Little Cotton Rabbits

surprise!

This morning I truly thought Butterscotch was on her last legs. She's always first out of the coop but when I opened up the hatch there was no sign of her. Whilst the other two tucked into breakfast she was still hunched inside in classic 'sick chicken' pose. A quick check over revealed nothing obvious apart from runny poos (sorry, too much information I know!) but thinking the worst I dashed to the shops for pro-biotic yogurt (in case it was sour crop) and we managed to get some into her beak. An hour later she wasn't interested in food or water and so we gave her some olive oil in a pipette (in case she had a blockage somewhere). Still no improvement.

At 11ish I went out (on a wool gathering expedition to Jolie with fine company in the form of Gina and Val) and when I returned there was this...

on the floor of the house and a bit bashed from the drop (she'd laid it from her perch)! I'd like to say I don't know who was more surprised, but judging by her expression I think it was Butterscotch!

Some thoughts...

... on our first week of chicken keeping:

:: I had no idea they poohed SO much!

:: I knew I was going to enjoy having them around but I wasn't prepared for how maternal I feel towards my girls!

:: My bedtime reading this week has been Starting with Chickens by Katie Thear and Keeping Chickens by Rebecca Hillman at Sallygardens.

:: Chickens get a bad press when it comes to brain power. They're actually more intelligent than you might think - they worked the ladder out very quickly and you should see them clustered around the back door waiting for Amy to get home from school and give them their handful of corn!

:: Chickens are lovely, but seriously - how much poo?!!!!

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Footnote: Thanks to all of you who have emailed about knitted animals. I am slowly getting back into my groove and hope to have some ready to list on etsy soon - will send more details shortly.

here come the girls!

We now have our Mrs Chickens. 

There's Butterscotch & Toffee the Bovan Goldlines (reddish brown ones) and Chick-Chick who is a Black Star.

They are settling in well and are already such characters. Chick Chick is the noisiest and seems to have declared herself top chook - she was the first to venture out of the house to explore. Butterscotch and Toffee are a little quieter and a little more reticent.

We're all getting to know each other although they're already very friendly. My first task is to train them to climb the ladder - there was much panic and sqwaking at dusk yesterday when they didn't seem to know what to do! Hopefully they'll get the hang of climbing the wooden hill to bedfordshire soon!

Chilly & damp outside...

...but that's OK because in my daydream it's summer and I'm in Canada - Winlaw, British Columbia to be precise. The sun is shining, there's a warm, fragrant breeze and I'm wandering through some of the most stunning gardens imaginable - all courtesy of this gorgeous book that Diane so kindly sent me a while back.

Images reprinted from The Garden That You Are by Katherine Gordon, by kind permission of the publisher Sono Nis Press.

It's a wonderful book full of beautiful photography, gardening tips, ideas, recipes and most of all fascinating insights into a group of very creative, culturally diverse gardeners and their special gardens in the Slocan valley. I've been really enjoying the inspiration this book has brought!

I've wanted to grow more of our own food for a while now. We live in a modest suburban house with an average back garden but quite a lot of it is covered in patio area. As it's essential that we keep the main bit of the garden for the children to play in I'm having to think about making the most of a small amount of space and so I'm turning to raised beds and planters for our fledgling veggie garden. I've got my seeds and potatoes on order but it's too cold to plant anything yet, so it's a great time to snuggle up with the books and start planning everything out.

I'm really looking forward to spring - starting off small but with hopeful plans to expand!

out of the groove

I can't seem to find my knitting groove! It always disappears over a school holiday when keeping the children entertained takes precedence over the quiet pleasures of a ball of wool but this week I've still not managed to get back into bunny knitting. It might have something to do with the state of my work basket...

... a tangle of limbs, ears, heads and other disembodied parts - in short a big mess (I am not one of the world's naturally tidy people). The trouble with working on a whim is that I forget where I got to on a particular animal and where I put the wool to finish off each one. I have some sorting out to do and then hopefully I'll be on track to finish off some new animals for the end of the month.

Enjoy your weekend and thanks for the chicken love on the previous post - I look forward to introducing the ladies to you soon!

New year planning

I really like all of the planning and speculation that comes along with the start of a new year - 365 clean, bright squares on the calendar expectantly waiting to be filled with exciting things! The start of a new year feels like a good time to try and put your own little world to rights and I suppose that's why so many of us make new years resolutions. I did OK with mine last year although I never did get around to sewing very much and my email inbox is even more stuffed now than it was back then. On the positive side though, I did manage to spend some extra much needed time with Amy while my husband had Toby. That's something that needs to happen a bit more this year, but we'll take it step by step and hopefully balance out what both children need a little more evenly! I also did really well on the food front - I did end up making virtually all of our own bread, cakes and biscuits and relying far, far less on supermarket food for meals. The plan is to take that a step further this year and produce more of our own food. Which is why I am so happy with our joint christmas pressie this year...

 

...a chicken house! It's ready for residents but H is currently busy clearing the area where it's going and building a run. Once it's all in place we'll be going to collect our 3 chickens and hopefully not too long after we'll be enjoying some fresh eggs! Amy and I are so excited and she's already got a shortlist of names for them!

H and I have also been busy in the garden setting up raised beds ready for veggie growing. I can already tell that 2009 is going to be a more outdoorsy kind of year though hopefully I'll still have a little energy at the end of the day for a spot of bunny knitting!

Happy 2009!

Just popping in quickly to wish you a very happy new year. Here are a few of the things that made me smile in 2008.

Wishing you lots of smiles and good times in 2009. See you soon!