The starlings are back

Thursday and the triffid is repotted

Our bird feeder is a hive of activity between the finches, great tits, blue tits, blackbirds, sparrows, some LBJ's and now today the starlings came. Funny as only yesterday I was saying we hadn't seen them so far this year. At one point there were 8 of them jostling each other for prime position on the coconut shell but by the time I got the camera some had flown up to the roof. Their wings move so fast when they hover they are like over grown hummingbirds.

Wednesday's photoshoot....
this will get moved into the greenhouse in the next couple of days!
The chickens have been named the 2 black ones are Beep, Beep and the Silkie is Rarghh. One of the black ones is very broody at the moment and I would love to let her have some chicks but we've got more than enough with 3 laying eggs, I guess we could sell them but then the problem of cockerels rears its head. I think we should be practical and just stick with 3 for now.

Managed to finish the owl shoes and they look fabulous :)

New shoes

I was going to wait until I had both done but K is coughing a lot so I dare not start up the sewing machine or he'll wake up rather than settling himself back to sleep, might finish the other one while he eats breakfast tomorrow!

Owly shoes :)

I used some Japanese owl fabric for the upper, fleece on the bottom and green flannel as a lining ~ stardust shoe pattern http://stardustshoes.blogspot.com/2006/10/cloth-shoe-pattern.html

The triffid advances

Today the french bean is keeping up with the tag of triffid, I think I may have to evict it from it's weeny plastic cup soon or it will be in danger of toppling over.

We are growing a triffid

That bean wasn't a French bean at all. C says we are going to come into the kitchen and find a triffid walking out of the door.

This is it (with cherry toms in the background which may have a triffid gene, they have grown that much in 24 hours....) today.

At some point I'll have to transplant it and relocate to the greenhouse. The strawberries gave us a bowlful yesterday, yum so sweet and still warm from the sun.

More knitting and seeds!

Last Tuesday at one of K's groups the theme included planting a seed, he chose a french bean we got some compost he'd previously been rolling around in and hiding bugs in and a plastic cup, labelled it up and brought it home. The seed has sprung!

Power poo boy struck again and I finished these just in time!

Woolies

A combination of not finding the right fold for terry squares and Hobbit number 2 being in a phase of power poo's at the moment I've had to knit some more nappy covers as the ones we had weren't drying quickly enough.

Got a few more replacement seeds done today, sweet peppers, chilli peppers and chives. Managed to evict some rogue snails from the greenhouse as well. Stakes for tomato plants started.

Chickens are taking well to being trained with bread crumbs lol

Chickens and veg seeds

After our final ex battery chickens were taken by the fox we decided not to have anymore. The red mite, the fox, new baby, all played a part in the decision. Now the new baby is 2 and wants chickens. So C has built a fabulous chicken house with attached run and a neighbour over the fields wanted to get rid of hers so we took them. The house/run works really well so we can pop them in the run when we go out which affords more protection from the fox.
They are laying really well (we have 2 black X breeds and a Silkie) names will be decided soon.

The small veg patch is the only one we are using this year, the two big ones in the field are just too much to manage. Not many tomatoes have germinated for some reason this year but the butternut squashes are coming on really well. We've also had our first strawberries, so sweet and hot from the sun. Cucumbers got munched by something so starting all over again with them. As long as we get some stuff I don't mind too much, I can't wait until the boys are older and they can be a help rather than making more work lol