The Green, Green Grass of Home.

Christmas came and went and we are staring at 2024 like a steam-train in a tunnel. The GPs enjoyed extra hay, extra capsicum, extra fawning and extra grass thanks to the extensive rain interspersed with hot sun. The guest GP has settled in well and appears to be bossing the locals through the safety of the wire division. The arrangement seems to be working exceptionally well. A treat for all three today: a purple carrot from the new fresh food store in Louisa Street. They are very happy cavies.

   Violet the long-haired guinea pig is shown in the photo enjoying some late afternoon grooming with a gentle brush in the early summer sun.   Violet has settled in well into her holiday accommodation and retains the two-storey residence, where she retires in the evenings to the upper storey and comes down to breakfast at dawn. Her two holiday acquaintances, Mullet and Vegemite (also known alternatively as Meat and Vegetables) provide the entertainment, such as it is. Guinea pigs amuse easily. The roses in the background are, from left, Radox Bouquet (pale pink), Just Joey (apricot), John F. Kennedy (white), Gold Bunny (yellow), and Queen Elizabeth (pink).

‘Tales of the Riverbank’ was a  television series featuring a guinea pig, a hamster, a rat and other real live animals. Based on a rejected Canadian pilot (no sense of humour, the Americans) it was shot in a bucolic Wind-in-in-the-Willows setting in Britain. GP, the guinea pig, lived in a disused water mill, flew aeroplanes, and was an inventor. The adventures involved boats, cars and, in one episode, a cannon which blew something up.  The pilot had been voiced by a Canadian, but thankfully the BBC recruited legendary actor Johnny Morris to provide proper English voices. Later, the Canadians reversed their rejection of the concept and bought the BBC series, shamefully re-voicing it with American accents. Possibly GP took on a New York taxi-driver’s accent, or that of a Boston academic. Perish the thought. The makers of the show discuss its production in this Radio Solent broadcast. I was a bit old when the series hit Australian screens; it was televised around dinner time, when my youn

The sun broke through the first time in a week, heralding the arrival of Violet (see posts November 15). Violet looked like a 1960s starlet, with a blonde bouffant hairstyle, a porcine Brigitte Bardot. Vegemite and Mullet took notice, gazing somewhat impertinently through the bars of their simple flat into Violet’s more luxurious two-storey accommodation. Were they in envy of the house? Or ofViolet?