Gifts and a lovely walk on the beach

Yule cards

I think we've out glittered most craft shops and we've finally got enough Yule cards.
Every single thing in the cottage is covered in at least one speck of glitter from rooms we haven't been into, books at the back of the shelf, all victims of the glitter fairy lol.
He took some persuading but we stuck with a tree/star/sun theme, his first choices were clowns and cars!

RIP Beep 2

Mr Fox killed one of the girls yesterday, very sad. Although intially all 3 were missing and I was really very sad. I only found one handful of black feathers though so logically I guessed the other two had hidden and were waiting until they thought it was safe. I walked round the fields, loked under the caravan/cars, everywhere calling them, even open and shut the big garage doors a few times which is normally a surefire way of getting their attention as doors opening mean corn and an explore around the cavernous workshop! C then went for a walk to see if he could spot them, nothing. C told K the fox had taken them and in that explanation new baby chicks got mentioned !
Went out to get some logs, opened the door, had my back to the door picking logs to chop and I heard chickens chatting to me! The two had gone to ground somewhere and only came home a few hours later, they must have been petrified :( Not something I would usually wish on another animal but that damn fox familiy has had so many of our chickens I wish them all short lives.

Anyway Rargh and Beep 1 live on for now but I feel it is on borrowed time.

Season/nature table so far

Still some bits of autumn hanging on in the form of teasel hedgehogs hibernating in the gorgeous felt bowl!

The sun can come back on at Solstice, for now we have a felted tree with raindrops on it and some weird felted balls and some rose quartz has ended up there as well. There are a few catkins as well but I keep finding them all over the place!

Busy doing nothing

Had a busy week doing nothing I can really remember! Trebah Gardens again for HE group but I hadn't booked the lantern making as I thought K would get bored after a few minutes. No one else really there so we didn't hang around long but got a lovely book from the gift shop while we were there. Never have too many books can you?!
Friday found K with a raging temperature and then Sat' afternoon E joined him. C has had it all week as well, I hate them being ill but when there are 3 lots of man flu to contend with I just want to escape for a while, so I swung the axe about and chopped logs.
Finally started putting the wood protector on the gate yesterday but it wasn't quite dry in a few spots before the condensation of the night began so some spots will have to be done again. Trouble is it's winter and all these sorts of jobs are really late summer ones, oh well. Table and benches all oiled as well. My list of winter jobs is growing, we should really dig over and manure the veg plot we had the fire on, I want at least one of them ready to use next year. Part of the scaff plank has rotted away but I reckon it'll be fine with a quick repair job, I'm hoping the weeds aren't holding all the scaff planks together!

The leaves on the pear tree are growing bigger, soft ears of green braving the winter. The strawberry leaves are finally turning autumnal, the decadence of being in the greenhouse means they carry on for quite a while!

My season table swop is yet to arrive but my recipient liked hers, phew :)

Woolies for GPLETS finished as well. http://www.flickr.com/photos/14095482@N05/3089118589/

I can't believe I got 10 minutes peace to type this up, fingers crossed the boys are better tomorrow.

Fire

Unfortunately the caravan didn't make it....

onto the bonfire!

Was a lovely toasty fire on a cold evening!

3rd birthday at the zoo

We went to the zoo, had a lovely day but I just can't stand to see the animals caged up, the lioness was beautiful but the photos of her are all so sad.

K stroked the python the hothouse lady had out on display, no fear at all.

Hard work

It is such hard work being snuggled up on mamas back in a wrap that i think I'll just lie here and have a little bit more sleep. HE group this week was felting. Inbetween running wround like he was being brought up in a wild wolf pack K made some felt balls (with some help!)

and a flat piece of felt with a butterfly :) OK I did the white base layer and he decided what picture he wanted, placed the colours on and did the rolling with me. He was however distracted by bubble wrap and running around like a wind up toy.

Trees

So after a busy Samhain we are beginning to settle into the darkest time. The small veg plot has been emptied and the soil turned over. The Yule fruit trees have been planted and the greenhouse tomatos have been taken out.

We have a huge pile of scrap wood and old chicken houses waiting to be set on fire :) and then we can start to think about clearing the two large veg beds in the field. we need to get at least one ready for next year.

Logs are being stockpiled but they need drying out for a few months.

When I went to check the trees today I found the plum with new leaves already and two of the dirty 'stones' at the base of the pear had been washed by the rain and were actually quartz :)

samhain

trees

The trees are planted, lets just hope they survive the coming gales! Will do photos when the rain stops.

Had a lovely weekend and I'm seriously considering the pros and cons of adding geese to the menagerie.

We've had 3 rainbows today, each met with total excitement and astonishment. For the last one K sat in the back door with no bottoms on and an umbrella over his head lol he's always so sad when they fade away.

Autumn Season/Nature table so far....

I'm collecting ideas for Winter/Yule already.

Trees...

are here, just ordered some non animal blood/fish/bone feed to feed them with when planting them. Hopefully next year we will have a mini orchard of apples, plums and pears :)
Just got to decide where they are going and get the holes dug.

Rainbows!

At about 8.30am this morning I was putting the breakfast stuff in the kitchen and suddenly this amazing rainbow appeared, this camera just doesn't do the vibrancy of the colours justice. The colours were so immediate and vibrated in such a way that if my arms had been just a little longer I would have touched them.

So we excitedly got the camera and ran outside in wellies and PJ's marvelling at the wonders of the world and trying to explain to a 2 year old where rainbows come from. I think I need to get a prism!

The first one is the kitchen view and the second from across the field (please ignore all the weeds we have let run riot lol).

Super Cute Chickens

Looky here :)
http://www.ninnynoodlenoo.com/blog/?p=179
Ostheimer Chicken giveaway, love Ostheimer animals here, only this morning I had to be the horse and eat purple grass lol

Apple Tree Blessing

Yesterday we went to an Apple Day, blessed trees, had fun and ate parsnip and apple soup! delicious.

Gorgeous weather yesterday meant I admitted defeat with the squashes and started clearing the small veg plot, hopefully next year at least one of the big ones in the field will be planted. Today we spent another gorgeous afternoon inside at a birthday party, nice to celebrate but I was itching to get back outside in the sun.

Apples

We went to our first home ed meet up today at a NT farm and we had a lovely day. This is our haul of apples, we collected a bag of windfalls for the pig and a bag of lovely ones to take home!

Acorns, leaves and pheasant feathers are somewhere.....

Where is my camera?

Broody chickens, finished woolies, a bucketload of tom's and I can't find the camera!
Also I have today discovered the babies the Aloe Vera plant produces are called 'pups', never would have guessed that.

Autumn Equinox

Just before we went out yesterday I looked for the chickens to pop them back into their run and found this! rarghh was desperate to lay and egg but Beep was not moving, no way not even for corn, she just let her sit on her head! Chickens are wilful creatures at times.

So we went to the Maize maze and trusted a small child with a red flag to get us out, and he did but we came back out the way we came in after only wandering around about 1/4 of the maze!

Then we went in this crazy train, what it actually was was a landrover with wooden carcass to look like a train then wooden carriages attached, the guy driving it was utterly mad and it was a real bone shaker, not the sedate, smooth train ride I had envisaged. The boys however LOVED every jolting, swaying, juddering moment of it.

Blackberry Days

We have lots of blackberries in the freezer ready to drop a taste of summer into winter but I have yet to make jam. I was put off as the last lot I made had pips in and it seemed to be more pips on toast rather than blackberry jam on toast. I don't have a jelly bag and it all sounded like a lot of faff but I have since figured out pushing it through a sieve like I do with the tomatoes would work just as well so that's what I did yesterday :) I sent the boys off blackberrying and 1.7kg of the juicy delights turned into this......

it is delicious!

Sultana bread and puppets!

Managed to cobble together a recipe for sweet sultana bread today, while it wasn't as sweet as the one I tried it was delicious :) Looks like the mice have got somewhat cheekier and bigger over the summer though......

Nana has come to stay in the caravan which has pleased K no end, he's been asking if she is here since he woke up this morning! She brought down a puppet theatre passed on from my sisters children, he LOVES it!

A frenzy of bees

We have hundreds of bees, all buzzing about in even the briefest spell of sunshine, making the most of it before autumn melts into winter.....

Foxy Flowers

The fox nearly got one of our girls yesterday but we either scared him/her into dropping her or she had such a go that the fox thought better of it! She lost quite a few feathers and there is a wound on her back but we're just putting wound powder on it, it is looking OK so far.

When I opened the door this morning I noticed an amazing smell and realised our honeysuckle that is struggling this year has produced 3 flowers, 2 are open and smell divine. Before the wind tears them down I thought I'd take a picture.

Also the flowers I got given when I left work have survived my utter neglect and despite me are blooming.

The weekend

Went to Lappa Valley on Saturday, a rare day of sun. Got some pictures of K coming down the huge slide. E was on my back and I forgot about him so we took one in the car! Oops!

In the canoe and our train was called Muffin!

Sunday was dire weather wise, I think my hoped for Indian summer is but a dream, we spent a lot of the day having a 'pic pic' indoors :)

E is 6 months

and it feels like it has flown by (well bar a couple of days, but if I don't get this down it might go unrecorded!)
We have the two bottom front teeth and more on the way. Rolling from front to back and as of 5 mins ago rolling from back to front! Still a bit wobbly when sat up and is prone to toppling forward without warning.Sleep was a restful all night long and then he hit the 4 month growth spurt and sleep officially became a luxury for the weak!
His woolies and sleeping bags and cute clothes are all getting too small and need to be sold on. I didn't feel like this with K as I was keeping it all 'just in case' ;) but there can't be any more and it feels very strange and is definately tinged with a little grief.
He's been watching me eat for a few weeks and is mesmerised by the food or the act of it being eaten, I'm not sure which, so yesterday he had some sweet potato and carrot, it all got squished and thrown around, eating was not top priority! The fruit puree was tasted but not eaten, then today K was having banana for afternoon snack and he wanted some so he had a piece that I think he was just trying to get milk out of .
He adores K, giggles at him and watches his every move desperate to join in with whatever he's doing, K has realised he has an audience and plays up to him big time!

Off to the woods

Off to the woods for the afternoon today. K took his bike and had a wonderful time, he's getting really good at balancing, it won't be long before he will be able to cope with peddles.

E was frantically trying to look at everything at the same time before succumbing to sleep on my back.

The leaves are starting to flutter down and while I am hoping for a glorious Indian summer (to make up for the non existant 'summer') Autumn is well and truly creeping towards us.

In the greenhouse the tom's are abundant, the cucumbers less so, one had red spider mite so has been evicted and one is currently showing signs of 2 other diseases but hanging on in there. The peas have just vanished and the squashes are being eaten when I'm not looking! Not quite a write off but not a very successful year. Maybe next year I'll bring the two large beds in the field back into use.

Boscastle & Tintagel

Went for a day out today as some friends were down on holiday. Had a wander around Boscastle then popped to Tintagel to get pasties!
My photos consist of the boys in the car as I failed to successfully juggle one baby, one toddler, one bag and a camera.

My new bag is the clever 'onbag', the last stitches went in this morning and I'm just getting used to it. If I get my hands on a snap press I will add a few in certain places but it is big enough to take nappies and clothes for 2, plus drink bottle, snacks etc. It will take a bit of getting used to but so far so good, rucksack was OK as was across the body, on one shoulder was a bit uncomfy as I didn't place the knot correctly and it was very heavy.

A mouses house apparently!











and some colourful glittery butterflies for the season table .

Beach today

and he LOVES it, there was a rip tide developing so we didn''t stay long but long enough to get drenched and have an ice cream. He was soaked and shivering but kept wanting to wait for the next wave then the next one. I think a wetsuit and surfboard may be needed once he can swim well enough.

Trampoline!

We've been debating getting one, discussing which size would be best and where it could and couldn't go. C has done a week of 12hour shifts and suggested we could use some of that money for a trampoline. I hadn't really looked into it anymore and then at B&Q today while I was buying some sisal to make a beehive :) (for the season table) they had some on sale. £58 for an 8ft one with a safety enclosure, done deal! We will get a bigger one for the field in a few years time when both of them are older.

Edan is starting to roll himself over, he can pivot 360* around very succesfully and with a nudge can go from back to front but he can go from front to back all by himself looking very pleased with himself as he does it!

Butterflies! Might do the beehive and bees sometime this week but the weather is meant to be sunny all week so maybe not!