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Princess Pricklepants’ Guide To Politeness, Manners, Delightfulness, Grace, and Related Things

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Princess Penelope Pricklepants presents this practical guide to manners, politeness, and related topics to you, dear reader.  This guide is not presented out of any concern that you are impolite, ill mannered, or uncouth, but only because this is a topic which she, as royalty, has a deep and extensive knowledge about.  In this guide she hopes to share some insights, thoughts, tips, and pointers with the hope of helping to make the world a more polite, well-mannered, and generally delightful place.

Lesson 1: Hats

Princess Pricklepants wearing a nice hat at her tea party.

It’s perfectly delightful for hedgehogs to wear hats indoors, so long as they remain on the head, or so long as they fall in a delightful or pleasant way when wandering about.  Hats with straps are not delightful at all though, as we illustrate in this helpful example:

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If you look carefully, you will note Princess’ gentle concern at the impoliteness of the hands that put this hat on her.  Do not under any circumstances ever strap a hat onto a hedgehog.  It’s distressingly impolite.

Lesson 2: Tea Parties

Tea parties are always wonderful places to practice manners, politeness, and that sort of thing.  For our example tea party, the kind and gracious models Artemis along with her daughter Arteminica are hosting a small party for our delightful guest to help guide the teaching of lessons in manners.

At tea parties, hats are optional, as you see in the following illustration.  Also, note how Princess shows an interest in whatever things happen to be on the table, in the room, on the couch, under the table, or in any other interesting spots.

Princess Pricklepants politely hatless at a nice tea party.

Lesson 3: Peeing

Hedgehog sitting on couch at tea party, wearing hat.

If you happen to pee on a couch (and who doesn’t pee on the couch at times?), it’s polite to make sure that any photos of the event don’t include unpleasantly specific details.

Lesson 4: Eye contact

Hedgehog, hear turned away, wearing hat at tea party.

If there are guests who have eyes, try to look at them sometimes, this is polite.

Lesson 5: Unexpected guests

Hedgehog at tea party with toothpick holder.

If an unexpected guest shows up, like Princess’s special friend, Pick, who is also a hedgehog, though a different species, be sure to greet them and make sure they feel welcome to the tea party. You may wish to compliment them on their colorful quills or other interesting qualities, like the ability to stand remarkably still for very long periods.  If you happened to poop on the couch while meeting the new company, be sure to be discreet, have a helping hand clean it up, and be sure to thank the hosts for using a plastic couch that’s very convenient for taking care of such things quickly and discreetly.

Lesson 6: Climbing under the table

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If a guest should try to climb under the table during a tea party, this isn’t considered polite.  Gently remind them to try to remain above the table, perhaps with an unassuming hand gesture, as Arteminica illustrates here.  Also remind them that while in general wearing hats to indoor tea parties is polite, it’s considered extra-polite to remove your hat before climbing under the table.

Lesson 7: Toppling over other guests

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If, while politely wandering about under the table, you happen to inadvertently fling one of your friends on the ground, be sure to say something polite, for example, “Oh, pardon me, I didn’t mean to knock you over.”  Also remove your hat as a gesture of respect.

Lesson 8: Stepping on friends

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If you inadvertently clobber a friend, and stomp on their hand and/or arm, try being subtle about it.  Helpfully lighten the mood by wandering off a bit to sniff at something.

Lesson 9: More knocking and fleeing

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If you happen to knock a friend over while trying to climb under their chair, and they inadvertently kick another guest in the head, be sure to say, “excuse me.”  Note also that the hat has been respectfully removed.

Lesson 10: Helping hands

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Sometimes the hand friends might grab you and hold you in poses.  If they do, make sure to let them know that you appreciate their gentle help, and that you are sorry if you accidentally stab them a little with your quills.  If you do this, you’ll be sure to knock their socks off, or if you are incredibly polite, you might even manage to knock their feet off.

Lesson 11: More under the table dealings

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Since hedgehogs are burrowing animals, it’s incredibly difficult to not climb under tables.  Really, it’s mind-bogglingly challenging.  It’s virtually impossible to resist the alluring dark area under there.  When you do climb under the table, if a guest should spill their tea, be sure to apologize for any spilled tea.

Lesson 12: Flinging guests backwards while fleeing tea

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Tea parties can be stressful for hedgehogs, and you might feel the need to leave seconds after sitting/being set on the couch.  While we may have already covered, this, as a gentle reminder, when flinging friends backwards in their chairs towards the ground as you leave the table, which is a truly delightful thing to do, be sure to do so as politely and with as much grace as possible.

Lesson 13: Toppling techniques (advanced)

Hedgehog climbing off couch under table, knocking someone over.

At tea parties people will be flung backwards and thrown to the ground, this is a natural and inevitable development.  When you do manage to throw a guest from their chair, spilling tea cups, and flinging hats aside, be sure to do so with as much grace and elegance as possible.

There’s only one proper way to end a tea party, and that’s by ensuring that tea cups are spilling, and guests’ limbs are flailing as they hurtle towards the ground with chairs toppling backwards.  If you follow this simple guide, you’ll be sure to have a very delightful tea party with many very memorable moments.

If you enjoyed this, you might enjoy our book.

next: Princess Pricklepants’ Continued Guide To Politeness, Manners, Delightfulness, and Grace In Common Situations

Search III

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OMG.  Today, not too long after posting the last filler article on search terms, I looked at the search terms again and saw this:

Today

Search Views
african pygmy hedgehog poo 1
http://www.free lovely images of princesses.in 2

Okay people.  Two http://www.free lovely princesses.in searches?  Are you messing with me?  Or really looking for hedgehog poo?  Regardless, thank you.

Also, look:

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The highlights are blown, but it’s still cute.

 

Search II

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It’s time for another episode of “I think you guys are using the Internet wrong, or something.”  Here are the searches that brought people to our rather quiet blog over the last 30 days:

2014-05-01 to Today

Search Views
pain penelope 1
princess penelope and the dragon 1
hedgehog geographic location 1
peregrinate wit me 1
hedgehog napping 1
princess penelope answer key 1
http://www.free lovely images of princesses.in 1
african countries that don’t hate pygmies 1
what are the metaphors in princess penelope f

Okay people.  Almost all of you are doing the Internet wrong!  Wrong, wrong, wrong!  Let’s enumerate the ways so we can use an ordered list.

  1. First, “pain penelope,” person, a word to you: no.
  2. “Princess penelope and the dragon” person, thanks for a future blog post title.  We have no criticisms.  You are clearly using the Internet right.
  3. “hedgehog geographic location” person, hedgehogs have many geographic locations.  They are a type of animal that lives all over Africa, Europe, and Asia (and New Zealand).  They are not a monument.  I can see that you might not totally understand that, no hard feelings.  You have to start researching somewhere, though it shouldn’t be here probably, unless you are interested in research on the perils of pet prejudice, or research on the captive African Pygmy Hedgehog’s responses to images of the Verreux’s Eagle Owl, where you’ll find we are a notable researcher.
  4. “peregrinate wit me” person, you were looking for a travel blog and made a typo, that part is understood.  There is the question of why you were looking for a travel blog and wound up clicking on a hedgehog blog, but I can understand the draw of hedgehog mystery.  You are not doing the Internet wrong.
  5. “hedgehog napping”  God bless you, it’s relevant.
  6. “princess penelope answer key” – wait, what?  This is inexplicable.  You are definitely doing the Internet wrong if you are trying to cheat on homework and you wound up here.  Though the answers are: A, A, D, C, B, A, E, C, A, D.  (Though not necessarily in that order).
  7. “www.free lovely images of princesses.in”  I was briefly worried that there was a http://www.freelovelyimagesofprincesses.in site out there, and that it would perhaps have some naughty content on it, because nothing is sacred on the Internet.  But no, there is in fact no website there.  You “www.free lovely images of princesses.in” search person are doing the Internet totally, completely wrong.
  8. “african countries that don’t hate pygmies” – luckily I wasn’t drinking anything or it would have sprayed on my screen when I got to this one.  Seriously, like, I just don’t even.
  9. “what are the metaphors in princess penelope f”  Yes, sadly, that is the grade you will be getting.

Also, look, isn’t she cute?

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Poll: Which Is The Most Adorable?

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Recently while admiring the recent wonderful photo of birds and other things from our trip to Disney World (with a Gatorland side-trip), we meandered a bit further back in time and reviewed the photos from Princess in her anarchist period.  There are always a lot of things we don’t post since we generally try to distill things down into the 8-23 photo range.

Here’s one that would have been perfect, but which was supplanted by a different perfect photo:

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Seriously, that hedgehog smirking at Mary-Kate and Ashley, thinking of a hilarious thing mocking them in hedgehog language, it’s perfect.

While perusing them, we found two photos that divided the household.  While one faction insisted on the cuteness of one of the photos, another faction insisted on the cuteness of the other and the weakness of cuteness judgment skills of certain family members.  This resulted in a disagreement that we need you, the Internet, to resolve…  There is a thing that the web-visionary types who give TED talks used to like to talk about a few years back called “The Wisdom of Crowds,” which meant that if you ask a lots of people about something, they’ll be right.  It’s worked amazingly well in always choosing the best presidents and other elected officials, so obviously it’s a great idea for making all choices.

So we bring you, the Internet, a new poll.  Or we do in a second.  First we need to introduce you to the two photos at the center of the disagreement.  Since this poll is part of the important democratic duties of the Internet, we will be as fair, neutral, detached, objective, disinterested, unbiased, evenhanded, equitable, and every other related synonym as possible in presenting these photos.

First, look at the incredibly cute photograph A:

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Note the adorable expression, the heart-melting adorableness of the pose, and general cuteness of this sweet, lovely hedgehog.  Also the general brightness of the photo, and color tones that bring out a light and happy mood, that silly and amusing pose, and all the other factors that make this an incredibly cute photo that you plan to vote for as a more discriminating connoisseur of cuteness.

Next, look at photograph B, which while admittedly well photographed by a skilled photographer, still isn’t as sharp or clear as the former.  The covered eyes, while cute, also keep you from seeing the expression of Princess, while the color temperature seems a bit too warm.  Obviously cute, but in our evenhanded, equitable, neutral, and unbiased opinion, as well as in the opinion of those who are among the better and brighter types like you, still lacking.

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So, Internet, we present you with this poll so that the wisdom of your crowds can solve this question for us:

Princess Pricklepants, Blogger, Procrastinator

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Princess Pricklepants was sitting around not writing blog posts.  She got the internet working on her semi-new laptop, braced herself to write something, then checked Wikipedia to look up something about procrastination, to maybe understand it better.  Four hours later she had finished many Wikipedia articles, culminating with methods of weaving with a loom.  It was really surprisingly interesting.

She had to write.  Write, write, write.  Something.  Something original.  Worth reading.  Fun.  Engaging.  Witty.  Clever.  The Great American Novel of blog posts.  Better punctuated than this.  And, ideally, with more verbs and fewer sentence fragments.  Maybe a little less self-referential.  Maybe not.

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She decided to go for a little walk.  On her walk, she discovered something truly remarkable.  Behind the place where her desk was, at the very spot where she’d once peed on the floor, there was a mysterious doorway.  The sign said it led to a secret garden, though you could read that yourself.

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She hurried through to the other side.  No photos were taken in order to protect the mystery.

The other side was truly mysterious.  Amid IKEA furnishings stood whimsical fantasy elements, seemingly put together haphazardly.  This was very puzzling.  Also why was the radio up where she couldn’t reach it?  Why was it playing Enya songs?  Why did the door look the same on both sides?  Why did it have a sign up saying it led to a secret place?  Wouldn’t that very sign mean it wasn’t secret?  Curiouser and curiouser.

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Then she realized, this would make a great blog post!

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A really great one!

Zoing!

 

But first she had to find the hidden treasure.

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Treasure!

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She decided she would read a Wikipedia article on narrative structure, perhaps there was a way to give her post a clear beginning, middle, and end.

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Hedgehogs and humans don’t always react the same way to things.  Reading an article on narrative structure was so incredibly exciting for a hedgehog.  When she found tvtropes, it was so exciting to a budding hedgehog blogger that she peed a little on the floor.

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And then she woke up in her favorite green blanket.  It was all just a dream.

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But wait, waking up in the green blanket was all a dream too.  She woke up, peeked out of her cuddle bag, and planned for her real blog post, rather than the dream one.

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And, dear readers, we’re very sorry that we had that brief hiatus.  Princess would like you to know that she loves you this much:

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Princess Pricklepants, Blogger, Anarchist

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Princess Pricklepants was very excited.  She had just gotten a brand new to her laptop off eBay that was only slightly used.  It was a perfect purple plastic powerhouse for the Princess.  She decided that with this new laptop she would sit in her apartment, write down all her really profound thoughts, and then post them on a blog.  It would be magnificent.  A hedgehog blog.  Probably nobody had ever thought of this before.

She powered up the purple thing.  It was a little slow.  After a few minutes she finally got the internet booted.

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Annoyingly the internet on this computer only had one website.  No wordpress.  No google.  No AOL.  No Yahoo!  Just myspace.

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And not even the new myspace, this internet had the old terrible version installed.  And not even the whole myspace.  Just one page by someone called Barbie Bakunin.  A Barbie Anarchist Blogger.

“Whoever you vote for, the government wins.  Let’s go shopping.”

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This was more than a little frustrating.  She did not want to read this, she wanted to log onto wordpress to write about the things hedgehog royalty think about.  “No malls or credit cards – this implies the abdication of  reason and justice; it is the most decisive negation of  liberty, and necessarily ends in enslavement.”  It was starting to get to her.  “Freedom is disobedience.  Let’s bake cookies.”

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She thought.  And brooded.  And peed just a little on the floor and wall, though it will clean up hopefully.

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More brooding.  Staring into the void, the void stared back.  Maybe the pee wouldn’t clean up. Hello darkness my old friend.

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Angrily, Princess Pricklepants began to approve of violence as a means of fighting the oppression of Barbie blogs.

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She tried to smash the system.

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Then, on reflection, she realized that it was probably her ISP.  She called technical support and after many hours  she had reset the BIOS, reformatted, reinstalled, upgraded her RAM, set alternate DNS servers, installed a new JVM, ejected the cup holder, tried turning it off and back on again, and did some other things.  It started working, though she had no idea why.  (But it was probably DNS since there seemed to be no way it could be.)

Soon she would blog.

To be continued…

The Battle of Castle Fischer-Price

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Princess Pricklepants’ kingdom of Quillonia was a peaceful and prosperous place, ruled by the benevolent Princess along with the kind regent Sir Sandwich.

Sadly, the jealousy of the neighboring kingdoms (and perhaps some indiscrete raids by Princess Pricklepants in her younger days) brought war to the land.  The Redvian siege towers, ballistas, catapults, and other well constructed siege equipment rambled up to Castle Fischer-Price, cruel weapons of war brought forth the dread of dark doom.  The enemy called forth demanding a tribute of treasure and that nice chalice looking thing on the roof of the castle.

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Princess came forth and taunted the enemy cruelly, telling them that their mothers were hamsters.

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Anger swelled in the hearts of the cruel warriors, who while knowing very well that their mothers were not actually hamsters, still took that kind of thing very personally.  Princess added further insult by showing them her back side.

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Sir Cowflinger, leader of the Redvians cried back, “I am not angry, just very disappointed.  That was incredibly rude.  We now demand both a tribute, and an apology for that hurtful taunt.”

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“You want rude?  You don’t frighten us you red-sworded cotton headed ninny-mugginses.  Now go away, or you just might find your feelings will get hurt again!”  (Due to their unique evolution, Hedgehog taunts are a little odd.)

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Unfortunately just after she finished her rousing speech, she slipped, which took a lot of the impact away, as the Redvians laughed.  This made her feel very embarrassed.

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She quickly righted herself, composed herself, and smiled, and pretended that the slip didn’t actually happen.  The smile was helped by the fact that she knew about her secret weapon.

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Will war tear the kingdom apart?  Will cows fly?  Will we get a better lighting setup? Will we iron the sky? Some of these questions will probably be answered in Part II.

Are You Smart Enough To Guess This One Weird Fact That Will Change The Way You Think About Our Hedgehog Blog Forever?

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Sorry, we read on the internet that using hyperbole, including questions, and referring directly to the reader are ways to get read, so we were trying it out.  Look, it worked on you.

So, can you guess what amazing things been going on lately?  Oh, sorry, doing it again…

Anyway, we now have our own domain – http://princesspricklepants.com

Very exciting.

You might have noticed fewer things going on the blog lately.  Princess has been a little grumpy lately.  Many pictures look something like:

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That’s her “I would like to stab you” look.

She warmed up a little tonight:

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Then fell asleep on me:

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Princess Sophie took a selfie with me and both princesses in it.  Princess Sophie’s selfie is very fragmentary.

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Then Princess Pricklepants fell asleep on my shoulder.

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Oh, hey, the new domain also means that we have some fancy email addreses:

One for Princess Pricklpants:

theprincess at princesspricklepants.com

One for Haley:

fancy at princesspricklepants.com

One for the old guy:

sirsandwich at princesspricklepants.com

One for Sir Maxwell:

sirmaxwell at princesspricklepants.com

And one for Princess Sophie

princesssophie at princesspricklepants.com

So there’s that.

Penelope Pricklepants Plays at the Park

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On Sunday one of our readers, Megan, called to see if we wanted to meet at Zilker Park to visit Barton Creek Trail.  Well, when half your readers want to meet up, it’s hard to say no.  As it turns out, the other half of our readership was also able to join us too, more about that later!  So we took Princess for an outing to the park to see a really nice trail.

Once we arrived, we let Princess take a walk in the park.  She loved it.  This is what her loving taking a walk in the park looks like head on.

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And this is what her loving taking a walk in the park looks like from above.

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Since we were playing with a hedgehog in a busy park, people noticed.  Mostly little people.  We introduced Princess Pricklepants to potential readers.  She was pleased to meet them.

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“That’s princesspricklepants.com, yes, um, we registered a domain for our pet… No, I mean, no it’s, it’s normal…  Really, people do this all the time…  No, I’m not from a different country…  Well, no, but I just think it’s normal for me.”

Here is Megan’s little one Bridget, also known as BB, but who we will call Fred, saying hi to Princess.  Hi Fred!

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Here’s Ron below, Megan’s very precocious progeny with Princess Pricklepants.  He explained to me that he is a mercenary who would work for good food.  We talked about owls a lot.

Also, if you look carefully at the photo below, you’ll see that there are actually two people in the photo.  The person in the back is the kind and gentle Swarley, another reader who came along.  Swarley is Princess Sophie’s pal and the other half of our readership.  She is also awesome. Hi Swarley!  Hi Ron!

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We packed Princess in a personal Princess pack, and proceeded to port her on our peregrination on the path in the park.

Editor’s note: Actually we put Princess in a ‘baby sling’ fashioned from a long scarf. Perhaps we should purchase a purse in Purple Punch from Vera Bradley, for the potential purpose of private princess portage in a personal pack.

It was very lovely.

Editor again: What was lovely? The purse, the path, the park?

It was all very lovely.

There were coots and gadwalls in the creek.  I explained to someone that coots were not ducks, but a kind of rail, with a very interesting foot adaption that I couldn’t go into much detail about since they walked away.  And the gadwalls, well those are one of my favorite ducks.  From a distance they look rather plain, but up close their plumage is fantastic.  Here’s a gadwall dabbling.

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I took a lot of pictures of coots and gadwalls, also some cormorants, and a few other birds.  But this isn’t a bird watching blog, it’s a hedgehog blog.  So we’ll leave it at that.

We wandered and talked about things, and looked at lovely things, and went over a precarious bridge, and sat on a bench and took photos that didn’t come out.  We also saw fish and turtles, and I never said I wouldn’t post more pictures of those, so look, isn’t this painted turtle lovely?

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That’s really what it looks like – no Photoshopping.  The water in the creek has a really lovely hue due to the lighting, the light limestone creek bed, and probably some algae too.  We eventually finished our walk, and hung out in the park.

We took out Princess P. P., who had been really patient, and let Fred and everyone visit with Princess.  Fred was pleased to pet Princess Pricklepants.

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So pleased that she pet Princess repeatedly.

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We set up a small circle to let Princess play in the park.  She tubed.  It’s what a hedgehog does.

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We set up a picnic for her.

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She preferred tubing.

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Princess played with Megan and was pleased to play with one of her fans.

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Megan and Fred both seemed to have a warm spot in their hearts for the pygmy hedgehog.

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And there was much holding.

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Then something really exiting happened that forces me to briefly return to the topic of birds, because it was so cool!  We (Editor’s note: he) spotted Monk Parakeets flying in nearby.  Monk Parakeets are a species of parrot that can live in much colder climates than most, so there’s a breeding population in Austin.  We (Editor’s note: he) could easily spill a few hundred words about may things related to Monk Parakeets, but will spare you.

Here’s one in a tree eating seeds:

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Here are a pair grazing.  Who knew parrots ate grass?

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And here is one doing a precarious looking flyover.  Fear not, there was no parrot poop pelting photographers.

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After that we got dinner, which was very good.  Thanks to Megan and Swarley, it was pure pleasure to have plentiful Princess pals present in one place.

A Florid Adventure

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The internet is full of cute photos of hedgehogs with flowers.  I found one years ago and thought, “oh, what a cute photo of a hedgehog with a flower.”  Here it is:

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I made it my AOL Instant Messenger icon.  This was many years ago.  I cropped it some so it was mostly the little face and flower.  You don’t need to know all these details.  It was the beginning of me wanting a hedgehog, though.  Interestingly Princess Pricklepants does bear a striking resemblance to that mystery flower-bearing hedgehog of yore.

Anyway, we were excited to have the opportunity to take pictures of our hedgehog with a flower.  I was, anyway.  Ideally we’d get a picture with a little yellow dandelion stuck behind her ear, with her standing in a cute little pose. Perhaps I could use it as my Facebook icon for a while…

She wasn’t feeling cooperative.

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Princess Sophie’s help didn’t exactly help.

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We tried adding in a toy truck so it would be more fun.

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She didn’t find it fun.  On the plus side, we got a flower behind her ear.

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Soon thereafter she assaulted the truck.

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OK, no truck, just heap the flowers, and put her near them?  Still not a happy camper.

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How can a hedgie be so grumpy about flowers?

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Somehow shoving flowers in her face was considered an affront.

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She definitely did not like this.

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She worked on an escape plan.

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Her escape plans got more elaborate.

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Then she taunted us by posing with a flower under her face.  She stood half off the green cloth to ensure my inner picky photo critic would be extra annoyed.

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Posing near a pile, would that do?  With bad lighting that’s way too warm and the whites partly blown out by the exposure?

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Finally we got this one.  It’s not the hedgehog with a flower behind its ear that got us started on this quest, but it was late, and it was close enough.  Fine.

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Photos of hedgehogs with flowers behind their ears are really kind of overrated.

Princess Pricklepants, Nature Photographer

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It was Princess Sophie’s birthday, so we got Princess Pricklepants a nice present, a new camera.  Say cheese!

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She decided to photograph a lovely flower.  She posted it to 500px.com.  431 people said “nice capture, v&f, please take a look at my photos.”  How exciting!  She did not look at their photos, though.

 

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She went for a hike out in nature to see what might be found on her walk.  Amazingly, she found a very rare Mountain Mallard.  

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She carefully set up her f/stop, thought about the optimal lighting settings, set her metering, fiddled with the ISO, and then switched to ‘auto.’

 

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She took a few shots of the rare Mountain Mallard.  It stood remarkably still.

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She posted the new photo to 500px.com, got 315 likes, 220 faves, and 933 comments.  Whoo!

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Unfortunately National Geographic did not respond.

A Few Recent Photos of Note

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We were visiting our friend Victoria recently, and so of course I had to wander away from people and lie on my stomach to take photos of the hedgehog walking around.  I have the mad social skillz.

Groundling

Guess what? Princess butt.

Handy

A hand full of hedgehog head on.

low

Low angle, low key.

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When she curls up on you and sleeps it hits quantum adorableness and tears into the space-time fabric. We try to keep her awake.

A Look Inside the Tube

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One thing I’ve wondered about is whether hedgehogs keep their eyes open or closed when tubing. Thanks to some photographic investigation, we now know.  This seems to explain why they bump around so much when tubing.

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Groovy Hedgie

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Lava lamp, your green grooveadelic globs are so far out, can you dig it?  Visiting our fried Victoria with her groovy lamp was a gas.

I propose that Jan. 30 should be Talk Like David Bowie Day.  We could all say things like, “crazy, man,” end sentences with “you know,” use “far out” a lot.  Let me know if you are in, man, it could be such a crazy scene, you know?  Dig that poll below the photos.

Groovy

Princess Pricklepants digs that green grooviness.

ISO 1600, f/4, 1/50 – kit lens so f4 was as open as it got.

Low key grooviness, man.

Low key grooviness, man.

ISO 1600, f/4, 1/50

Some Bowie inspiration, man.

Hedgehog of War

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The battle lines were drawn once more, another day, another war.  The Redvians set out to conquer their hated foe, the Blutopians.  Blood would surely flow.

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The secret weapon was unleashed!  Cry havoc and let slip the hedgehog of war!

The Secret Weapon Is Unleashed

The secret weapon was rather uncooperative, since it was more interested in the back of the battle tower.

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She was very comfortable there, so she took a nap.

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“Um, hello, um, excuse me, so would you mind, you know, unleashing your wrath on the enemy?”

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Those who wake a sleeping hedgehog quickly feel the sharp quills of pain and death.

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She seemed quite pleased with the results of her rampage.

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Sir Yorick remained hiding in the castle, peering out the window in terror.

She worked her way in.

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Few men know the terror of an adorably pygmy hedgehog terrifyingly working its way towards you, a huge prickly-bear forcing her way through the castle door, getting ready to snuffle away viciously.

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Alas, poor Yorick.

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A Princess, a Battle Tower, and IKEA Furniture

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In the grim future of Princess Pricklepants there is only war.

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If ever in the future you were looking for some depiction of the madness of war, we have one for you here.

The IKEA doll furniture set’s scaled really well for Princess.  We have been thinking about adding it to her cage since she seems to actually like the couch.  The slip cover is washable, and after this shoot it needs a wash.  I often hide a small plastic red squirrel in these because I like taking photos of squirrels too.  It’s on the IKEA shelf.

Photographer’s note: The flash managed to fill things in pretty well.  I took a few shots using various settings with and without flash.  It was late at night, so ambient lighting was poor, and I didn’t want to spend time setting up lights since we needed to get to bed. This was a quickie as Max and I had just built the tower (thanks Mom), so I didn’t get a tripod or the new monopod.  The shadows on the wall are a bit harsh, though they’re the only place it stands out.  We have a second tower in the works.  It was a very easy build.

Whether you had any idea that I thought that much about taking pictures of the hedgehog, or were you were more shocked at how quick and dirty I was with the setup?  If it was the latter you’re a photographer, and you’ll be thinking about how I could have better composed the photo, and that the colors are kind of muddy, and on and on.

f/5.6 1/30 ISO 800 – I used the kit lens, had to go with a bit more closed aperture to get the DoF to include the tower and hedgie.

A Question For All Two Of Our Readers

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Please participate regardless of your opinion.  Or interest.  Or whatever, just vote.  It’s your patriotic duty.

We are going all 2003.  Vote for as many as you like, and as many times as you like, we’ll keep printing ballots.

Also, here’s Princess Pricklepants squirming for a photo.

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