Working Bird

I graduated last year fully convinced that I would soon open the job section of the paper to find the advert "German-speaking pigeon-makers wanted. Must be prepared to relocate to Bahamas. Daily cake allowance. Salary: £500,000 p/a"

This did not happen.

Never mind, Mr.Pigeon found himself a job which is the next best thing.

I'll give you a clue.

This is the name...

...and you can buy these...

Mr. Pigeon arrived for his first day and was soon serving behind the counter.

Except he didn't really like people trying to buy the chocolates.

He also discovered the bell...

... and thought it would be a good idea to test that it was working. Over and over again.

Deciding that he wasn't best at serving customers at the front, the manager asked Mr.P to make up drink and brownie orders, so he ordered himself a little cappuccino and a brownie.

He also worked hard at catching drips from the hot chocolate tap.

Mr.Pigeon then made an exciting discovery. This shop did not just sell chocolate and coffee!

He soon found out where the chocolate boxes, straws and chocolate cases were kept...

...and where he could earn some pocket money...

But woolly pigeons aren't cut out for all this hard work.

Mr. Pigeon tried his best to hide to avoid making drinks...

...to avoid customers...

...to become completely inconspicuous...

But it all got too much for him and, after squeezing himself under the brownie dome, he dozed off...

Mr.Pigeon's new colleague Becky and Manager Emma were not impressed.

At all.

Poor Mr. Pigeon.

Mr. Pigeon moves!

In the absence of a proper post, enjoy this little stop motion animation. It was my first attempt and stars a familiar face :-)

HAPPY PANCAKE DAY!

(Yes, I know it was yesterday, but shhhhh...)

Are you feeling peckish? Mr.Pigeon was, so we got out his little pan, little bowls and little utensils to make some pancakes fit for pigeons.

You will need:

Pigeon-sized bowl and utensils...

...and a willing chef.

Mix 135g flour, 1tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt and 2 tbsp caster sugar in a large bowl. Mr. Pigeon's bowl was a bit small, so he only used a fraction of the amounts.

In a separate bowl or jug, whisk together 130ml milk, 1 large egg and 2 tbsp melted butter.

Pour the liquid into the dry mixture and beat until smooth.

Get your ladle handy...

Heat butter or oil in a little pigeon-sized pan. Add a ladle of batter to the pan and when the pancake begins to bubble, flip it over and cook until both sides are golden brown.

Remove carefully from the pan with a spatula.

You should have enough for a lovely stack of pancakes.

They look a bit dry on their own, so go mad with the maple syrup.

That's better!

HAPPY PANCAKE DAY!

The Big Knit

Everybody will be familiar with the Innocent Big Knit by now.

Every year thousands of little woolly hats are made and sent in to be placed on smoothie bottles. For each hat-wearing smoothie sold 25p is donated to AgeUK.

These are some of my hats for this year...

They are easy enough to make, but the tricky part is wrestling these perfect pigeon-sized hats away from fashion-conscious birds...

This year Innocent have extended the deadline to allow more folks to send in little woolly hats 'til FRIDAY 29th OCTOBER, so get knitting!

Happy Bird-day, Mr. Pigeon!

Well, it's been a while since the last update, but I couldn't not acknowledge Mr.P's special day.

Although the original Mr.Pigeon was created one July three years ago, Mr. Pigeon 007, the face of the Pigeon Loft, was born at the end of September, so it was only right to throw him a little party...and what's a party without a cake?

The birthday bird enjoyed his specially made pigeon-sized victoria sponge

...and there were plenty of tiny sparkly cupcakes for the guests.

They sang 'Happy Bird-day' to Mr. P...

...as he blew out the candle on his cake.

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY, MR PIGEON!

For those waiting patiently for pigeons of their own, there are more little birdies in the works. I'm afraid all the related documents are on my old laptop, which takes 2 hours at least to open one file, so their release will be delayed until all the jumper patterns and passports have been recreated on Mac-friendly software :-)

Mr.P on TV

Finally! An update!

Mr.Pigeon was very excited tonight. Back in November I took him (along with Mr.P 056 in his box, a little hen and a range of Pigeon Loft and Pigeon Press products) to Manchester to present my case to appear on "High Street Dreams", a new BBC show about helping people with products to develop them for the high street. The team loved Mr.P, but he wasn't selected to appear on the programme, which is perhaps lucky because it looks like hard work and the past few months have been jam-packed enough as it is!

Anyway, I was very surprised upon tuning in tonight to find this in the first few minutes of the show...

(if you've ever wondered what my hands and elbows look like you're in for a treat!)

Mr.P 056's passport

...and a carrier pigeon bag!

I just hope that television stardom doesn't go to his head.

If you're in the UK you can watch High Street Dreams on iPlayer. It's very good.

Mr. Pigeon meets his idols

After an hour and a half standing in the cold outside Waterstones in Nottingham, Mr. Pigeon finally got to meet his food heroes - The Hairy Bikers!

...though it looks like it's a good job I was there to save him from becoming pigeon pie.

Their new book is all about family recipes handed down through the generations, so I thought I'd hand my own recipe (i.e. the only recipe in my folder which I haven't taken from some book or other) down to you to try. It's very easy and very tasty. Just click on the picture to make it bigger...or if that fails, e-mail me for a printable copy:

Finally, I apologise for not updating more frequently. The Pigeon Loft is being (very slowly) re-branded and I'm working (with the help of a very patient and clever friend) on a proper website, which will be Mr.P's online home. Hopefully it will include this blog, more pigeon adventures, colouring sheets, recipes, tutorials etc. If you'd like to request anything to be included in this new site, I'd be very glad to hear your ideas!

HAPPY BOXING DAY!

...and a belated HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

As you can see, we had a white Christmas (well, it didn't snow on the day, but it was still there from earlier on in the week) and Mr.Pigeon made a handsome snowbird to celebrate.

I also received a lovely early Christmas present from Australia in the form of a rainbow swap parcel from CurlyPops. There was this fab brightly coloured tote bag...

...and inside were these rainbow goodies...

...and the most beautiful apron...

...which is far too nice to use! Maybe I should wear another apron on top of it to stop it getting dirty.

I couldn't believe these were all handmade- they look so professional, so thank you very much, Mrs. CurlyPops :-)

Reminder

CALLING ALL PIGEON FANCIERS!

Just a reminder that the next bird release is tomorrow- there will be 4 pigeons and 2 hens...the exact time is in the e-mail I sent last week ;-)

And remember- a pigeon is for life...

...not just for Christmas.

Goodies!

Hello again!

Thank you so much for all your get well messages :-)

Mr.P and I are now free of snouts and curly tails and are fit and well enough to enjoy these goodies that arrived in the post...

This is what I won in the Amy Butler competition. Weren't they generous?! There are four new patterns (two for bags, two for dresses), a pattern CD AND a stack of fabrics. Mmm.

Talking of goodies, this is what I made for a rainbow swap...

Went a bit OTT with the colour scheme! There are 2 types of Pigeon Loft fabric, 6 button note cards designed exclusively for my swap partner, a giant button brooch and assorted coloured ribbons. I did make a rainbow spiral-bound book...but the less said about that the better...it didn't make it into the package...it didn't even open...it is destined to be ripped up and used for shopping lists.

ATTENTION ALL PIGEON FANCIERS! There will be some Christmas pigeons and hens coming out this year. I reckon they'll be ready to fly the nest in early December. I will of course let all of you on the mailing list know exactly when they'll be released.

Poorly Mr. Pigeon

Mr. Pigeon and I haven't been well this week.

I came back from a weekend away in Oxford to find Mr.P flat on his back with a runny beak, aching wings and a temperature high enough to roast himself.

I thought it might be bird flu.

But then these appeared...

...closely followed by this...

Poor Mr. Pigeon

Looks like it's swine flu :-(