Birthdays

The chicks welcome committee. Reminds me of when new year 7 pupils started at school and the older pupils would crowd around the playground fence

Apologies for being so lax in my blogging last week. I am sure my thousands of readers will be deeply upset. Having birthdays and parties for 8 year olds is quite a time consuming business and having made enough jelly and jam sandwiches for a large infant class I ran out of time for weekly basics such as blogging. Harriett had her birthday on Wednesday. She had a lovely day and I spent the morning shopping for chickens which Mum and Dad got her for her birthday. In the end they only had chicks so Harriett is now the very proud owner of two chicks. Very nice for Harriett but doesn't get us any more eggs in the short term. They may not even lay until the spring now. I also had a chat about getting a breed of chicken that goes broody, so in the spring will buy some  Silkies or Orpingtons  so that we can raise some of our own chickens for laying and eating. Apologies if the writing seems a little disjointed I have some Elderberry and apple jam on the go and I have to keep hopping up and down to test it and to stop it boiling over. The apple tree in the front garden has gone a bit mad so we have been having everything with apples: Apple and raisin bread, apple and blackberry crumble, apple juice and now jam. To start with the wasps were eating all the apples. A few wasp traps solved that although dealing with a jam jar filled with jam covered dead  and almost dead wasps wasn't much fun.

I found this chap in the field while digging a strawberry bed. He seemed quite tame

 Just checked jam on a saucer, not set yet. The pigs are growing like mad and are getting more and more used to us. I have found they like being tickled behind their ears. They have also taken to sniffing and chewing on peoples wellies while they are wearing them. It's quite amusing although once they are bigger it could mean going back across the field in socks.

On Sunday we finally finished getting the skin fully on the polytunnel. It's still not 100% finished, but bar a couple of minor finishing off tasks it is up and running. The seedlings I planted are starting to grow so fingers crossed for fresh greens through the winter and early spring. The tomatoes in field however are less successful and are dying off at a quick rate. I'll put it down to the weather rather than being a bit neglected earlier in the year. I have dug a strawberry bed this week and put in the strawberries I got given from Greg at our housewarming party.

mmm better check that jam again.

 I am going to be in trouble now, there is half cooked jam on the keyboard.

Now I have written about last week it seems I have achieved more than I thought I had. On top of all of that was Harriett's party on Saturday.

This week I am into the wonders of sanding and painting window frames. Hold me back please I can't wait to start!