on to bring him up, as a cage free animal. This of course is a hard task. I obtained a large ferret cage which had multiple benefits that it would be big enough while he was young, allow me to litter train him with greater ease, establish it as his nest, and ultimately once litter trained you could allow the cage to be permanently open, and maybe install a cat flap so it has the freedom to explore the outside and do what it loves the most.

Large Ferret Cage

From the experiences I have had with him I found that squirrels make an interesting pet for those that can give the huge amount of focus they require. Don’t underestimate the word ‘huge’ however, they are a very big commitment, and require constant attention during the day. You do get a break during the evening and night though, as you put them to bed when it gets dark and they sleep all the way through till just after sun rise. They always want to play, climb, explore, berry things, eat, solve puzzles, or just sit in a big pocket or on your shoulder; Coupled with the fact they live for around 10 years as a domestic animal, and they are mischievous little creatures that you always have to keep your eye on - They know exactly how to annoy you, like pick up and hide your post-it notes :p

Walking around the house is interesting with a squirrel attached. You can literally get on with your everyday tasks with it just grabbing and hanging onto you, whatever angle they end up in.

I like this arm

Diet of a Squirrel

Squirrels are vegetarians, which suited me quite well. Most people think that they only eat nuts, but this is not true. While they love nuts, they must get a varied diet. Different fruits are good. Like human, it boils down to personal preference, you’ll work out some that they absolutely love, some that they hate, and others that they like once in a while.

Squirrels are very messy eaters. They eat about 1/3 of a nut, the rest goes in very small pieces all over the floor. You get used to clearing up after it, but it will quite often squirrel nuts away into its cage or favorite place.

You have to be careful though. Don’t feed them too many junk nuts like peanuts (In fact avoid, they have no nutritional value, and could end up having a seizure). Mine could never resist a good Pistachio, and especially loved opening it. It would choose them above anything else, however make sure they get their greens too. Feeding them too much of the things they adore will turn them into fussy eaters. It loved Peaches too, and sometimes a small slice of apple.

Yum Yum Nuts

Squirrels and Vets

Sympathetic vets are like gold. Most don’t want to know, although in the UK they are obliged by law to treat any animal in need. It can help if you assure them that you are taking responsibility and will be paying for treatment, however few will be trained on how to treat them. Exotic veterinaries may be a better bet if you can locate one.

Treatment can be a problem, as most vets will not know how to treat a squirrel. Even if they diagnose that something is wrong, and what medication should be given, they don’t really know the correct dose that should be administered, so any research before visiting the vets could prove invaluable.

In regards to diseases squirrels can carry, there are a few, but only one is potentially transferable to humans being Rabies which can be detected with relative ease, and fortunately is extremely rare in squirrels and virtually non-existent within the UK.

The main sign to look out for in regards to other squirrel diseases and symptoms, is if it starts to sneeze a fair bit, you should get it checked out without delay as this could easily be fatal.

Squirrels don’t hibernate in the winter either, so don’t be fooled if it starts to sleep the majority of the day, even if it’s only happened for a day or two, it’s highly likely that something is seriously wrong and should be checked out - make sure it has drunken sufficient and has still got an appetite. Try giving something that contains high amounts of vitamins if you suspect it could be diet related.

More photos

Personal Squirrel

Just a quick note. I’ve just released a new version of my fly fishing shop, which enables you to see an even higher res version of all files within the library.

Look at some of these stunning flies for example, just move your mouse over the image to get the zoomed in high res version (some flies take a while to load, but I am working on this)

• Kola Fire
• Teal & Green
• Freshwater Shrimp (It has to be said, this one  is my favourate design)

Personal, Techie Quickies