50 posts tagged “planet”
I just love this clip, especially the 'fat running bird' towards the end. Mine do this all the time, and I was greeted by a stampede when I stepped outside the back door this lunchtime!
The hound went on a run in Spiceball Park with Humphrey yesterday and they investigated the mud and ditches.. up to her armpits in muck so needed a showering off!
Rosie went off this morning on a week's school trip to Weymouth, we were up at 5.30am to be at school in time for 7.15am. Lots of children were in tears, but my big girl was smiling and waving as they drove off. No doubt there'll be tears at bedtime tonight though. I bet that the week will go quickly and she'll be back in no time. We've got our holiday with my folks to look forward to next week and it's going to be a tight turnaround to get all her washing done and packing ready for the flight on Sunday!
Ohhh, fame at last, just seen this.... http://www.life-guard.co.uk/ go to the 'my story' tab (ghastly photo). Got a mention on page 6 of May's edition of practical Poultry mag too. Ask my agent for autographs! ;-)
A bonus too, all this LIfeguard Tonic in their water and my old girl Lavinia, who must be at least 4 has laid last week. We had a few eggs from her last season, but I thought that she'd retired all together after we hadn't seen anything from her this spring. I had two eggs last week *grins* what's the betting that she goes broody when the weather gets warmer though? She's a manic brooder and hatches well, but gets so hormonal and bad tempered!
What a lovely day we had on Friday... it was Phil's 50th birthday the previous Friday, but with one thing and another, we hadn't managed to spend any time together that weekend. He didn't want a fuss, just for us to spend some time together, so I booked the day off work and we went for a walk alongside the Thames near Lechlade starting in a gorgeous place called Calcot. The weather was divine and the walk (from the AA book of walks through the Cotswolds) was just 4 miles and ended up, happily right by the village coffee shop!
See the sandbagged door of the house below? They are lower than the street and get water rushing in through one side of the hosue and out through the other when it rains heavily!
Here's the manor house - very French in style and really lovely. Didn't see any chickens there though!
This lovely cottage had a spectacularly wonky gate!
Ruby made a friend through this gate - a little Jack Russell pup, who didn't want us to move on.
Here's the weir that we crossed at the beginning of the walk; the water was rushing through so fast that it made me feel dizzy to look down into it.
This pretty bridge was quite steep to walk over and very pretty, the river bank at this point was lined with hawthorn blossom.
And this wee primrose in a warm spot at the base of the wall.
We only saw one other person on the walk and Ruby found plenty of smells to wander off after.
We gave this pair of swans a wide berth in case they had a nest nearby.
What lovely weather we had this weekend - blue skies and sunshine.
I gave the chickens a very thorough fettling on Saturday; blasted the cube with the jetwasher and scrubbed it clean. I even managed to find time to do a bit of clearing up in the garden; the front got tidied and swept clean and I planted the tuberose tubers that Phil gave me for Valentine's day out there, just need to get more done in the back and some of the vegetable seeds planted up.
On Sunday, we decided to go for a walk with the dog, out at Minster Lovell; a very pretty place right on the River Windrush, with a ruined manor and lots of lovely riverside fields to walk in. The hound really enjoyed herself running silly in the fields and sniffing all the scents, she was totally worn out when we got back home and crashed on the living room rug!
"a poacher to his eyelids, as all the lurcher clan,
follows silent as a shadow, and clever as a man"
(Patrick Chalmers)
"Originally bred from a cross between a Greyhound and the shepherd's dog giving the required speed and fondness of the chase of the one and superior intelligence of the other"
Ruby was ranging wide in those sweeping circles designed to bring game into the hunter, she had the wind in her ears, a big grin on her face... and mud up to the eyeballs! I watched her circle us, going dizzy as she flashed by, bounding over tussocks and leaping like a hare in March. I managed to get this video of her, but it took some high speed panning and the speed made my head spin. It's so lovely to see her running like the wind in her native environment. To top it all, Phil spotted a sun dog (Parhelion) in the sky as we drove back.
She has a new friend now - Rosie's Dad, Ian has a GSD pup. About 4 months old, 'Humphrey' seems good as gold and quite biddable, they had their first play date in the tennis courts at the park yesterday evening and will go out again this evening too. Ruby is very dominant, but then that's to be expected of a hound, and she is taller than Humph too.
I was sent a link to this tribute to Tony Hart, one of my childhod heros: Tony Hart flash mob Morph
Much colder today and cloudy now after a bright start, the wind is getting up and we're forecast rain and gales! Phil's busy on a driving job today, delivering luxury cars, so he's happy and he is getting a bit more illustration work too.
Rosie is busy planning her birthday party for this weekend; swimming followed by pizzas, garlic bread and birthday cake.
Didn't get much sleep at the weekend; was woken up on Friday night, late by some loud conversations in the street, then just as I dropped off again, 'er next door' came in in the small hours, slamming the doors as is her wont, tramping around on the wooden floors in her stilletoes and then rounded off the night with some very vocal sex..... let's just say that I was next door and one floor below her and could hear everything! We've never had any problems with any previous occupants, but will be glad to see this one go - she has two small children, who are hardly ever there. When they are, she shouts and rants at them. Yesterday afternoon, I was treated to her choice of music ... V E R Y loud! I don't mind her choice at all, in fact I like it and have some of the tracks myself, but not at that volume.... things were starting to rattle in the dining room *shock*. I like my home to be my peaceful oasis *roll*
Well, with all the snow in Banbury on Friday, I was beginning to wonder whether we'd get out of the town or not,let alone get to Yorkshire. Speakign to friends up morth though, it sounded like the worst of the snow was south of Birmingham, and very little at all in Yorkshire. Getting out of Banbury was our main problem as the roads were treacherous and we'd had another 4" of snow overnight on Thursday night.
This is the B&B that we stayed in - the Old Presbytery absolutely lovely and the welcome was warm too. The house had 1.5 acres of land and some woodland too, with fields over the road.
On the first morning, this field reflected the sunrise, but unfortunately I'd left my camera in the van! We were just 5 mins walk from the nearest village with a pub for the evening meal
On Saturday morning, we had soem tiem to kill before the course at Mostin's, so our hosts suggested that we go to see lead Church in a nearby village - this very pretty and simple church is reached across a field, so lovely walk with all that snow.
Two types of beauty here.
Me demonstrating how to hold a hen upside down to subdue it, also treating a hens foot with anti-bacterial powder as she'd cut it.
A really good example of what a chickens leg looks like after they've been treated for scaley leg mites and as the old scales are being moulted off.
We went back in for the rest of the course and then followed up with delicious nosh as everyone had bought a dish or summat with them. Laurie gave us all really pretty ceramic tiles with a picture of a hen and our forum names on them. HEN had knitted some really fab hens, which she gave out - Rosie managed to nab one and now takes it to bed!
Lots of laughs, a fantastic day and lots of new friends made.
We set off back home early, still with some Banbury snow on top of the van, and made good time getting home in 2.5 hours. It was -4 deg on the morning that we came home, so blisteringly cold. Still tons of snow at home, but all was well and the animals had been well behaved for their various sitters.
I do love a bit of sunshine; everything and everybody seems so much happier! It's sunny again today - most of the snow melted yesterday (except in my back garden *roll), as night fell, it all froze over and was treacherous when I took the pup out. We had a brief snowfall in the night, enough for there to be 1cm this morning on top of the ice. The side roads are like skidpans today! Even the ocado delivery was cancelled last night because of the weather; they are due tonight though... phew! I really couldn't be bothered with fighting my way through the traffic, snow and the chavs at our Te$co.
Made these biccies last night, recipe courtesy of Lesley. They are super and I'm going to make them again with lemon rind and juice, with a lemon juice glace icing.
Quickie Bickies
Makes 30 biscuits
4 oz soft butter
2oz castor sugar
1oz ground almonds
4oz plain flour
Almond essence
Flaked almonds or demerara sugar
Grease a large baking sheet - turn oven on to 180C
Mix all ingredients in a processor until it forms a ball of softish dough.
Break off small pieces the size of a small walnut.
Place on baking sheet with enough room to spread slightly.
Flatten slightly with a fork and sprinkle with flaked almonds or demerara sugar.
Bake for 10-15 mins until light and golden.
Cool biscuits on a wire tray.
You can leave out the almonds and add another ounce of flour or cocoa and exchange the almond essence for vanilla.
It has been sunny, and even..... WARM here today but it's startiing to cool down now and we're forecast more snow tonight. The gritters are out already!
Well, after being blisteringly cold with sunshine on Saturday, it was freezing with snow showers on Sunday. Yesterday (Monday) we woke up to 2" of snow and more falling - it continued to fall on and off during the day and we ended up with about 4" of snow by the evening. No more snowfall over night, but it all froze over, so is treacherous today. Rosie's school closed at lunchtime yesterday, but is open again this morning. The park looks lovely with all that snow, and Ruby has been having tremendous fun, snuffling along in the snow and barking at snowmen! The chickens aren't too happy though; I left them in the run yesterday, so they rewarded me with just one egg. It was -4deg this morning, but no falling snow, so I let them out and replenished their water, which had frozen solid during the night. they are wandering about in all that white stuff, in the sunshine, so they'll be happy.
I checked Ruby's stats over the weekend; she measures 23" at the shoulder and weighs 14.5kg, so has gained an inch and a kilo in two weeks.
Rosie ended up with me at work yesterday afternoon, doing some of the little jobs that I hadn't been able to get done, she really misses school though.
I just hope that the weather clears up a tad for the weekend as we're off up to Yorkshire on Friday afternoon for the advanced course that I am presenting up there. The worst of the weather seems to be to the south and east though.. my folks ended up with 8" of snow yesterday in Hertfordshire.
Not wanting to boast, but we had two parties to go to on Saturday night! Lorne, our group MD, had his 50th at Ryhill Golf Club, so we went along to that. Then on to Geoff's surprise 40th in the bar at Spiceball; both good parties.. Dave Roberts and his dance partner gave a Strictly Come Dancing type of latin-american dance display at Geoff's party - it really made it special. Bit cold to be prancing about in my best party frock though :-/
I had to give Ruby a lesson in who is boss today - I gave her a bone at lunchtime and she was gnawing it on the kitchen floor when Phil walked past her. She growled a warning at him to steer clear of her bone; Luckily Phil has been puppy trained too, and he flipped her over to make her submit to him so that she realised that he is more dominant. She went back to chewing her bone and I made a point of standing right over her, with my feet near the bone and stroking her while she was eating it. I will reinforce this tomorrow when I feed her some raw chicken - I'll feed the bones to her by hand and take it away so that I am dominant over her.
Just been baking as I have an order from one of my outlets... Lemon Drizzle cake, which I will ice when it is cool. And Cranberry and White Chocolate Cookies:
175g Plain flour
1/2 tspn baking powder
Pinch of salt
120g softened butter
120g light muscovado sugar
1/2 tbspn honey
1 egg
1tspn vanilla extract
120g dried cranberries
120g white chocolate cut into small pieces.
Pre-heat oven to 160c/3fff/gas 3 and prepare two baking sheets with greaseproof paper or silicone liners.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the honey, egg and vanilla. Keep beating until smooth and well blended.
Fold the flour mixture into the butter and sugar mixture, adding the cranberries and chocolate.
Spoon equal-sized blobs of this dough onto the baking sheets, leaving spreading room between each one.
Bake for around 15 minutes then cool on a rack. They can be frozen.
Rosie is out this evening at a birthday party - she's not doing the sleepover option on this one as she is going to one of those tomorrow. I have to walk round the corner to collect her at 10pm. My big girl!
Here's Biscuit in a typical pose.. fast asleep on the back of the armchair.. looking for all the world like a prawn!
I do love my big, chubby boy!
Phil made me a solution....... I'd been fed up with the chooks pushing all the Aubiose out of the nest box through the drainage slit in the bottom; I tried plugging it with newspaper, but they just pulled that out! Goodness knows why they needed to design a slit so big - it could have been just a couple of holes like the one in the eglu nest box *roll*. I aske Phil to 'do something about it' with the only proviso that it mustn't be made of wood as that harbours mites. One milk carton and a couple of bolts later and I have my solution and it's still in place tonight too *grins*
Well, after a brilliant sunny day yesterday, we had more gales and rain last night, the park at the bottom of the road is flooded in places (good job that I live half way up the hill). We were due to meet some friends in London yesterday for lunch, but it was called off due to sickness, so we had the day free and what a lovely feeling it was too...I cleaned out all the animals, moved the cube and cleared out the run. After lunch, we took the hound on a walk through Upper Wardington, 6 miles away, where there is this beautiful manor house (not a brilliant photo)
The hens are laying well now - all three blue-egg layers are laying, although not much at the moment. A couple of the others are laying too and we're now self-sufficient in eggs again *grins*. I put them back in the run when I went home for lunch as it was cloudy and looking threatening, but typically, it's bright sunshine now. Still, at least they'll be warm and cosy in their covered run. Dizzy, my lavender araucana looked like she'd been bog snorkelling - she was covered in mud; reckon she'd been dust bathing in the wrong weather!!!
Did some cooking last night - trying to use up the deilcious maple syrup that Gilie from Canada gave is (harvested from her own trees); I roasted some ham in maple syrup (lovely and juicy), made apple and maple syrup crumble. I had some of the ham for lunch with new potatoes in butter and garden mint.
Just came across this song.... lovely words
"...How can you see into my eyes like open doors?" - Bring me to life by Evanescence
What a day! Started off dark and blustery but we have some lovely clear skies and sunshine in the middle of the day. Took the hound for a walk on the way out of Stratford this morning - in the meadows alongside the river, we had great fun and she ran for miles with a big grin on her face..
Very cold and dark later on though and it's now blowing a gale and raining stair-rods!
I have been making use of my favourite Christmas present - my folks bought me a mincer attachement for my Kenwood Chef - no mean task in itself as the machine is about 40 years old. They found this one after much searhcing on ebay and Pops bifd on it - lovely chap they bought from, who has lots of attachments in stock. I used it for the first time today - I got some meat and offal offcuts for the dog from Woodhouse Farm's stall at the market (I phone in advance and the butcher bags it up ready for me) The dog loves this but has a problem with some of the bigger bits. This mincer makes it all so much easier *grins*. I seperate out the liverm which I bake until it's dry in the oven to use as treats for the dog, but I used the mincer to grind down the meat and after spending half an hour up to my elbows in offal, I am very pleased with the result. So is Ruby, who is lying in the kitchen, gnawing on a marrow bone that they gave her.
Cleaned out the chooks today just before the weather closed in, and had 5 eggs today for the first time since last year, so no more buying eggs from Lesley when our girls aren't laying... well for 9 months at least!
