Fun and games in the sunshine...

Fur & Feathers:

Some may think our garden is currently an overgrown mess however others see it as a superb adventure playground and great for exploring... oh what fun we've had this weekend!

Foliage:

We went to a salvage fair yesterday and picked up these lovely old wine crates for just £5 each from www.sugdenanddaughters.co.uk which we've filled today with Lavender. We think they look great! Just hope I can keep the plants alive the last Lavender plant didn't do so well in my care.



Today we've also got the tomatoes sorted and into a grow bag and planted up the pepper plants.

Pet store...

Fur:

With so many pet health products and supplies available I thought it would be useful to share some of the products I use with you and tell you why I choice certain ones over others. I have therefore created a new page called 'Pet Store' in which I have initially shared with you the products I use on Ellie, Isla and Lily. Will get onto our feathered friends shortly!

On a different note Ellie and Isla came face-to-face with 'Tiger' tonight, not actually sure what her name is but I wouldn't mess with her so you can imagine how concerned the girls were when she was in the yard and they wanted to come in for their tea!

Lily has a good clean out tonight and is now happily laying in some fresh hay.

Feathers:

No eggs from Jemima today but last time she did that we got two the next day so wonder what will happen tomorrow?! One egg from Beatrice and none of Gladys who seems to be pretending once again that she is broody even though it is pretty obvious that she isn't!

Puddles was a little lively this morning and was hanging by his beak on the bottom of my summer dress while I was trying to top up their food! He still hasn't calmed down even though he now has a girlfriend! He looks so sweet and innocent in this photo I took tonight!

Foliage:

First two strawberries were spotted this morning so the plants must be doing well despite them looking a bit sorry for themselves from the torrential rain over the last few days! Ellie helped me inspect their progress this evening!

The potatoes are going mad along with the carrots and broccoli.

My mum has had to save the day with tomatoes considering our own plants are still only about an inch and a half high. Might be Christmas by the time they have any tomatoes for picking so we've had three donated which are ready to go into a grow bag this weekend.

The cucumber, courgette and butternut squash plants are still doing well however we are a little way off having some fresh veg to pick.

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you...

Fur:

Today is Ellie and Isla's first birthday! They are one whole year old. To celebrate they had freshly cooked chicken breast and cat milk as a special treat plus some catnip toys. They are both absolutely cream crackered and both sprawled out fast asleep. The excitment has been too much for them! Happy birthday girls!

If you go down to the woods today...

Foliage:

Well last night was my first outing as an official volunteer for The Woodland Trust. Mike and I visited cabbage hill and lawn wood in the Castle Bytham area and took photos and made notes to add to the new Visit Woods website to encourage others to use the woods in our local area. What a superb way to spend a hot summers evening! Got the photos uploaded and selected the facilities available, descriptions to come soon.

Fresh duck and chicken eggs for sale

Feathers:

Our stocks are building up nicely now with Jemima, Gladys and Beatrice laying daily so if you live in our local area of Stamford/Bourne in Lincolnshire we've got some delicious eggs for sale. They are just 20p per egg and all the pennies will go towards their next bag of feed so please do let us know what you would like so either duck or chicken eggs and how many. Yummy!

Signed, sealed, delivered...

Feathers:

We knew it was only a matter of time before Mr Puddles started to receive fan mail and today was the day! Noah, aged 20 months (with a little help from his mum!) made him a lovely card  - the start of a beautiful friendship we think. Puddles was obviously absolutely delighted to have a number one fan! Noah told Puddles that he was his favourite duck and he would really like to meet him one day!

I love the addition of Buzz Lightyear and Woody in the picture... who doesn't love Toy Story!

Morning, campers...

Fur:

Thought I better check the tent is ok for our night away this weekend so put it up in the living room (it's only a tiny 2 man tent!) with the help of two little girls. They had a great time chasing the ends of the tent poles and hiding under the canvas!

Guilty conscious...

Feathers:

Think Jemima must have felt guilty about not laying an egg yesterday as today she has laid two! Bless her!

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man. Bake me a cake just as fast as you can...

Mike was amazed this morning when he got up and I had already baked and decorated a cake! I made a jaffa drizzle loaf using three of Jemima's duck eggs. It's an orange sponge with milk chocolate drizzled over the top. It's absolutely delicious even if I do say so myself...

Fur & Feathers:

Everyone outside had their houses and runs cleaned out today. I managed to find a hay supplier this week so we can now collect hay bales as and when we need them. 

No egg from Jemima today but Gladys is back in business so we got two chicken eggs today. One from Beatrice and one from Gladys.

Foliage:

Planted some marigolds in the vegetable bed this morning, I've heard it's a natural way of keeping the flies and bugs off the vegetable plants as they go too these instead. We'll see if it works.

Our neighbour kindly gave us a couple of cucumber plants to go on the slope as the ones we planted seem to have vanished! Think the birds must have had them or they got washed away in the rain. He also gave us a clump of lettuce to keep us going until we can plant out own in the other bed.

Nipped to Hobbycraft this afternoon in Peterborough and on the way drove through Witham on the Hill where some kind couple had left free pots of strawberry plants in the centre of the village for people to help themselves. I got the last pot which had six plants in it! Nice to see there are some nice people left in the world. The plants are now running along the bottom of the slope. It will be very exciting if we manage to grow our own strawberries!

Scrambled duck egg on toast...

Feathers:

Just had my first ever duck egg laid for me personally by Jemima. It's a slightly different taste to a chicken egg but I like it!

It's been so long...

Sorry everyone, been a little under the weather since last weekend so haven't been able to do any blogging. Think I've turned a little corner today so I'll be back on track with the posts now.

Fur:

Lily is really enjoying having her hutch, run and the whole yard in fact back to herself, she's been charging about, digging holes and generally enjoying life.

Isla and Ellie paid her a little visit this afternoon and we had a stand off situation between Ellie and Lily. Neither of them won as they both backed off and went in opposite directions!

Feathers:

Jemima and Puddles are getting on like a house on fire. I can't quite believe how smoothly it's gone plus we have been witness to some shenanigans in the pool so we may have the option to rear some ducklings in the future!

Jemima is clearly content and has laid us an egg everyday she has been here. I do keep informing the hens about this but doesn't seem to make them competitive unfortunately!

Gladys is still pretending to be broody, it's very much when she feels like it though. If I let the others into the garden or take some particularly tasty morsels into the pen she doesn't seem to have any bother getting out of the nest box! The also clear giveaway is that her comb is still bright red and she looks on top form so I'm not falling for it.

Beatrice and Lucky are fine and dandy and enjoying the sunshine that the weekend has brought.

Foliage:

Carrots and potatoes are now coming up in the vegetable bed. Everything else is continuing to grow and doing well. Been looking at the garlic I planted in March and I think it may be ready to pull up next month. Looking forward to that, this is my first year attempting to grow garlic.