All chicks died

I'm sad to say, we've had a sorry tale with the recently hatched chicks and they have died one by one in the last week, one of them was definitely trampled by the other hens, it died in my hands on Saturday morning, the others I've found on a morning. Dave - suddenly the guru of animal husbandry - said we shouldn't of had them in with the hens, but segregated out, but last year we didn't have any such problems and so I'm ignoring his sage advice.

It's sad, but that's the way of life and there's nothing I can do now, so no point dwelling on what should or could have been. Onwards and upwards!

Rained off

Not had time over the past few days to stop and sing in here, so am taking to opportunity for some quiet moments as I've been rained off this afternoon. Not a great time for this to happen as I've got so much to fit in over the next few weeks, but these things happen and it means I can get on here at home with a few odds and ends.

I've had 2 fairs this weekend, both all day events, and both ok, not fantastic, but good enough to have been worth going. Saturday was a bit of a nightmare weather wise as it was really gusty and it was an outdoor event. My gazebo held up to the challenge, but it was touch and go at times, and the stall next to me wasn't quite as lucky and suffered several snapped connections.

Sunday was glorious, we were lucky in the placement of our stalls as I had a sheltered spot next to a friend and we had an enjoyable day chatting and selling.
Looking back, my last post was Thursday, so a quick update on Friday's CDWM at Lynne's, I ended up driving as I had a lot to get done during the day and decided it was easier if I had the car, we had a great night, Lynne did some delicious stuffed mushrooms followed by Lasagne with garlic breads and salad, and my chocolate pots went down well, we had a great night, lots of laughs and memories, looking forward to Sue's in a few weeks time.
On Saturday we met up with Mrs H's relatives and we went for a few drinks and an Indian meal with them, again, lots of fun, a really enjoyable night.
Anyway, rain has stopped for now, so going out in to my garden for a few hours.

College taster evening

Not getting a lot of free time at the moment, so it was rather lovely this evening to sit and enjoy a most wonderful 6course taster dinner at York college, all cooked and presented by trainee staff. The theme was a taste of the wild, and although not as wild as I'd hoped, there were some beautiful dishes. Venison with asparagus and pancetta, monkfish ceviche with rhubarb and elderflower, salmon tartare, crotin wrapped in wild garlic, strawberry and Douglas fir parfait and peaches poached in camomile with clotted cream ice cream. Every single bit of it was wonderfully presented and tasted divine. Just what I needed.
Another busy day ahead tomorrow, but can't complain, much better than stuck in the office somewhere. I need to be up early and get on with things, I have the dessert to get made for Lynne's CDWM tomorrow, I need to go and see Mrs H ( as I ran out of time today) , I need to go to see her solicitor and there is still plenty of gardening work to be done.

Spion Kop fuschias

On Monday I was gardening for a Danish lady and she had me planting up new fuschias into tubs to put around her doors. She had bought snowcap fuschia, not one of my favourites, it's a bit 'blousey' for my liking, but she had got it because it's supposed to be red and white..the Danish national colours.

Anyway she didn't have enough, so I said I would get some more, knowing snowcap are quite a common fuschia...or so I thought. Yesterday, I had to go in to York to visit Mrs H, and also go to the nursery to get some large geraniums for Tony's garden, so I visited a number of plant stalls and garden centres as well as the nursery. None to be had, however they had a fuschia id never heard of called Spion Kop, now I know Kop is cap, so it wasn't too much of a stretch to think that Spion could be snow, I didn't buy them, but this morning I looked up Spion Kop on the Internet, I was wrong, it means Spy Hill in Dutch or Boer. And I've just read a very interesting tale about a terrible battle on 23rd January 1900 in the Boer war.
So back to my search for the snowcap. I'm in Selby this afternoon after my library work, so will have a look for them there. Odd really as I thought they were one of the most popular fuschias.

Headache on day off

Woken up this morning with a headache, nothing unusual there, everyone had headaches, but nowadays, I don't. I used to get loads when I was in charge of a large operation for a large company, what with hundreds of staff and corporate boll.cks to deal with all the time, but in the 6 years since I left, I've rarely had a headache unless it was self inflicted.

I've been up a while and have done the chickens, put the washing on, tidied up a bit, but I'm just going to sit and relax for a bit, I've got voluntary work this afternoon, but I wanted to get on in my own garden this morning, the winds are still stronger than I would like but I think I'm going to have to risk putting out the wall troughs.

I've got an order for one of the children's bracelets to make up, never going to earn a fortune with these but I enjoy making them, I would like to get a few more wine glass charms made up, or as a lady suggested, try selling them as stitch markers too. 

Tomorrow will be another busy day, I have hanging baskets to deliver, grass cutting to be done in York, general gardening work, a visit to Mrs H in the nursing home with her latest list of requirements, some banking to do and then in the evening I am at a taster evening at the college with Judith.

Winds again?

Apparently, according to the weather forecast, we are due unseasonably high winds later on today, makes me wonder what all these other strong winds that we've been having for weeks are! Bit of a dilemma now as today's jobs are all about planting out hanging baskets and planters for people, I can't really move them as I'm getting filled up with work and therefore no space to move them to. I spent a few hours in my own garden yesterday and it's just starting to look really good, the lupins are coming out,

as are the oriental poppies, 

and my lovely tall Siberian Iris, 

all ready for a good bashing from the wind. Well must get on.

Chicken update

Just a quick update on the hens, one of the chicks died over the weekend, looked like it suffocated or was squashed by mum, this has happened before and there's nothing we can do about it, we still have 4 (visibly) healthy chicks.

The rest of the hens seem to have settled down a bit from the squabbling that was going on a few weeks ago and the henpecked one seems to be recovering, the scab has fallen off her head and feathers are regrowing.

Our glut of eggs has disappeared and we are now in the opposite situation, due to us needing to lock the hen enclosure during the day, the hens are laying around the place and I keep finding their stashes too late, after magpies or crows have raided and eaten the eggs, at least I hope that's what it is, rather than the hens turning canibalistic. Yesterday was asuccessful day and I found 7 eggs, but broke one as I managed to retrieve it. 

For note...under pyracantha, in between paving slab stack, and under jasmin hedge. Wonder where they will be today, the hens have always been a bit lazy about laying, and just seem to do it where they feel the need than making their way back to the laying boxes, so no great surprise, it's one of the jobs the grandkids like to do when they come - egg hunts.

Don't know if this will help, but I moved the old laying boxes yesterday, they were in the tin shed, but up against a wall, so they couldn't use them, I've turned it round, will go and put some shavings in it now and see what we have later in the day.