Garden Chickens

Back snooping around my parent's garden. Feeding the chickens and tending to the older poorly chuck that has her own separate pen as she was getting picked on. The rabbits live in here too.

Dad built the pen himself and what an accommodation it is for these lucky chickens. Dad's been keeping chickens for about 6 years and this is the second flock now. I'm lucky too as I get all my eggs for free which equals LOTS of cakes to bake....

It's quite hard work. Dad spends a lot of time cleaning them out, tending to them and letting the older chicken that gets bullied walk around the garden, accompanied of course. They used to have one chicken that came inside to watch tv every night. 

Mum's trinkets and treasures balance Dad's more working areas of the garden. This is my childhood garden and it used to be quite different with a stripy lawn and rows of marigolds. Funny how our gardens change over time to suit our interests.

I told you....plenty of ornaments......
An old sink with herbs growing and cat nip and cat grass for the two feline friends that live here.

Mum has claimed this area outside the side door as her own. Painted the veg storage shed and planted her flowers and herbs here. I think it works that they have their own separate areas although they do both enjoy helping with the chickens together. Feisty bunch they are, poor mum got swooped off her feet whilst feeding them veg scraps last week :)

A Trip to Wheelock Hall Farm

Sunday afternoon at Wheelock Hall Farm in Sandbach with Little Bird. Lots of fun making friends, sitting in old tractors with characterful expressions and running around the play area. Fantastic play area too - farm and all for £2.50, adults don't pay. Bargain of an afternoon.

There were donkeys, ponies, chickens, goats, cows, pigs and sheep. Little Bird wants to pet all the animals, not scared at all. I think Daddy Bird was more worried about him getting nipped by a big old eared wonky donkey or a woolly jumper.

Hey there old tractor. 

You may be old and tired my rusty friend, but you have made one little boy very happy.

An indoor area with two big pigs and their wee, wee, wee little piggys. All running around so fast that I failed to take a decent photo of them. This smiling,snoozing sow was much easier. I wonder what she was dreaming about?

So simple but so much excitement to run, jump and hide between the hay bales. Ahhhh chooo!

Here is Brigadier tractor with his moustache :)

Huge play area with all kinds of equipment, sort of a mini assault course. Very well planned out and making good use of the space. Little Bird has a great time on slides now, despite looking a little anxious. 

Riding the pedal tractors with help from Daddy. There are go-karts too for the older children.

What's nice about the farm is that there is also a shop, a cafe and a little garden centre so everybody is happy. It was quite busy so I didn't buy anything from the very large farm shop but would have loved to have had a good look at all the jams and chutneys. I sneaked around and took a few photos to show you :)

We will probably be back at the farm in the autumn now as it becomes a bit of a pumpkin fest here with all sorts of wonderful gourds for sale. I'm thinking about the autumn a lot now after the heat wave we had but I hear we have another on its way....

Little Treats

It's nice to have some little treats. Little treasures to brighten up your day. Playful jewelry from a company I have been lusting after for a while - Temporary Secretary. (They have a sale on at the moment)

 Little shopping trips, especially when it involves my mum, my nana and the charity shops in the same town I got dragged around every Saturday as a child. Mixed memories. Happiness and boredom.

Fun to come across a French festival and a procession of Citroen 2CV's. Not so good to not have your camera!

Finding lovely wooden puzzles for Little Bird and a book I loved as a child. Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion

Cheery new cushions for the front room from Matalan. The dog best not get her paws on them.

A slow start

Things are a little late on the allotment this year but we have a heap of gooseberries, red currants and by the end of July, we will have so many broad beans that we will be giving them away. 
I wish we had room for a chest freezer at home to put all the extra goodies in but it's nice to give some to neighbours. Makes me smile.

Many jobs still to do, repaint the shed and weed the couch grass from around raspberries and compost heap. It's all looking too wild and certainly wouldn't win any allotment of the year competitions....unlike my dad's site which is spectacular. They all must have more time on their hands there.It's hard with a 3 year old running off, although that has got better and he doesn't go far. I'll show you my dad's allotment site soon.

It's been a bit of a neglectful year in terms of making pretty and I still did not sow a cut flower section. I think a lot of the other plots are the same, a bit untidy we all are this year. Plus I've noticed that many people have given their plots up. Not such the long waiting lists anymore. Are allotments losing their popularity?

It might look rough around the edges but I've grown lots of potatoes, peas and beans that will keep us going all autumn. Just the courgettes to hurry up now and tomorrow I will be going to harvest the first of the raspberries. Can't wait!