It has been freezing since Christmas; bitterly cold with an icy wind - not comfortable at all. Yesterday (Sunday) I went out in the garden to clean out the animals and ended up giving them a very quick fettle as it was so cold, that even with gloves on, my hands were frozen and very painful. It took ages for them to thaw out when I came indoors and they hurt like hell.
I've had a stinking cold for the last couple of days - always happens at Christmas; I take a few days off, relax and my immune system has a holiday *roll*. It's just a head cold, but very thick and nasty; I can't think straight and am a total liability!
Yesterday Rosie and I took the pup walking at Giant's Cave; a lovely wild area just a mile or so out of Banbury and on The Bretch. It's the site of an original ironstone quarry (lots of iron ore around here, hence the red soil) and all that's left now are lots of limestone outcrops and deep hollows. I understand that there used to be a cave there, hence the name, but nothing is left now. Ruby loved it, running around and investigating all the burrows and smells.
Today we went to IKEA in Coventry to buy a roll fronted cupboard for the kitchen, Phil and I have spent the last hour putting it together (I love flat-pack) and will put it on the wall in the morning. The idea is to put all the groceries from one of the floor cupboards in it so that I have more space in the other one. There aren't any wall cupboards in my kitchen - I don't much like them and feel that they block the space visually, and space is at a premium in my kitchen. This one is shallow though and shouldn't make too much visual impact. I fele a kitchen tidying session coming on; some of the cupboards really need all the stuff taking out, cleanign and re-organising
I hope that this vile cold slings it's hook before new year's eve as I don't much want to be poorly when we're supposed to be going out to celebrate my birthday the next day :-(
We've been waiting for another of my newer chooks to come into lay; Sadie, the Maran started laying some time ago and is a regular producer of lovely shiny brown eggs that look like conkers, but she's the only one of the newbies that has laid. I'd thought that the shorter daylight hours would delay any of the others coming into lay until next year, but last week Jude started to crouch, and Phil had his money on a white egg on Christmas Day... he came in yesterday from shutting the chickens up for the night with a tiny white egg in his hand... SHE HAS LAID!!!!!!
I'm pleased because this has also meant that she has instantly become more biddable and is now happy to be picked up, whereas before she would do her roadrunner impression if you so much as looked at her... noe just got to get those two araucanas laying!
Here's one of Rosie enjoying her lunch
Paola's OH having her name tattooed across his bum!!!
OUCH!!!!!
Seriously though - the best of love to all my friends and family, especially those who I don't get to see/talk to as much as I'd like.... just because life gets in the way doesn't mean that you're not in my thoughts
Keep safe and well this Christmas and into the new year.
X
I just love this...
I am working until tomorrow lunchtime, then will go home ot get as much prepping done as possible so that I can realx on Christmas Day.
Well, I've finally got all the Christmas presents sorted (after a mammoth shopping trip on Saturday), and they are wrapped (mostly) and ready to go under the tree on Christmas Eve. I spent most of yesterday cooking goodies to go in the bags that I give to family, I made:
Shortbread (decorated with edible glitter)
Mini snickerdoodles
White chocolate coconut ice
Chocolate truffles
Vanilla fudge
I just need to bag them up in little cellophane bags and pop them in the goodie bags along with the jams/jellies and homemade raspberry vodka or sloe gin.
I was going to go to circuits tonight - but I think I'm coming down with something.... I feel totally rubbish and think that an early night is best
I cleaned out the hens and bunnies yesterday; Jude my Ancona bantam has started crouching, so she's changed from an elusive road-runner type to a cuddly and approachable hen. Hopefully she will lay soon - Phil has his money on a Christmas Day egg from her! I have to say that I am relieved because I was wondering whether she was an Arthur or a Martha... she's had enormous red face furntiure for ages now, and the other morning when I let them out of the cube, someone crowed, well, sort of... now hens sometimes do this, but I had 3 newbies who still hadn't laid yet, so it wasn't out of the question that I mifght have a boy there, although I'm fairly certain that they are all girls. Bit of relief there then, and I am now waiting for a small white egg *grins*
I measured and weighed the pup at the weekend - she's 20.5" and 11.6kg, so in a fortnight she has gained 1.5" and a kg, which is amazing. I thought that she looked a bit bigger, but seeing her every day, I couldn't be sure. Ruby has made a doggie friend in the park - a black labrador called Joss. They get on very well and Ruby bullies Joss mercilessly *roll*. On Sunday morning, they were walkign at the same time as us, so we let them run around off the leads in the tennis courts, which are enclosed; they had a brilliant time but Ruby still hasn't learned to retrieve a ball yet.
Phil has finished the work in my utility room now, so most of the stuff is back in there and it's just down to me to organise it all and find a home for everything. It looks so much tidier now with the cupboarsd up rather than everything hanging off the shelves.
I have been spekaing to the Poultry Club of Great Britain about gaining a certified status for the courses that we run at Jude's yard, and also about running a junior poultry proficiency course there starting in the spring. The woman who I spoke to was receptive about the idea, so I hope that it will take off.
LOL this makes me giggle... every Christmas, some of our esteemed clients and freelancers try to butter me up with Christmas gifts... Kevin very kindly dropped them the hint that I don't drink after I was inundated with bottles a couple of years ago... now I seem to have Europe's chocolate mountain in my office *shock*
Now, not wanting to seem ungrateful... but I'm not keen on chocolate either *Shhhhhh*. Really, I'm not hard to please, and cheap to keep too.... flowers, cakes... fragrance are all good. I'm not ungrateful though - every year on Christmas Eve, Rosie and I help a friend who gives up her time to feed the local homeless all year round - we go down to her meeting place outside the church and take some hot goodies and cakes for their Christmas tea.... this year they shall have chocolates *grins*
I like this one:
Handle every stressful situation like a dog.
If you can't eat it or play with it,
Just pee on it and walk away
Talking of doggies.... when I went home at lunchtime, the hound had been supervising Phil, who is currently redesigning my utility room - he has put up some fantastic cupboards and shelving, so that for the first time - I have proper storage out there and it will be tidy. Ideally, I'd like the money to be able to re-build it - it's a bit of a botch job, put up by the previous owners to replace the original Victorian lean-to bathroom that would have been behind the kitchen and heated by the original range. The whole thing is badly built and the way that they have put up the stud walls for the loo - there is no way that it can have a door! I'd love to rebuild it slightly bigger and have a shower room and loo out there as well as the storage and washing machine. Anyhow, Phil's work is fantastic and means that it looks far smarter and will be easier to clean than all the old nooks and crannies. The hound has been enjoying her role and I gave her a good snuggle on her warm, silky ears when she came to say hello.
Mostly, it's software... *roll*
The darned stuff is supposed to make our lives easier and to save time.. never does though...
I downloaded Firefox the other day.. "more secure, much faster and brilliant" all my friends said, so far, so good. Until.... I tried to use the import feature to import all my favourites etc from IE.. the wizard crashed out each time. I wasted time restarting the PC. I downloaded it onto my machine at home (different spec PC, different version of windows), in fact I've taken it off and re-loaded it twice now on each machine and the same thing happens in both locations!!! Anyroad, I've posted a question about it on their forum; if I can't get it sorted, then it's coming off both the machines!
Aaaaannnnd another thing!
At work, we use a program called Worldmerge to send out email shots.. the blasted thing is supposed to send through a remote server, but still slows my machine down something chronic while it is running (which is usually all day!). The last batch someone asked me to send has got stuck and the last third of the addresses won't send at all..... BOTHER!!!!!!
Sorry, I'll get me coat now and normal cheerful service will resume *sighs deeply)
Well, we all know how much I love home-made cakies.... I just had a delivery at work...
A gorgeous hat box filled with home-made shortbread biscuits, all decorated with edible glitter! 
They are surrounded by tissue paper and sparkly stars; really lovely packaging.
They came from a friend, via this company
Mine looks like this one....
*grins* All mine......
This link had me in hysterics today... nearly choked on my tea!
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/matthew_moore/blog/2008/01/23/finnish_disco_dancing_lesson_genius?_pt=1
It's been a lovely day today - sunshine and blue skies for the most part. Not especially warm, but I;m just glad to see daylight and recharge my batteries. Am working until lunchtime on Christmas eve, but we finish early and celebrate with bacon butties, cakes and drinks in the board room... at last I'm starting to feel Christmassy, got lots of baking to do this weekend and presents to get ready, so I shall light some scented candles and get into the groove I think!
.. that's my description of the weather here today; it's cold, with freezing fog, it drizzles sleet every now and then, and all the trees are drip-dripping *roll* If it weren't for the excitement of Christmas coming up (and my birthday of course) I'd hate this time of year... building up to the shortest day, but no real sunlight to speak of and dampness all around. I'm a tropical bird and far prefer the warmer weather
Just got to love these pictures of lurchers.... http://lurchers.blogspot.com/2007/04/boo.html
Cherryl sent me this, which made me rant; I'm all for respecting others' religions, but isn't this taking it a tad far?
Here's one of Rosie decorating the tree - I think there are more decorations on her than the tree!
Here's another one of her asleep with Fat Boy - I went in to check on her before i went to bed, and there he was... nuzzled up to her again. That cat really knows wheer the warm spots are!
Saturday started off badly - we'd had torrential rain and howling gales all night, so the town was flooded and even the pup didn't want to go out for a walk. Rosie and I HAD to go into town to get her presents for her friends at school, so we donned wellies and waterproofs to struggle through the horizontal rain and back. I dropped Rosie and the hound off at Rosie's Dad's place after lunch and we headed off to Milton Keynes for our work Christmas do.. what weather to be donning your finery! The hotel that the company put us up in was fine - basic but perfectly OK, and we had time for a quick shower before getting changed and meeting in the lobby for the taxis.
The venue was odd - in the middle of a very muddy car park at the MK Bowl, it was an enormous marquee set up by a company who throw themed parties all over the country. This one's theme was Rock the Kasbah... I'd looked at the site last week and thought that it looked like it might end up like a meat market; rather like Banbury on a Saturday night! But the food was good, the atmosphere was OK... only a few girls crying and chucking up in the toilets! We had a dance, the lads played drinking games *roll* and it all ended without any mishaps, and I managed to get across the car park to the cab without getting my pretty shoes muddy!. How lovely too to wake up in the morning and not have to get up early to feed/let out/walk the animals... don't get me wrong; I love it but a change sometimes is nice.
On Sunday, Rosie and I went to buy the Christmas tree... OK, it's a tad wonky, but it's a big 'un and now that she has decorated it, it looks lovely. I'm starting to feel Christmassy now!
A tiring an emotional (see my previous thread about Lucille) weekend, but a good 'un.
