Travelog for: Buzz BlueJay

Hello hello!  There I was, just nomming on some seed, when I heard a voice behind me.



There was Mel, asking if I still wanted to see the world.  Well of course I did!  Who wouldn't want to see new places and make new friends??  So I bounced around and told her YES YES YES! 



So now I'm just waiting for my first trip!  Mel and her dolls say they will give me some practice this week, then I'm on my own.  I'm sure I'm up for it!  It takes a lot to get to a big bluejay like me!

I love flying, bright colors, and exploring woods and rivers, and learning about other birds.

Mel told me that if I was going to be a cool voyager that everyone would want to host, that I needed some practice in visiting manners, and in posing and exploring.  So she took me off on a practice voyage to Holland, MI!

Mel, Mel's mom, Has and me all went to the Veldheer Tulip Farm to see the displays for the Tulip Festival.  Everyone in Holland around this time of year, Mel says, are either tourists or pretending to be Dutch, like their ancestors.  Since Mel has a Dutch last name herself, I didn't see why she was annoyed by it, but then she told me she doesn't like most human tourists.  That was why she was ging to teach me my manners before sending me to her friends!  I think she will do better with animals ones!  We are much nicer. 

So we went driving down to Holland, Has and I got to sit on Mel's lap.  But Meema made an early stop.  Where were we?  We were at a feed/farm supply store to get BIRD SEED!  I was all for that kind of shopping, but I couldn't help exploring, too!

Look look!  I followed the sound of peeping to tubs of baby chicks!  They are birds my size, and they made a lot of noise!  Peep peep peep!



Howdy!  What do you think, would I make an awesome cowboy or what?  Those cows wouldn't know what hit 'em, y'all! 


OOh!  Or I could be a farmer!  They make tractors in BLUE?  I want one!


So then, lots of birdseed in hand, or trunk, we were off to the tulip farms!  Wow!  So so many flowers!  So many bright colors!







Can you see me hiding in those pretty pretty blue hyacinths?  I blend in good!

I kept wanting to fly into the trees for better views.  Also, some of the trees were so pretty!  Mel told me to mind my manners and not go far though!  She said I should ask my host or hostess if I'm allowed to fly into the trees, and ALWAYS come back if I'm called.  I will try try to remember!





From this tree I could see the biggest windmill!  I wonder what the view from the top would be?  No Mel, I will be good and stay here....  For now....


Then we went inside to the store.  There was a lot of stuff to look at, and Has and I wanted to see it all.  We both found some wooden shoes our size!  I think mine are nicer, they are blue and white and black! Like me! 


And of course I wasn't going to let Has be the only one getting attention.  I wanted smoochies too!  Smoochies are fun!


This was already a long day for me, since I'd barely been out of the backyard before!  But there was one more stop, since Mel and her mom weren't feeling ready to go inside again after such a nice Spring day!  So we stopped for just a few minutes to check out a new nature center along the Pigeon River.  Pigeons??  Pigeons are birds?  Will I see Pigeons?


No, Mel says, the pigeons have been extinct for years now!  The river was named for the millions of passenger pigeons, but they were hunted to death. Yikes!  I'm glad bluejays aren't considered game birds!



How could anyone want to hurt something as beautiful as this!  I made a new friend!  Are you my mommy?  Hmm?  Hmph.  Don't talk much, do you?  Are you sure you're a bluejay??

Now off to home!  Mel says I did good and learned fast.  So now she'll spend some time and find me a good host. I can't wait!  Yippee!

Mel says she found me a host!  But she won't let me go yet.  Hey hey!  I wanna travel!  Oops.  I'm not using good manners, am I?    Maybe I should talk to Lady Amelie about an etiquette class.

Once I calmed down though, Mel told that it was because she is going to travel soon, and want me to go with her first.  She just didn't want me to miss a chance to see Niagara Falls, she says!  Wow wow!  I can't wait!  It's one of the biggest waterfalls anywhere!  And there's a big big tower in Toronto we might be able to go up?  Really?      I hope it works out to do all that!

Well, since I'll be here for a couple more weeks, I am being good and helping out.  Today I helped Mel fill all of the bird feeders.  I promise I did leave more for other birds, than I ate myself.  Honest. 

Yesterday we took a walk to visit Mel's grandma in the care home she lives at.  We walked over a bridge - the creek there flows into the Grand River, which is the biggest river in Michigan!



Mel and her mom carried plastic bags with them on thier walk.  I didn't know why until I saw that they were picking up litter as they went.  the path we walked was along a big road, so there was lots of junk.  Eww!  But we got it looking nice, along that part of the path anyway!  Look look!  I helped!  I am good at finding litter and pointing it out to Mel!


And then we finally got to the home, and grandma was sleeping!  I got to visit with her housemates though.  They wanted to see me, and I thought it was nice to make new friends!


I was a good voyager!  I was friendly and helpful and SO SO photogenic!  But being a beautiful bluejay, how could I not be?   

We got a new visitor today!  And no matter what she says, I wasn't scared.  Not for a minute!  I flew off to... uh...  I dunno, but I wasn't scared, honest. 


After the excitment calmed down, and we ran out of cookies, I started to beg Mel to take me down the block. I could see through the window that the neighbor's tree was full of flowers!  I wanted to go see!  Mel, let's go see!

So she took her camera to get some artsy photos too, since she likes photography, and she took me along!  I invited vanilla to come too, because I wanted to talk to her alone...

The tree was so so pretty!  mel says it is a saucer magnolia.  Mel knows a lot of tree's names.


I tried to climb as high as I could.


I talked vanilla into climbing up too, so we could chat.  She can't fly like me, but bears are good climbers!  I learned that!


I asked her a lot of questions about travelling.  I didn't want anything else to know, but...  I'm a little more nervous about it than I want to say!  I am a big brave bluejay, but new things canbe scary too!

Vanilla says that it can be a bit scary, but it helps when everyone is so nice when you get there.  She convinced me that seeing new things will be totally worth it!  I think so!

Mel finished her pictures, so we started to walk back home.  But there were even more beautiful trees blooming along the road!  I just had to stop and see them too!


This one is a weeping cherry.  It smelled lovely!  Who needs to go to Japan or Washington to see cherry flowers?  (ME!  I wanna go!  Vanilla says she does too.)


This one is a different type of cherry - Mel says she knows it best as a Sand Cherry.  it goes here wild in the sand dunes along the lake. I wanna go see that too!


Then we walked the rest of the way home.  Vanilla was getting tired, from all the excitment.  I stopped at the birdfeeder.  Then we went in to take naps while Mel got ready for work.  Being a toy can be a good life! 

Hello hello!  We had a busy morning!

First we had an electrician over to look at the house, but that wasn't exciting much for us.  But then the doorbell rang again and new friends got delivered!  They were Riin and Eri from Latvia!  They are traveling toys, but not Toy Voyagers - Mel met their mom on postcrossing and offered to take them for a bit.  She's trying to see if they will sign up for an account like us! 

So then we had to go to the store because we were out of bread and stuff.  So Mel took us small toys along!
This is the cereal aisle...


The meat and seafood counters...


And then the produce!  What, no birdseed??  Fine, I'll eat the bread.


And when Mel looked at the price of tomatoes, she remembered she had her own plants that needed planting now the fear of frost is mostly over.  So that is what we did next!
It was a team effort. 

Dan came to help with the heavy work.  We asked him why he cared about the garden, and he said that since he was a chef, of course he cared about growing good food!


I helped pull weeds and sticks out of the garden box!
  I was very very good at that! 

This is Riin and Eri!  Aren't they tiny!  They helped with weeds too!


Then Vanilla put a big scoop of compost in the hole from the big ball.


Amanda was big enough to handle the plants, but vanilla helped! This is a tomato!


I was in charge of putting in the tag so Mel knows what plants are what!


We planted a lot of plants for such small toys, but Mel helped.  Here we are with our mostly done garden!


Mel says this might be a good day to go to work with her, though Monday's are usually busy and there is a full moon too soon, so she might be wrong.  We will be good mannered and stay quiet if it is busy!

I know, I know, I haven't even posted my trip photos yet!  Busy busy!  But Mel promised she'll catch them up soon.  We'll see! 

But today I'm super super excited, because I finally get to travel!  Mel asked, do I want to stay for the history thing this weekend, and I thought about it, but I know I can see the pictures Vanilla and the rest take, so I would rather get traveling!  I get to go to a new place and see new things and make new friends, yippee for me! 

So I said goodbye to one of my favorite trees, which bloomed just in time, and all my friends.



Then Mel said my travel envelope was ready!  I picked it out myself!  I love the colors!



Im checking to make sure everything is there, the treat I picked out, my card, and even my customs form for the post office, and in I will jump!  See you soon!  Excited! 

WOOOHOOOO! Mel guess what guess what?! I'm here already!

Suddenly the top of my envelope started to move and then... there was day light! Along with the daylight there were three curious faces peering in at me. I shuffled myself out to introduce myself. I was a bit nervous but didn't want to show it so I decided to show off my flying skills. I zoomed around the garden and landed in a bush, then I jumped down and found some flowers that matched the ones on the little purple bear's tummy. This purple bear is another visiting TV called Edelweiss. She was delighted that I'd found the daisies because she loves having pictures taken with flowers. After her picture she picked the flower and gave it to me as a present. I was well chuffed and gave her a hug I thought it would look nice in my hair. My host keeps stroking my head which is rather annoying!

After all the excitement at my arrival my host realised she hadn't even looked at the card and treat still in the package! So I got them out to give to her and she was very happy with them. She said she'd never heard of a maple syrup lolly before so that was a great surprise.

The other Tvs, Edelweiss, PinkyHH and Mirembe, were very impressed with my envelope I'd picked out. They said 'Buzz travels with style!' 

I am off to explore some more, bye bye for now!
Love Buzz

Hi Mel, I had to wait a few days for my first trip out in this new foreign land, and I was starting to get a bit agitated sat on the shelf. However today we went to a nearby town called Wigan. We messed around in the flower beds, then it was time for some more serious photos. Well, I tried to be serious When I was sat on the wall outside the church a man walked passed and said 'nice toy innit'. I'm not an 'it'!  But my host said it was a compliment all the same and she was proud to be seen with me We had a group photo on a bush. I tried to put my wing around Pinky but it just looks like I've wacked her on the head! Oops.

We wandered a bit more and found an interesting statue of half a face. I pointed out some mischievious looking kids to my host, so we took some pictures. They were setting something on fire, can you see the flame if you look reeaally closely? I think they saw me staring though

If you looked at the statue from the other side, it was a full face

When we got home Mirembe, PinkyHH and I helped Edelweiss with one of her life missions to eat something purple. We nibbled through all the strawberries and green grapes so that only the purple grapes where left. They were rather tasty and renewed our energy.

Hi Mel,
On thursday we said farewell to Mirembe and gave her hugs, she is off to her first host in Ukraine! Afterwards I went to explore the display cabinet in the living room which had a mirror in the back so I could check my hair. It had lots of interesting figures in, including a rather scary skull. I tried talking to some of the heads but they were motionless Laurel and Hardy seemed to be having a good laugh though.

On friday and today we went with our host to visit a friend in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The other TVs had been there before but I hadn't so it was extra exciting! The first pic is of me in the centre of the city. We also looked in a bookshop which was a rather grand inside. The others climbed the shelves so that we could have a picture with the statue in the background, but I got up first due to my expert flying skills

We caught a bus and in a different part of the city we came across a big Sonic the hedgehog figure which my host's friend thought would be great for a TV photo shoot. I even match because I'm blue

When we got back my host finally let me use the laptop to look at Vanilla's Historical re-enactment updates. I had been begging to see them but I did say please  Hello Vanilla if you are reading this! *waves*

When we got off the train in Manchester we saw this massive sky scraper! Then we walked a bit to find a nice building (I don't know why I have my wing up in that picture!) On the way we saw a Harry Potter poster which my host liked

We found some pretty canal boats and I was very fond of the flowers on top and how they were painted. I wish we could have looked inside of one!  On the other side of the canal there was a little toyvoyager-sized house. We wanted to visit it but we didn't have any canoes to get across the water . We also saw a Roman Granary, there was a sign explaining but we got bored of that and wanted to play! Ooh, on the way back we saw a very brightly coloured building and I had a rest.

It was the Croft village Carnival today mum!!! They have a procession through the streets with floats pulled by Tractors or Lorries. I wanna drive a tractor! can I drive one?!

My host said that it would interupt the procession if I tried to hijack a tractor so I had to contain myself Maybe I could sit on a float instead, I'd look so good! No? Where's the fun around here?! Okay, I did have fun really The first pic is of me looking at the people beginning to come out of their houses to wait for it to start, we were pretty early but later there would be crowds. Miss Becca says that this is the only day of the year when Croft looks like it has people in! At other times it is extremely quiet. We walked out of the estate to get a good view with no heads in the way I sat with Edel and Pinky on someone's garden wall, to wait for it to begin.

Here come the bagpipes! Then came the walkers, with the pre-school. They don't look too happy do they... cheer up people! The next float is the primary school, followed by... ROCKET! I want a ROCKET! Mum, can I go to space?! Awww. After that came the Women's Institute float called 'Women of the world'. I didn't get a great picture of that because Pinky and Edelweiss snatched the camera, how rude  There was then a book advertising float with cute kids on. And finally... More music, but this time a brass band!

I have more photos which I will post later... Of scarecrows!


P.s. I forgot to include the Angel Girl Scout float so I've added it at the end. Although it's blury because the camera focused on my head!

Leading on from the last update...

Every year the carnival has a scarecrow competition where anyone in the village can make a scarecrow to display in their garden. This year's theme was the 70's! So we went to have a nosy Pinky and I though the 'Croft Village people' were the best, followed by Flower Power and Skarsky and Hutch because they used the Rabbit Hutch :P However Edel wanted Flower Power to win because that scarecrow matched her tummy! I believe that makes her biased

Hi mom!!! Long time no speak, my host says sorry! I will update you on the goings on:

The first photo was taken on the 14th of July when my host was getting ready for the midnight showing of the final Harry Potter. She was very thoughtful and made us hats for the occasion!  Even though they only seem to wear hats in the first film... ah well. Sadly there was nothing exciting in the cinema for us to take more photos of - noone dressed up, booo! 

Then today was Pinky's leaving day I insisted she gave me a few more toyvoyager tips before she left, as she is a very well-travelled and wise bear. And then there were two... Edelweiss and I get on well though My host says there are a few more toys on their way so that will be exciting!

Anyway, the next picture is the shelf where us toyvoyagers sleep. Pinocchio's AWSOME - we're best buds And Edel has a baby clown friend. I wanted to investigate some of the other shelves though, and I met some bears and a pelican called Swoop. My host says she's seen one of Swoop's distant relatives on toyvoyagers somewhere, going by the name of Wilson... Swoop was very happy to hear that.

Today we managed to visit a city and a town all in one day! Our host had an appointment in Manchester so we went there in the car, then Edel and I wanted to get the train to her home town centre afterwards. It was lovely and sunny so we couldn't see why not

We took so many pictures I won't describe every one, but at first we went to a park and I tried to make friends with the pidgeons 'HELLO I'M BUZZ!!!' They were a bit rude and looked at me like I was some crazy blue bird.... oh wait, I am  Haha, oh well, I'm way too intelligent for them anyway. We spotted some window cleaners abseiling with their buckets on the big buildings. Then we found a mini water-fall further down the canal from last time we went - does that count towards my waterfall mission mom?! And the pretty graffiti!

When we got to Warrington we visited the town hall with the golden gates, another park, then went into the centre where all the shops are. There was Alice in Wonderland at the Mad Hatter's tea party! And then we heard chanting and wandered over the the rugby the stadium where there was a match on. My host doesn't like rugby but usually when you mention to someone you live in Warrington they only know it because of the Warrington Wolves team. The pubs nearby were so busy with people spilling out you could hardly see the doors!


The last pic was meant to go first, as it was us in the car in the morning.

Today we were surprised because our host got up at 6am for once! And said that we could go on a morning stroll We visited the horses and even saw a rabbit! It is nice that there are stables here so you see horses walking around the neighbourhood with their owners, but behind their fields is the motorway which you may be able to see on one of the pictures. The constant noise of cars and lorries ruins the atmosphere a bit. A white horsey came to say hello We didn't get too near though in case he wanted to eat us! When we got back the room looked pretty because my host's glitter ball was reflecting the sun, so we took a picture of that too.