The month flies by...

A few bits from this month (which seems to be going very fast for me... its all that gardening I've been doing...)

:: In the dining room the Joules calender reminds me of my day in Market Harborough which is where Joules  first began. The advert on this months page is just sooo English :-)

:: In the kitchen writer Leo Tolstoy speaks the truth of how my Spring always is.

:: On the window sill we have my weekly bouquet from D - this time its bluebells and grape hyacinth.

:: From the garden we had our very first egg (and much sooner than expected too!) and I think it might from our biggest hen Damson as she also has the reddest comb which is a sign of maturity. D found the egg next to their water bowl and we were soooo egg-cited!! It really is so enjoyable to see food come from your own garden isn't it?

:: The following day she laid another and then later that day we noticed we hadn't seen Cherry for a while so we went to investigate and found her just leaving the coop after laying her first egg in one of the egg boxes. Its so pretty, a lovely shade of pastel green.

:: We have now had three regular coloured brown eggs and two green ones (although one of the greens was soft shelled and laid from the perch so was soggy and smashed when I found it in the straw this morning :-(

The Bluebell Woods...

A couple of years ago we visited some bluebell woods in Loughborough which is a town in the north of Leicestershire. I took D and my mum to visit this year, its an exciting time in every year for me, trying to catch these typical English flowers in the short few weeks that they are blooming. It makes me WHOOP!

We walked through the trees and out into this farmers field and tucked back out of the way was this beautiful house, ooooh to live here, perhaps the house of my dreams?

Back in the woods D did some climbing, I did some view admiring, and my mum fiddled around with her phone (will she ever manage to use an iphone?!)

Love heart shaped ferns yet to unfurl become gifts from D to me, and the bluebells scented the air delicately at times but at other times the air was just beautifully fully fragrant!

The Outwoods is very hilly so we soon started running out of breath and enjoyed sitting down for a picnic and a rest before we were off again taking it all in. 

My favourite parts of the day were seeing the hidden house, smelling the bluebells all around us, letting D climb pretty high into a tree, finding the curled up ferns and stroking a few hairy trees.

Alhamdulillah - All praises are for God - for indulgent days and the freedom to explore, blessings galore indeed!

Just lately...

Gardening takes over and there's not much time for writing, for reading, crafting or much housework to be honest. The sun shone for about four or five weeks and my skin tanned under its brightness and my nails and palms are dirt stained and rough. I shun the gardening gloves so I can feel Gods Earth in my fingers and feel like part of the garden rather than an outsider.

As seeds swell and sprout, and others swell then rot, I rummage through the sheds and scruffy the garden up with things on their way to carboot sales and charity auctions.

We seek good health from nettle soup and D excites about eating food fresh from the garden picked by my tingling hands. The soup is good and is shared with my mum who agrees.

Planters are needed but so are my pennies and pounds so I reuse old wooden packing boxes with bin bag linings and fill them with shop bought compost - saving mine for the dormice who nested inside the compost bin this Winter.

I rush to the door one day, fast walking over hard hallway tiles with muddy foot prints, and smash my phone screen when it drops from my fingers and hits the ground.

Sellotape helps and with everything still fully working its no big deal.

The canal is always just down the road on those days we want to absorb more outdoors or just simply leave my hub to rest in a silent home.

Back in the garden the damson tree blossom is long gone, the cherry trees are covered in it and the apples trees are the last to open their pink buds to reveal almost white flowers.

And I'm outside almost every evening (even in the rain) until the day is clearly evening with orange tinted sky, the hens line up on their roost inside the coop and I close their door to let them sleep and my body keeps working until the light fades to dim and the birdsong lessens.

Organix treats for D...

The postman delivered some organic treats for D a few days ago, they are from the Organix 'Goodies' range of baby / children's food which we love. (Ive blogged about them before here). We take things like this with us on all of our days out together - usually a couple of pieces of fruit, sometimes a sandwich or toastie, or perhaps an Organix Gingerbread man each. Its not often we buy lunch when we are out.

The Organix Multigrain Hearts encourage pincer grip in babies and melt in the mouth, i think they would be a really good first food for an exploring baby. D took a pack to the park and loved them, had another pack the next day at home, but has since declared that they are a bit boring. I tried them myself and the taste is probably a little too delicate for us, much better for babies than children.

These Organix Banana Rice Cakes are absolutely delicious, so much so that I'm adding them to my shopping list whenever i feel like a popcorn treat - as that's just what they taste like! They are a great organic, no added sugar, fruit juice filled treat and very moreish. I have decided these are mine all mine!

The Organix Multigrain Hearts and the Banana Rice cakes were both sent to me for reviewing but yesterday on a trip to Waitrose i bought the Organix Gingerbread Men as we have loved these for ages and ages and the ingredients are wonderful. In fact, we both just had a banana for breakfast, followed by honey topped rice crispies and more banana and milk, and a gingerbread man each for afters - we went for it this morning!!

If you click the links in this post you will see the product, their ingredients, and where to purchase them from.

Meet the girls...

Seven or so years of daydreaming about starting off our very own smallholding with some chickens, and finally the wanting's and hoping's and 'oh i wish' has become our true story. With the veg and fruit patch increasing year by year, and now with five hens living in our garden, we are still a long way off from having smallholder status but I'm certainly very happy right now alhamdulillah, blessings galore!

The coop came on D's fourth birthday last week and we picked up five hens from Merrydale Poultry yesterday afternoon.

We have spent some time with them and they are getting used to us quite quickly, some don't mind a stroke and three of them don't mind being handled a little bit.

Chickens like to establish a 'pecking order' between themselves so that they all know who is boss and where they all belong in the flock. There is already a definite boss and a definite bottom of the ranking order. I shall introduce them all to you now! First up is the boss, she is a Cuckoo Maran and her name is Damson. She is the biggest hen we bought and has been chasing and pecking and grabbing the others, but I'm sure she will calm down a bit soon. She has sat on our laps and doesn't mind being stroked.

At the moment her closest friend is Cherry who is a blue egg layer but I don't remember what breed she is! She is good at sitting on laps and she is a bit chatty compared to the others.

Our Sussex Hybrid is called Apple and at the moment she is good friends with Cherry. The Sussex breed is a popular hen choice and she is quite friendly with us.

The last two hens are both at the bottom of the pecking order and are both a little shy and haven't sat on our laps yet. The Blue Maran Hybrid is called Lavender and has a little bit of copper shimmer on her chest and neck.

And right at the bottom is the smallest hen, a Merrydale Sweetie Hybrid which is perhaps an Amber White? Her name is Strawberry and she is very timid but should end up being the best natured hen in the flock (hence the name 'Sweetie').

I made them a temporary enclosure so that they can come out of the coop / run when I'm around and have a scratch in the grass and pebbles looking for woodlice, slugs, spiders, worms and weeds to eat. There's plenty of chickweed growing here so they shall love it. I'm beyond excited about having them living here with us!