At last a couple of days of warm (even hot!) sunshine. I took my cup of tea out into the garden this morning and spent a couple of hours weeding and cutting back. I am slowly clearing a bed so that I can put in some dwarf apple trees and David Austen roses.



When it got too hot I came in bringing these beauties with me.

I have over the years accumulated a few things that were starting to clutter my kitchen, so I have recently bought a cupboard which fits perfectly behind the back door in the utility room and all my 'stuff' is organised on it. The two recent additions are a new-to-me Kenwood, the previous one blew up trying to knead bread dough! and a Kenwood slicer, I love this! I can bake 4 loaves, slice and bag them and put them in the freezer, or slow cook a ham, slice and freeze for sandwiches, hash or ham with parsley sauce.




Efficient but not pretty! So here is a picture of one of my favourite things. This little dairy cow sat on my mums butter dish until it got smashed.

Second daughter played with her camera today and took these artistic shots.

Clever hen - chewing



And the other two!

They enjoy our company more than anything else, and certainly more than our Marrans did. They are Warrens and we have the three, which I thought would be enough for our needs. They have today each laid an egg for the first time. Second daughter has an affinity with them for some reason, going as far as to proclaim herself 'the hen whisperer'.!!!

We only have a small lawn to keep them on but so far it has not been trashed, we move the ark everyday. I decided on the Boughton Ark from Forsham Cottage Arks - this one:-

http://www.forshamcottagearks.com/poultry-housing/cat-prod-boughton-chicken-housing.htm

It's swish hen housing, a bit pricey but very good.

I decided to have a blogging break and it lasted a little longer than I had anticipated.



Life carried on, children to see to ~(even though teenagers now they still need parents in so many ways) GCSEs and broken hearts. 86 year old mum to ferry to and from hospital and do things for. Paid work to endure (!) and the endless tasks that go with trying to live a simple life.



Such as:-



Growing flowers - beautiful and productive










Knitting - several things, including trying out the extreme variety

Home entertainment - my beloved Jericho, bought for me by my daughter, using money I had given her to go shopping to treat herself.

More photos of bales!!! Taken by husband just over the road from our house. Spending time in our local environment more as petrol costs rise.

Looking after the tomatoes in the greenhouse, polytunnel, veg patch and dotted in and amongst the flower beds. I have never seen so many flowers on my tomato plants before. I am feeding them with Black Jack which is a labour of love as the smell is foul!

Picking fruit, fruit and more fruit. I labelled my jam this morning and have so far made 28lbs this year. It is stored away in a spare coolbox at the back of the pantry, for judicious use over the coming year.

Strawberry jam - my favourite.

Learning to make sausages, this being our first attempt. Plain pork are these but the next will be spiced. This was soooo much fun too, a very good, fun and cheap evening entertainment.

Getting my Warrens, they were bought 4 weeks ago as POLs and this morning one of them laid an egg! They are much smaller than my Marans were and are VERY tame. They have the run of the garden some of each day but spend most of that time trying to get into the house whenever the door is left open.

I have also spent alot of time researching on the internet and reading of text books. I do not like the way that the economic situation is playing out one little bit. I know there have always been economic downturns and cycles but this time it feels different. I read somewhere that this is not the end of the world, but the end of a world. This feels true to me so I am endeavouring to learn and hone my skills so as to be prepared for what life throws our way.