Grow time

Although the weather has been beautifully sunny lately, the wind chill factor is a constant reminder of the time of year. It is still a tad bit early , I feel, to get much in the ground, but the greenhouse and kitchen windowsill are brimming with seedlings waiting for the ground to warm up a little. In the greenhouse I have, Aubergines, Cucumber x2 Tomatoesx2, French beans, Broad beans, Leeksx2, Scented peasx2, Lettuce, Courgettes, Cauliflowerx2, Kale, and Red cabbage! On the kitchen windowsill I have Lemon Grass, Jalapeno Peppers, Sweet peppers, and butternut Squash which has yet to put in an appearance! I think I have bought a duff packet of seeds. Can anyone give me some hints on the best way to grow cauliflower. I tried last year, but didnt have much success. I had to pick them when they were really small, about the size of a tennis ball, otherwise they just seemed to want to go to seed, or went a funny colour! Also, anyone know how to grow a monkey puzzle tree from seed? I picked up a few seeds, they are huge! I planted a couple in compost in a heated propagator, but nothing has happened. Any ideas anyone?

Bottoms up Girls!

It has been a lovely springlike day today, so I thought I would let the girls out for an hour or two to have a wander around the garden. This is Rosie enjoying a dust bath. She needs it too, she had a little mishap in the week which caused a little trauma to her comb. It kept bleeding, and the other girls wouldn't leave it alone, so there was rather a lot of blood everywhere! I had to ring Ronald Grover, the chicken man, and he told me to clean the wound, and to put an antiseptic ointment on her comb and to isolate her overnight! Have you ever tried to put sudocrem on a nervous chickens comb!! Not the easiest of tasks, but the treatment worked and next morning she was back with her girlie friends! That day she laid the biggest egg I have ever seen!!

OMG!

So today I thought she deserved a treat, so I let all the girls out for a while,

This is Peggy, looking for tasty treats,

and Lucy, my favourite already, such a calm bird and so pretty. The three amigos having a whale of a time going through the compost bin!!

Bottoms up Girls!

Meet the Girls

As planned, yesterday we took a run out to the New Forest, Beaulieu, to get our chickens. It was about an hour run each way, and we got back home with the girls about half past four. I put the chickens straight into their new quaters, and settled down to watch them. We let Alfie join us, our American Cocker, so that he didn't feel left out, he was so excited to meet them, wanting to play, his little tail going ninteen to the dozen! Two of the chickens, didn't seem to mind him, the White Leghorn was a little jumpy, but soon settled down. I had been given instructions from Ronald Grover, the chicken expert, to feed the girls with some mixed corn about an hour before putting them to bed. I was a little worried about how exactly I was supposed to actually get them into their new quarters for the night, it was now half past five, and getting rather dark!Fortunately I had bought an excellent little book that suggested putting a torch into the roosting box, as the light would draw them in. This worked a treat, within about 15minutes of putting the torch inside, all the girls went in! Ronald had said that it was a possibility that we might get one or two eggs the next day, but that the girls would probably go off laying for a while until they had settled in, so I was really chuffed when all three chickens produced an egg each!

I managed to get a some pictures of the girls, but I didnt want to upset them too much, so they're not very well composed, meet Peggy.. she's the Silver Sussex,

This is Rosie, she is a White Leghorn, and Finally Lucy, she is a French Maran and very pretty.

For some time now, I have been thinking about getting a small tree for the garden. I wasn't sure which , but I knew that it needed to be small, be fruiting of some description and attractive to birds. After discussing these requirements with my friend, she suggested a Crab Apple Tree. Perfect! I had a quick look on Ebay, I never buy anything without looking on Ebay first, and saw several sellers of the afore mentioned trees, at various prices, and decided to buy a mid priced tree. This is a bare rooted tree, and is between 4 and 5 foot. It was priced at £7.00, with P&P at £7.50. ( a little pricey) I had priced them on other sites, and to buy from a specialist nursery I wasn't going to get much change from about £30.00! So, hopefully sometime this week I will be planting a new tree. Take Care Tatty X

Chickens!

Being someone who is not on this planet (according to my husband) I decided I would like to have a go at keeping a few chickens. After perusing the web, and finding out as much info as I could, I made a purchase of a chicken house on Ebay. I love Ebay, you can buy just about anything, except chickens! It came flat packed, and last night we put it together, it only took about an hour, and there was no cursing!

So tomorrow, we are off for a little drive to Beaulieu to buy some chickens! I have chosen, a Silver Sussex a very pretty silver grey bird with a lovely temprament, A White Leghorn, an excellent layer, sometimes laying 2 eggs a day and a French Maran which lays the most beautifully shiny dark brown eggs, with a rich orangey yolk. Its sooo exciting! This time next week, maybe we'll be eating our own eggs! Well not our own, I couldn't possibly lay an egg! You know what I mean!

Long Tailed Tits

A few years ago I was in my garden and watched as a group of Long Tailed Tits flew into our tree, only to be chased off again by a couple of territorial Blue Tits. They are a delightful little bird, very pretty and never alone, they are a flock bird, and I thought I wouldn't see them again, and in fact I never did.... until today!! Again I was in my kitchen and a flock of about 10 flew in and had a good rummage about in amongst the branches of all the little trees and shrubs. The camera was handy as always, so I snapped away.....

They have to be one of my favourite birds, so I felt quite priviledged to see them in my garden, I do hope they come back again soon.

Snow!! Oh and A Fox!!

I know in comparison that this little blanket of snow looks pretty pathetic against some of the snow scenes in other parts of the country, but its pretty none the less, and I for one get quite excited about it!!... and no doubt by lunchtime it will all be gone:( I know , I know , I need to get out more.... so here for your boredom, lets face it what else can you do today.......... enjoy:)

While I was uploading these pictures, I wandered out into the kitchen, looking out of the window I was most surprised to see a fox! At 9.30 in the morning! "Quick " I called to my husband, "a fox". But my camera didn't have the memory card in it, because I was uploading the pictures, from it! Luckily his camera was on the side so he grabbed it and took these.......

Snow and a Fox in the garden! Theres only so much excitement a girl can take in one day!!

Irises

Just a quickie to share the pics of the beautiful Irises