In my last post I skimmed over the lovely blog awards I had received. What a bad blogger! I must have been distracted by the monkeys. This is what I received from Summerfete:

Thankyou !

Here goes on 6 things that make me happy - I’m afraid, a little like buses, both Gina and I have posted our happy lists at once but it’s good to read happy things I reckon, so here goes:

1) Our little house

This really is a home to Mr P and I - it’s teeny, rather old (the right hand bit is 18th century, the left hand bit is around 1850) and still needs alot of work doing to it but we have both described feeling that ‘aaahhh’ moment when we get home - even from the shops! There’s always a tense moment when we return from holidays - we strain our eyes for the pink and …yes! It’s still there and hasn’t burnt down or been hit by a tornado (we do get small tornadoes in East Anglia sometimes).

2) The people that live in our little house:

Our girls. I’m still blown away at having TWO daughters - they really are a source of wonder and magic every single day (and Miss P1 gives us a belly laugh most days of the week - ‘Mummy, is shampoo made of poo?’):

Mr P, doing his best overexposed impression of Vic Reeves - rather dishy dont you think?

..and Hairy P:

..on the beach at Lyme Regis - I think she’s spotted a dinosaur. Poor Hairy P has had a sore eye this week - she’s been rather brave though. She waves a paw at Barley and Moog.

3) Friends. I have a friend I see every week. We chat, we share our hairy moments from the last few days, we laugh (we laugh alot), sometimes we cry, we drink tea, we eat. My meetings with her are as essential as breathing. Thanks M, you make me happy.

4)  Science can get me overexcited and sometimes downright joyous. Did I mention I was a nerd? The other day I was chatting to a friend about Febreze and he told me I’d got a daft giddy look on my face. You might think this is a dull topic of conversation. No!!!

Febreze contain cyclodextrins - doughnut-shaped molecules The smell molecules bind inside the holes, stopping the odour from being detected in your nose! It contains teeny stink sucky uppy doughnuts. I rest my case (well, science make ME happy anyway)

5) Jewels, and in particular tourmaline. It comes in just the most delicious colours - just feast your eyes on this little lot:

…one twinkly stone+ lots of gorgeous twinkly colours= happy Mrs Pebble. I use it whenever I can - the raspberry pink is almost edible. Oof, just posting this makes me want to MAKE JEWELLERY.

6) Chocolate. It really can make you happy, if only for a few minutes - scientists say so - look.

Finally I pass the awards (see last post) on to those of you who read and comment on silverpebble - this is for you! I enjoy your blogs immensely and they are a real treat for me - a teeny escape from the everyday and I do need that right now!

I haven’t posted for some time. This is baby-related - I admit to reading a baby manual in the last few weeks. I SWORE I would never read another one of these after reading two with Miss P1. One was a madly rigid schedule written by a scary schoolmarm-type (some of you with littlies may be able to guess which) and the other ‘diagnosed’ Miss P1 as grumpy! Hideous horror books! I filtered, edited and creatively interpreted SOME of the info in one and it has helped, thank goodness. Miss P2 is now a little more settled, we’re all a little less stressed and I can emerge briefly from the baby cocoon (where my hair gets very scary at times) to talk to my invisible friends.

Phew. Deep breath, and… back to business. I received my cupcake and tea goodies from Sherry last week - gorgeous tags, cards and delicious teas. Many many thanks Sherry - Miss P1, Mr P and I have been enjoying the marvellous goodness inside!

My cupcake parcel is all packed and ready to send to Karen (who has no blog) but I haven’t even managed to get to the post office! Karen, it IS worth waiting for and it WILL be on its way in the next two days. Apologies !!!

Now to my main reason for posting: recently I watched a tv programme about the use of language in the primate world - pretty exciting stuff to a nerd like me. As monkeys are popular in this household (and in blogland) I thought I’d pass on what I learnt with the help of some of the pebbly primates. So, let me introduce you to our troupe of vervet monkeys:

What? They don’t all look the same? Pish - it’s genetic variation at work.

Vervet monkeys talk to eachother! They use alarm calls to alert the troupe when predators are lurking nearby. They then leg it into a tree or hide. They have three alarm ‘words’ (I know - how ace!), one for snakes:

…one for leopards:

…and one for hawks (check out my special effects - I might apply for a job at Industrial Light and Magic). Another little monkey wanted to join in here - you may just be able to spot her.

The baby vervets sometimes get it a bit wrong and can spot a snake-like object,

…get a bit worried and use the alarm call, making everyone scurry into a tree.

I’m nerdily excited enough about this, but the vervets take it one step further. When there is a source of particularly tasty nosh around, a small number of brainy vervets exploit the system. They use one of the calls, making their family scarper.

Then they clean up! You might imagine the following:

Brainy vervet: ‘Leopard leopard!

Other vervets: ‘Yikes - to the trees!

Other vervets: ‘Has the leopard gone?’

BV: ‘Yes’

OV: ‘Where is all the uvavu fruit?’

BV ‘Leopard ate it’.

We have an equivalent in the pebble household -  Mr P calling ‘Look, a bear!’, then wolfing more chips than he should. Perhaps I should drive him into the jungle and leave him there.

Finally I have been the very lucky recipient of three (THREE!) lovely blog awards in the last couple of weeks, from Gina, Jackie and Summerfete. Thanks ladies! Summerfete’s has a meme which I’ll tackle next time. Meanwhile as I often do, I’ll leave you with a Miss P1 moment:

Granny P (on recent visit): ‘Let’s open the blind and let the dog see the rabbit’

Miss P1: ‘OK gran’. Miss P1 gets a little distressed -

Granny P: ‘What’s wrong?’

Miss P1 ‘I can’t see the rabbit, Gran!’.

Have a great week.