Day 21

Sorry about the lack of blog posts recently, but I have been unable to log into bloger for a while, however, tonight my son has has done some techy wizardery, and we are back in, yeh!

So, onto the important news - an update on Edith, my broody pekin bantam. I said in my last post that we had to wait 21 days to see if any of the eggs hatched, well, I shall keep you in suspense no longer, at the last count just before it went dark this evening, we have four beautiful irresistable dark grey tiny chicks

Here is a photo of number one, peeping out at this strange word. More updates tomorrow.

Happy weekend : )

The waiting game....

This is Edith, one of my pekin bantams. Ever since I began keeping chickens, I have thought how lovely it would be to hatch a few chicks, our very own little pekins. So I have been waiting for one of my five girls to go broody and Edith has begun. She started sitting in the nest box whilst the other girls would wait at the door wanting to lay. I kept turfing her off, but within minutes she would be back tacking up her position reminiscent of a pancake on imaginary eggs. So I then moved her to a large empty rabbit hutch, set her up with food and water and a couple of non fertile eggs to see what would happen. She immediately took to those eggs and proceeded to sit tight. So then the hunt was on for some fertile hatching eggs. After searching through the chicken breeders online, I opted for a breeder I had visited when I was buying my chickens, I put my order in and a couple of days later very safely packaged the eggs arrived.

When eggs have gone through the postal system you have to leave them to rest point down for 12 to 24 hours. This done, I very carefully picked up a sleepy Edith and removed the dud eggs and replaced them with a mix of gold partridge and millifleur pekin eggs.

Now the waiting begins. Hopefully in around 21 days we should hear the patter of tiny chick feet, fingers very tightly crossed.

Whilst waiting for eggs to arrive and then rest, I dug out my paper clay and set to work on a little doll. more pictures soon on her progress.

We had rain last night, first proper rain for weeks and more is forecast for today with the odd rumble and flash thrown in for good measure, the garden is very grateful.

Hope you are having a great weekend sun or rain, thank you for all your lovely comments, I love reading them. J x

What a day!

Did you watch it? along with millions and millions of others, I sat there glued to my telly, and I loved every minute of it. The pomp and pageantry and the sense of watching history being made, the beautiful elegance of the bride, trying to spot famous faces in the congregation and see what they are wearing, above all the amazing joy of the occasion reflected in those taking part as well as the bystanders and well wishers, it was in deed a day to remember. So I popped out this morning and bought a newspaper with plenty of photographs to pore over it all again.

I loved the idea of having trees placed in the Abbey, apparently they are all to be planted at Prince Charles's home, Highgrove as a memento of the day. But I didn't just sit there watching, my hands were busy too, I always like to have something to do when I watch the telly, so yesterday, I crocheted my way through the royal wedding!

Lots of colourful circle squares which will hopefully become a blanket in time. The pattern that I used is from Lucy at Attic 24, if you don't know her blog I recommend a visit, lots of jolly chat, colour and crochet! She has a list of tutorials on her side bar, my squares are based on her summer garden granny square .

It seems like we have been on holiday for ages with two long bank holiday weekends one after the other and with holiday weather to match. Easter was lovely and much chocolate was consumed. I made some little special Easter cup cakes which it has to be said did not last long

The weather has been glorious, although it has now turned cooler with blustery winds to days, blowing the blossom from the trees, I love the pink frothy blossom at this time of the year and always miss it when it is gone.

In between wedding watching, gardening and cooking, I have also been painting, another little posy of spring flowers, this time in an Emma Bridgewater egg cup. I have been lucky enough to have some paintings shown in a local gallery along with some of my cards, and I was very excited to get a call saying one of the pictures and most of the cards were sold and could I bring in more supplies!

Hope you are having a lovely weekend where ever you are. x

Spring

Spring has certainly arrived, and for the time being has kindly brought the sunshine with it. Buds are busting all over the garden, including those of the weed kind, but we shall overlook those for now. here are a few of my favorite flowers in my garden at the moment.

Don't you just love the sweet face of the viola, always turning towards the sun and looking so cheery. I love the way it self seeds and pops up in the most unexpected places.

The gold laced primula is a firm fav of mine, I have it dotted about and the edges seem to glow in the shade.

This snakes head fritillary was put in a few years ago and gets better each year. The checkered petals are such an unusal pattern for a flower.

a little corner that I am still working on, but seems to be coming along nicely, there is always something to do in a garden isn't there.

This one came out of a mixed bag of bulbs bought in a supermarket last autumn.

Today, I headed off to my first plant fair of the year. This one was held at bramall Hall near Stockport. It was such a beautiful setting. the house is very impressive, I didn't have time to go inside, will save that for another time. The plant fair was situated on a lawn to the side of the hall.

Here is a view from the front, amazing timberwork!

One of the plants I bought was this little primula, I just couldn't resist the pretty markings on the petals. It almost looks vintage! It's full name is Primula Polyanthus barnhaven Striped Victorian. Quite a mouthful for a little flower.

From my garden, I picked a few flowers to make a posy and decided to paint them, it is quite a small painting just 5" x 5".

Many thanks for all the lovely comments that were left after my last post, I really do appreciate each and every one. Hope the sun is shining where you are.

A bit of a rambling post

A few weeks ago, over at Ann Wood's lovely blog, she was celebrating her fifth anniversary of her blog and posted a tutorial on making these little papier mache cups. There is a template to download and instructions on how to make your own cups. Being someone who loves papier mache I had to have ago, and spent a few happy hours getting messy with paper and glue.

They are such fun to make, I can feel a whole tea service coming on!

Something else that has been keeping me busy is that I have been building my own little web site, very basic, nothing frilly. Somewhere to show my work in some semblance of order. The idea behind it is I really really want to get back into illustration. Many years ago I studied illustration at college and was freelance for a while working for some lovely clients, but then family and life got in the way and my path changed. Now the path has changed again due local goverment cutbacks, my job has gone. I am now looking at the possibility of returning to commercial illustration.

But I worry, have I left it too late, so much has changed. It used to be briefs arriving by post and artwork delivered by red star, now it is email and web sites. So I felt a good place to start was to build my own web site, it isn't perfect but it's mine and hopefully gives a flavour of what I can do.

I would be interested in some feedback if anyone feels so inclined.

A glimpse of a painting I am working on at the moment. It is inspired by the plates of eggs that you see at village shows that proud hen owners have brought along in hopes of winning a prize.

Last but not least, I would like to thank everyone who has left a comment here, I really appreciate it and love reading them, what a splendid community this is.

wordless Wednesday - tools of the trade

wordless wednesday - stone art

Happy Wedenesday, happy sunny March. x