Life in the Dome

Best in show

2012-01-25T10:18:00.003+11:00

Image source. Thanks Loani for passing it on!

I don't know what is more deserving of the prize - their beautiful little hen or that awesome knitting!

Meet the peeps!

2012-01-23T11:05:00.001+11:00

The young'uns arrived this morning and a pair of little sweeties they are too! I forgot how small they are at this age so need to get some grower mash as the pellets are a bit big for them. They are great little foragers after living free range out on a large property at Mudgee. The girls are curious but not at all aggressive toward them which is a good sign but for now I have them separated just so they can settle in without too much stress.

So! Without further ado, here they are:

I'm tentatively calling the one at the back Blossom. M. thinks it's a bit twee but I think it suits her!

mmm...breaky

Being watched over by Boss Chook

I have a feeling the one of the left might be a little boy...guess we'll have to just wait and see!

Crazy

2012-01-22T16:47:00.003+11:00

With poor ol' Pumpkin (RIP) gone, we've taken stock of the hen house and realised that our girls are getting on. Because early on in our chickening I read somewhere that they can live to 12 or 13, I just decided that that was how long our girls were going to live. Turns out I might have been a bit optimistic. As it stands, our girls are now aged as follows (in pecking order):

Fluffy - 5
Buffy - 5
Marjie - 5
Pippy - 4 1/2
Daisy - almost 5
Gum Nut - almost 2

In terms of egg laying, we aren't getting what we used to. So...oh dear this seems a bit crazy and also a bit sad so soon after Pumpkin (RIP)... tomorrow we are taking delivery of two new girls! They are 12 weeks old and a breed we've wanted for a long time but haven't had much luck with: Light Sussex. Here's what our girls will (hopefully) grow into it:

Image source: Collingwood Children's Farm

So there is a wee bit of excitement in the house today as we prepare for our new girls and start the silly name game which is always entertaining. Feel free to add your thoughts - obvious themes are anything that is white. So far we have come up with, and rejected:

Whitey
Porridge
Sago

As you can see, we have a long way to go!

RIP Pumpkin

2012-01-18T10:25:00.011+11:00

Our lovely girl Pumpkin fell off the perch last night - literally. I found her face down this morning in the straw. It's very strange - it doesn't look like her neck is broken and I can't see any harm that she's come to other than the obvious fact that she is dead. My poor girl, what happened? I wonder if I should take her to the vet to just check that she wasn't sick. She has been laying like a trooper, active and happy. No signs of lethargy like Violet had at the end. I've felt her crop and it isn't too full, doesn't seem compacted. Why would a perfectly healthy chicken just die? M. thinks she might have fallen down while asleep and hit her head on the way. It's possible, I guess. I know she had a good life but I'll miss my little friend. RIP Pumpkin. You were a good chicken and we loved you.

A few days old

Here she is, little poppet, the day I brought her home. I went to the produce store to get grain for the girls, and feeling rather clucky myself, came home with this little ball of fluff just sitting on my lap in the car! Serial broody Fluffy was in her fourth month of sitting on an empty nest so I thought I'd put her out of her misery. Despite all I'd read about putting chicks under hens at night so they accept them, I just strode out the back and presented her to Fluffy, whose response was to cluck excitedly, lift her breast and let the little one run under her and settle down. Here they are, very content together on their first day:

First day home

As the weeks went past, Fluffy showed herself to be a pretty good mum after the fiasco with Friday. It was a delight to watch them together.

Learning to preen

Finding her wings

Being the youngest, she got picked on a fair bit and was never very far from her Mum. When Fluffy started laying again she would stand on top of the layer box until she was done.

Sticking close to Mum

Of all the girls Pumpkin was the only one who ever got up on my lap which was strange because she was also really flighty at other times. Ever curious about what we were doing, she would fly up onto the garage window and come visit me while I was working.

Whachyadoin'?

It's hard to explain to people who dont have chickens what distinct personalities they have. Each one is different and you get used to their funny little ways. It will be strange not having her in the hen house.

Goodbye friend, we'll miss you. Thanks for being part of our lives and for giving us lots of lovely eggs and entertaining us.

Pumpkin (Nov 2008 - Jan 2012)

All good news

2012-01-04T17:08:00.000+11:00

Well, when Ness makes up her mind about something, she really doesn't muck around: she's home! She made leaps and bounds after we saw her last Tuesday in Intensive Care, was moved to a ward on Thursday and sent home just in time for New Years Eve on Saturday. She has a lot of rest ahead of her and her partner is doing a great job organising visits so that we don't tire her too much in our enthusiasm to see that beautiful smile. I'm booked in for tomorrow morning - yah!

I can only imagine how confronting this has been for Ness - it certainly shook everyone around her. Not at all what we had planned for her or her for herself. Waiting for news of her progress, I couldn't think of anything else. It was like having a movie of our lives going through my head and I found myself searching through boxes of stuff to find photos of times we'd shared or things we'd bought each other as kids. I kept thinking of funny anecdotes about our families that we've shared - stuff that no one else in my life knows about except maybe my siblings and probably not even then. That's the thing about knowing someone for so long, they have all the back-story of who you are and how you came to be that way and it's pretty damn special. I remember my Grandma telling me when she was elderly that everyone who knew her as a young girl had died and how incredibly sad that felt. It was like a bit of her had died with them. I'm so not ready for that.

I'm trying to figure out the year for this...I think maybe it's 1985 and we are 17. It's Christmas afternoon when all our family friends would come to visit. That's me second on the left (dag) and Ness next to me on the right (cool). Nothing much has changed! Although what you don't know is that was a major milestone for me: I'm wearing a skirt! When Mick met me I had several pairs of overalls, drawers full of Bond's t-shirts and a backpack was (still is) my preferred bag. For my 30th birthday I received no less than 7 handbags from concerned friends who obviously felt I had entered my adult life the wrong way around. I'm much better at the girlie stuff these days, and quite enjoy it. Ah well, that's what happens when you grow up the only girl in a family of boys!

Day 10

2011-12-26T09:46:00.002+11:00

Well today is day 10 - the last day of the second most critical timeframe for Ness. To survive the first 72 hours is awesome, but days 3-10 are the statistically highest time for a secondary bleed. That is, for a stroke. When she is fully awake she is bright and lucid; her speech is good and there are no signs of physical damage. Yet she has had a severe brain injury and her headaches are persistent and high on the pain scale. They have scanned her repeatedly (the first time she tried to crawl out of the machine because the noise of the MRI was so unbearable) but found nothing to operate on. This is worrying. But - her slow improvements are positive and that is what we hang on to. Her partner Brett has been amazing - so calm, positive, gentle, and kind, and so thoughtfully managing the requests of all who love her and want to visit. While it's good for her spirits to see people, it is a strain on her and she needs to rest so after my first visit I'm content to love her from a distance and let her get on with her healing.

I'm grateful to my brother-in-law for reminding me of my blog...there are a lot of messages and posts happening on Facebook and that is great as a way of communicating with lots of people but I found posting here yesterday very comforting and quiet. So I am going to keep posting here as she gets better and take the opportunity to scan some old photos that I have so that when Ness is better we can laugh over them together.

So here are some I took when I was in year 12 and doing photography for my HSC art project. Ness was an apprentice chef by then, living out of home and having a life completely different to mine. She is/was always way more cool and sophisticated than me and I think I have always felt a bit in awe of her because of it. I'm sure she'd disagree and I guess that's why we're still friends after all these years.

Ness-mass

2011-12-25T18:00:00.004+11:00

This beautiful faery is my friend Vanessa, aged 10, waving her magic wand at our Year 6 book day parade at primary school. Ness and I have known each other since we were 9 and were sent out of opposite classrooms for being naughty. She was new to the school and we instantly hit it off.

I learnt lots of things from Ness, such as:

never cut your eye lashes - they won't grow back longer, they just fall out
fake tan doesn't work on white skin - it goes bright orange (or it did back then)
blonding cream is for blondes - but at least being a redhead it didn't look as bad on her as it did on me
onion tarts can be delicious - it was year 9 by then and she was already throwing dinner parties. She later featured in Vogue magazine as a talented young chef and went to work at one of the top restaurants in London.

Last Saturday my beautiful friend suffered a brain haemorrhage and is in a critical condition in hospital. Since then we have gone from the possibility of never seeing her again to the possibility of a complete recovery. So that is good news. I am not ready for a Ness-shaped hole in the world and doubt I ever will be. I have had a lot of time think about our friendship, which has spanned over 30 years, and all the precious moments it has held for both of us. I can't think of one significant event in my life she hasn't shared with me. When the big things are going down, I want her there. This has really shaken me - she's too young, too beautiful, too talented, too clever, too funny, too Ness to not be here and enjoy her life to the full.

For Christmas her partner Brett asked us to write a sign and take a photo holding it and he would print them out and show them to her today. So the girls and I got together and did this one.

Yes, I feel as strained as I look but hopefully she won't see it, just see the love and hope I'm holding for her right now. Please send all your most positive thoughts and best wishes to Ness and her family. She has a long way to go but I have every faith in her that she can get through this nightmare.

Ness, when you're well and reading this: love you to bits and please don't ever scare us like this again! xxoo

One last thing....Chookfest 2011-2012

2011-10-21T12:07:00.002+11:00

Link here: 2011 Chookfest - Slow Food Blue Mountains

There's a photo competition for best candid chook photo (might have to go through the archives to find one to put in) as well as most creative chook house (surely the Summer Palace is in with a running?) as well as colouring in comp for the kiddies and a tour of chook yards between Oct and Feb. Spread the word Mountain chook lovers and maybe we should organise a chooky blog meet in January? Waddayarekon?

The Broody Bunch

2011-10-21T11:56:00.004+11:00

It's that time of year and the girls are at it again. Gone are the days when we tried to snap them out of it. It's just part of their nature and as we are not a production farm I don't see any harm in letting them just sit if that's what they want to do. And I get to have surreptitious cuddles. On the other hand I need to keep more of an eye on them because poor old Marjie just forgets to eat. Fluffy - and now Gum Nut - on the otherhand, are like elite athletes with their crops full of food and a determination that is a bit scary. The other morning I found a big fat knuckle bone under Fluffy's wing. I guess it was round so she thought it'd do. I have no idea where she dug it up!

Box 1: Marjie (right) sits on whatever eggs she can get hold of and Gum Nut (showing me there's nothing under her wing on the left) sits on her. It seems to work for them!

Box 2: No room for anyone else I'm afraid. I can hardly lift our big Fluff these days without putting my back out. She's a big beautiful chicken that one.

This might be my last post for a while so happy chickening and see you in the lead up to Christmas.

RIP King of the Bush

2011-09-30T17:10:00.001+10:00

Today I had the very unhappy accident of hitting a Kookaburra while driving on the expressway to Sydney, near Penrith. At 110km per hour there is no hope for the poor thing. He was flying very low and as soon as I saw him it was too late. Or her. While I was waiting for the tow truck, all I could think of was how beautiful these special birds are. Of all the birds to hit - not that hitting any animal in a bloody car is good. I've made a donation to Wires but still - poor kookaburra.

OMG WTF*

2011-09-26T22:31:00.001+10:00

*stolen from a t-shirt I saw when I was away. I do have a thing for computer geeks I must say. Well, for their t-shirts anyway.

I have just picked myself up off the floor after laughing so much I can hardly breathe. Oh dear. I think I can honestly say that I have now "seen it all" when it comes to chickens. Thank you Ms Bok Flok, I so needed that. And I think the answer is yes. Yes, you should.

Behold: the CHICKEN NAPPY

Click here to read more about it. I just knew I should have taken on one of those franchises way back when.

Sorry for the lack of chicken love 'round these parts. It's head down, bum up here with uni ending in December. I am reading and commenting when I can.

Not in Kansas anymore

2011-08-29T14:36:00.002+10:00

I've been home six weeks or so and am starting to feel settled again. I spent the weekend cleaning and rearranging the house, doing some 'yard work' and bonding with the girls. We packed up most of the house for our house-sitters, so we've been slowly unpacking ever since I got home. We scored this beautiful little wardrobe from a friend who is moving to the Southern Highlands after 30 years in the mountains:

And after deciding that our shower curtain has probably seen better days, I finally unpacked one we were given as a house warming present five years ago. Since then I have managed to scare myself, good and proper, three times (I'm not kidding). I am beginning to think the old mouldy one might not be so bad after all:

I'm not sure the girls have forgiven me for going away for so long but Gum Nut is showing her love by laying us lots of little blue eggs. And standing on my feet and trailing around behind me everywhere I go. Little cutie.

That'll be Gum Nut standing on my foot...

The others are still a bit cautious but hey, I feed them, so they can learn to love me!

Handmade hoummos

2011-08-29T14:35:00.002+10:00

While we were away, Mick got accosted by a sales woman in a shopping mall in Cardiff who tried to woo him into buying me an expensive concoction to make my hands beautiful. He put her off with "Actually, my wife is a bit of a hippy." Which made me laugh, 'cause I am a bit of a hippy but it was funny to hear him say it.

What's not funny, but probably classifies as hippy, is making hoummos 'by hand.' It is annoying beyond description. Not having a crunchy-munch (as we used to call Mum's food processor), and not being able to stomach paying $5 for a small plastic-encased tub of the stuff, I have been reduced to making this by crushing the cooked chick-peas with the side of a knife and mixing the whole lot up with a fork then trying (unsuccessfully) to coax our poor old blender into mulching it all up. Which amounts to: a lot of washing up and a very grumpy, and definitely not happy, "bit of a hippy."

1 hour or so later...worth the effort?

Postscript: Yes...but I still want a food processor!!

Home away from home

2011-08-09T11:50:00.003+10:00

After living within walking distance to my college in Cardiff it was hard to think about commuting to and from Sydney every day when I got home so until the end of the year I will be staying at my friends house in Sydney for two nights a week. It's a big relief and will make the next five months so much easier. Plus I get to see them every week, which is lots of fun.

I have known Chris since I was 23 and we were at art college together. Her youngest daughter was in nappies then - she'll be 21 in September! As well as being a talented artist, Chris is a real bower-bird who has the most gorgeous home you can imagine full of op-shop finds and original artworks acquired over the years. Most mornings I spend sipping my coffee just admiring her arrangement of wonderful objects, not to mention Matt's great book and music collections.

Thanks to Chris I have a few fabulous chooky things, the latest of which is this 1950s handbag, complete with beads and a wooden base!

Spectacular, no?

I couldn't help taking a few photos when I was down last week - I'm sure Chris won't mind if I share a little bit of her home with you. Honestly, this is only a tiny glimpse of their beautiful home:

The lounge room with just a few of Matt's vinyl treasures on the architraves

The dining room complete with retro drinks trolly

Just a few of the many Bambis in Chris' collection

Sunny verandah

H is for...

2011-07-29T17:26:00.000+10:00

1. H is for....Hello!! and also Home

We are back at the Fibro Majestic, acclimatising to winter in the mountains after a *brief* period of warm weather in Wales. For some reason it seems harder to adjust to than when we left Aus in December for the UK under fear of our plane not being able to land due to snow storms. I can't tell if it's the house that is so inadequately insulated/heated for the cold or the humidity but whatever it is I'm sure M. will be happy when I stop complaining about it. I. Am. Sooo. Cold!! It's in my bones, every day and is driving me crazy!!

2. H is also for...Hmmm

I'm all for including links to other blogs when they are relevant to this little chooken blog and so a comment left whilst I was away from ANOTHER chicken blog seemed OK...until after scrolling through the posts I came upon one for a chicken curry! I mean, it's not like I'm vegetarian and I LOVE chicken but it really put me off! I just can't link to it!! I'm sorry, but I can't. It's as simple as that. The girls would never forgive me. As it is they can hardly look me in the eye after leaving them for six whole months! What was I thinking?

3. And Ha!

Despite the good care the girls had from D and family, they pretty much didn't lay for the entire time we were away. I told M. they were waiting for me to come home (cue M. to roll eyes). But - hello - they have laid six eggs in the two weeks I've been home! Ha!! A mother ALWAYS knows. x

Easter reading

2011-04-01T07:47:00.003+11:00

What is it with the Universe today? For the first time since we've been away I'm getting a good internet connection and have actually been able to browse (maybe all that mindless cursing at the computer screen and throwing of the stupid 'dongle' has worked?). And with a pile of uni work to do, what is it that I keep finding? Chickens. Ah well, I'm just going to go with the flow and suggest some good Easter reading:

It's a heartwarming tale, by all accounts. Read more here.

And since I am on the topic of Easter, Celia has some beautiful cards and prints available over at Purple Podded Peas of broody hens with chicks. Go on, treat yourself!

By the way: because of the aforementioned rubbish internet connection, it is nearly impossible to load my blog reader without getting the wheel of death so I am not reading as much as I would like to but I visit when I can (though it is not always possible to leave a comment without compromising my sanity for the same reasons)(yes, I'm a little bit frustrated on the interwebs front!)

Chicken roundabout

2011-04-01T03:17:00.000+11:00

I just couldn't help myself - I had to search online for the story of the chicken roundabout from the last post and can you believe it, there is an entire website dedicated to them!! Sad news is, someone is killing off the chooks so it looks like this colony may need to find a new home.

Here they are across the road foraging!

(and yes, I really should get back to my uni work, so bye again!)

Attila the Hen, Radio 4

2011-03-31T15:48:00.005+11:00

or should it be called: When having chickens becomes an obsession?

I have just listened to this wonderful radio program and it made me laugh and laugh...oh so good to know we are not alone in our chicken madness. If you have time, have a listen (link here). You'll hear about a woman who went from having 4 chickens to 50 and whose husband now goes on holidays alone (!!); another woman who took her chooks to her Mum's place for Christmas (not for lunch obviously!); and a guy who walks 12 kms a day to feed some chooks who live on a roundabout (the number got to a few hundred! No really!! I mean roundabouts are big over here but that's unbelievable!). Seriously happy listening

Missing chickens

2011-03-27T22:05:00.002+11:00

If they keep this up, no one will ever want to look after them again!

What we've known for a while...

2011-03-14T01:01:00.008+11:00

...but the scientists are still catching up on:

Chickens are capable of feeling empathy

Scientists have discovered that hens can feel empathy. They don't know the half of it, says Carla Carlisle...read more

Fluffy and little Pumpkin

Do you think the hen in the linked story above really did eat the mothballs in remorse??? I remember Buffy hatching the hotch-potch of eggs we got for her from the farmer down south. Three made it out of their shells - two Araucanas and one Welsummer. By the next morning she had kicked out the Welsummer, having decided it couldn't be one of hers. I don't remember seeing much empathy although she did get very distressed when we removed all the chicks because of a red mite attack. We felt terrible and she pined for them so badly we brought them out for access visits. The whole experience left us all traumatized so we made up for it last year by getting her some more eggs and lucky for us (and thanks to Chris) we got little Gum Nut to keep. Phew!

PS Welcome to my new readers and thanks for dropping by!

News from home II

2011-03-14T00:47:00.002+11:00

Thankyou D!! Once again, you've made my day xx

News from home

2011-01-19T20:18:00.000+11:00

The lovely women looking after our girls are both artists. D. sent me this illustrated report of how the girls are faring this morning and it made me cry! Thanks D. xx

I like chickens

2010-12-24T13:05:00.001+11:00

I so don't have time for this. After all, I've just been to the chemist to buy myself some Rescue Remedy because my Stress-O-Meter is off the scale right now. Sigh. But there is always time for chickens, right? And I know you love them too so here's my nod to the festive season and actually, I was a bit amazed to find this site (while trying to do one of the things I actually need to do today) which has ALL THINGS CHICKEN. I haven't got time to check it out but you might (and I will sometime).

I Like Chickens

And before you start laughing at the idea of chicken baubles for your Christmas tree, I found this one a few weeks ago and even though we have no tree this year, I had to get it:

It has a little bit more character, methinks.

Over and out.

I know, I know

2010-12-19T09:58:00.001+11:00

but look at these beautiful flowers I picked from the garden - just makes my heart sing:

not to mention the load of beetroot that is growing like crazy (I especially like the long ones!):

So we'll be going from this to this in just over a week - is it too late to change our minds?!

well, almost...one last post

2010-12-12T22:48:00.007+11:00

With a list as long as my arm of things to do, and our first full weekend at home in nearly a month, we've been busy bees. I couldn't resist posting the yard all cleaned up ready for our friends who will be looking after the Fibro Majestic and taking care of the girls for the next little while.

Sort of reminded me of how you clean the windows when you leave a rental place then wonder why you never did it while you lived there. When I took this pic this morning I already started to feel homesick, which is silly because we have lots of wonderful things ahead of us.

Hmm, suddenly summer seems very inviting...

Garage all spick and span

Huh?

Wild Wood

Three months ago this little patch of earth was the most barren place in the whole yard. If you think a chicken proof fence can't work, think again. All of this has just sprung up on it's own and I'm especially fond of the cammomile patch. After all the times we tried to grow it...typical!

Aww girls, we're going to miss you!!xxoo

Fare thee well

2010-12-10T12:01:00.003+11:00

Out of respect for the girls, who will be stuck at home, I have decided that our adventures require their very own blog so if you would like to follow us into the void, you can do so here.

So for the time being

happy chickening!

May 2011 be a year of wonder, joy and laughter (and lots of eggs)

Jacqui & Mick, Marjorie Best Chicken, Fluffy, Buffy, Pippy, Daisy, Pumpkin & Gum Nut xx

Adventure Blog

2010-12-02T19:35:00.000+11:00

So you want to see my new bag? It's brown...blah! Not even a nice chocolate brown but a sort of cack brown. I wanted red, or green, or purple, but I also wanted to not spend another minute of my life in a luggage shop. Hours spent in the backstreets of Canberra on the weekend wheeling potential travel mates around the shop sort of soured my enthusiasm.

Not only is it brown (sorry, cack brown), it's also small. Well, smaller than the last one, affectionately known as 'the beast' and a glorious shade of red. Sadly, I have not the strength, will, or determination to lug the beast on another overseas trip so looks like I'll be ~~packing light~~ stashing stuff in M.'s bag.

More importantly, it has a good solid handle that comes to just the right height for my monkey-length arms and aerodynamic wheels that glide in every direction. This last feature is a great relief to both of us after a nasty incident in Japan when the beast derailed and nearly knocked an entire escalator full of people backwards like dominoes, with me standing at the top. M. was not impressed. It's still a bit of a sore point.

The only good thing about that lost day in the luggage shop was that, around the corner, we discovered the Canberra Antiques Center and the most glorious back room full of retro furniture, lights, bric-a-brac etc that I have ever encountered in Our Nation's Capital. I did walk away with something brown but at least it was glorious 70s brown and destined to put a smile on the face of my brother this Christmas.

Muck up day

2010-11-30T09:47:00.002+11:00

Today we are having some special visitors to the Fibro Majestic. Dee and Margie are coming to inspect the premises and to get some instructions on how to best care for our girls while we go adventuring. They are both lovely and come with good references. Margie has had a rough life and has finally found a loving home with Dee. She reminds me of Scruffy the Sailor Dog and I fell in love with her the first time we met. She has the sweetest little face and a very shy nature and I think she will be just fine with the girls.

So of course it is raining and of course I have left it to this morning to muck out the girls' digs. Sigh. No point having a shower then...off we go.

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Turfed out broodies...brooding

Hurry up and give us our box back

Who are you staring at?

All clean

Let the sun shine in

2010-11-25T08:40:00.003+11:00

Some of the lovely things flowering in the garden. After all the rain we've had, it's getting quite lush out there.

Well we buried Vi in behind the hazelnut bushes in a nice shady spot. Poor little thing, I feel so bad about missing what was wrong with her so I checked all the others and it turned out Gum Nut also had an impacted crop but not as severe so we took her to the vet and he gave her some liquid paraffin oil and we kept her inside without any food until the obstruction passed. She's back with the others now and showing all the signs of being another dedicated broody...like we needed that! I might start pimping the girls out in the new year if they are going to keep locking themselves up for months on end being broody. We've got three in there now so egg production is down by half! I've already had one request from a friend who doesn't want to bother with an incubator. Plus it'd be fun to have all the little ones running around. Just have to convince M.

In other news, we are heading off on a big adventure so I'll be signing off here soon until July next year. It's going to be cold, but fun. Will keep you posted.

And then there were 7

2010-11-18T18:27:00.001+11:00

RIP Violet

5 1/2 years

Poor little Vi has been sick for a few weeks now. I've been keeping an eye on her and cleaning her up when I can but today I came home to find her having spasms, with droopy wings and some yucky fluid coming out of her beak. I took her to the vet and turns out she had a severely impacted crop. I'm not sure how I missed that as I am used to feeling them and checking the girls are well. Anyway, she'd lost a lot of weight and was near the end and we had to let her go. She's the first of our girls to go and it really does hurt. I'm going to miss her.

To henulate or not to henulate?

2010-10-31T22:43:00.003+11:00

hen·u·late Verb /ˈhenyəˌlāt/
verb: meditate, contemplate, ponder, cogitate, muse, think

Usage examples:

Marjorie henulated on the status of the grain: was there enough to last the day?
Pippy had been quite right to henulate that Gum Nut would lay funny coloured eggs. I mean, look at that quiff!
Henulating never got Pumpkin anywhere; she was always going to be scared witless by a leaf falling or a sudden noise and no amount of reassurance from the others would calm her nerves.
To henulate or not to henulate? Was that even a question? thought Fluffy as she stared listlessly out of the layer box. It was going to be a long summer.
"It's true, I heard them henulating about it while they were gardening," Violet told Daisy. "They're going to get a goat!"
"Henulating never got us anywhere" declared Buffy. "Either they'll let us out or they won't, there's nothing we can do about it!"
The general henulation in the Dome that night was that it is better to let sleeping rats lie.

tRATsome Exclamation /ˈtRATsome/

A mild expression of anger or annoyance, sometimes shortened to 'tRAT'

"tRATsome!" said Buffy, pecking the feeder "Fluffy ate all the corn again"
"tRAT you!" said Pippy

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Feel free to keep going...

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If you are completely lost, see the comments on my previous post! And yes, it did hurt!!

wild things

2010-10-30T23:03:00.000+11:00

Guess what happened to me today? I got bitten by a RAT!! OK, so I feel like I'm totally 15 writing it like that but it's TRUE. I was cleaning out the Summer Palace and picked up the layer box that ~~fatso~~ Fluffy is occupying and there it was, curled up sound asleep in a little ball.

"So why did you pick it up?" the lady on the national health help line asked me.
"I don't know," I answered
"Hmm..."

I really don't know why I did but I did and not unexpectedly (had I thought it through), it bit me. I never knew rats had such sharp needly little teeth. I tell you, it hurt! Thank goodness I was wearing gloves.

Yep, the highlight of my day was cleaning shit out of the chicken pen and getting bitten by a rat. Guess it could have been worse.

---
On a happier note, the girls got to have a forage in the wild wood today and boy did they have fun.

Happy chickens

PS Hello to my new visitors, thanks for stopping by, things are sort of erratic 'round here but thanks for reading, I will visit you soon.

Summer songs

2010-10-14T11:09:00.006+11:00

'Masked Devil' cicada common to the Blue Mountains

Look who I met at the garden gate this morning. Isn't he beautiful? And as the mist lifts and the day begins to warm up I can hear their song breaking out all over the neighbourhood, accompanied by the distant sound of lawn mowers. Yep, summer is on its way.

---
Do you remember, as kids, spending your whole summer looking for a Black Prince? I think we only ever found one but it was always the prize. The cicadas closest to where I grew up were mostly Green Grocers. This one is interesting because it has a black body with a green and orange head. Never seen one like it!
---

Hmm, now I'm drooling over this:

Etsy store

Not as beautiful as our specimen above though

Still makes me laugh

2010-10-13T12:08:00.000+11:00

5 things

2010-10-07T18:25:00.003+11:00

..that I hoard

There is a fine distinction between collecting and hoarding (or maybe not so fine). Hoarding is more compulsive, less organised than collecting. We all have our own rules for our collections, for example: we only collect Caddy-matic Juniors for under $30,* we don't just hoard tea caddies. Anyway, I confess that I am a collector and a hoarder and that my hoarding tendencies are, at times, a little trying for M. so I have had to get a bit more creative about it...

Bags
I hoard bags. Not designer handbags, everyday bags. It has been a habit most of my adult life. I have learned to stash them in various places throughout the house because if M. finds them he puts them in the recycling (very upsetting, after all they could be useful). So I have to keep finding good spots for them. Guided by the old adage not to have all your eggs in one basket, I now divide them up before stashing them in different spots:

paper bags with handles (down the side of the kitchen dresser)
small brown paper lunch bags (bottom kitchen drawer under the tea towels)
plastic shopping bags (which strangely always find their way in our house even though we don't use them? Why is that??)(drawer or laundry if they get discovered)
plastic department store bags (same again)(folded flat in the with the trays next to the dishwasher).

Boxes
Likewise, I collect boxes of any description, basically if it closes or has a lid, I keep it. From small cardboard trinket boxes to large post boxes, fruit boxes, foam boxes, milk crates (yes, I know, shame on us but we do have a few), plastic boxes. Unsurprisingly, egg cartons fall into this category and I happily take them off people to hoard at home (some of them get used).

Paper
Yep, I hoard paper too. Gift wrapping paper, printer paper, old pay slips, bills, art paper, some newspaper, wallpaper...but not toilet paper (but I do hoard the rolls)...anything that might go in a shredder, I keep. And cards, old birthday cards, post cards, every letter I ever got from any of my friends or family. Fliers, stubs, business cards, stickers. You name it (see, those boxes do come in handy for something!). Not to mention the archive boxes in the garage full of papers from my uni and teaching days and well, let's just say that there are a quite a few. Some might even have tax returns from my early 20s in them (I'm not saying they do, just that they might).

Fabric
Well, when you can't really sew (still learning) it might not be hoarding per se but it's not collecting either. This extends to old clothes too, by the way. I just can't throw things out, especially if they have a sentimental value. So I still have:

my favourite band pants - tight black velvet flares from my 20s
a nighty my Grandma made me when I was 12
jumpers that were knitted for someone else that I kept just because someone should
the list goes on...

Wool
Lastly, wool. Well, I was going to make something, wasn't I? But I'm not sure now what I was going to make. So it sits in a basket and I wonder when I will ever have the time to do anything with it. This category also includes string. All different types of string - cooking string, gardening string, very thin wire (all of this lives with the elastic bands, bottle top lids and corks that I've hoarded over the years). But back to wool. Some wool you just keep 'cause it's beautiful, like this:

Perhaps I'm telling you this because Spring is stirring and maybe it's time for a BIG CLEAN OUT. Before I turn into that crazy chicken lady with all the bags and stuff.

What do you hoard?

* you mean you didn't know that Caddy-matics come in a long version too and sell for stupidly high prices online because Star Trek fans turn them into space ships? Well they do!

Come home to roost

2010-09-26T18:49:00.002+10:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am proud to introduce you to Roger Rampant (pronounced with a French accent) who has come home to roost at Dome central. Roger is, of course, the handiwork of none other than the Queen of Tea Cosies, Ms Loani Prior of Grand Purl Baa. We are rather chuffed, to say the least, to have him gracing our kitchen and Carmen Miranda is very pleased to have someone to court her, even if it is a rooster. Thanks Loani, he's magnificent (also said with a french accent)!!

Lucky lucky me!

Did someone mention cake?

2010-09-22T11:50:00.003+10:00

Source: Jimbobart
Found via here

But you already knew that about me, didn't you?

More eggscapades

2010-09-21T09:14:00.000+10:00

So which is it Gum Nut? Blue or Green?

Clockwise from top: Pippy's, Buffy's, Gum Nut's second, Gum Nut's first, Fluffy's

So our funny little girl has laid a tiny blue egg and then a much bigger effort for number two...and this time green! Chris, looks like she's like her sisters after all and maybe the first one is a throw back to her Araucana roots. Still, green eggs are pretty cool too!

Now for a bit of garden news, since it's been a while. We're getting lots of these coming up:

Purple asparagus

the trees are blossoming

new garden beds

I'm enjoying seeing things going green out the window and the mulch staying in place and the plants growing instead of being scratched from the ground. The chicken-proof fence is a winner! If only we'd done it three years ago instead of now, we'd have a lovely thriving garden to show for it.

Beyond the chicken-proof fence, M. made these new beds with scraps lying around the yard. They fit perfectly inside the Dome so they are now planted out with lots of veg and well protected under the wire from the birds. It's nice to be out in the garden with a t-shirt at last instead of layers of thermals and woolens. Yah for Spring!

Eggscapades

2010-09-18T15:50:00.001+10:00

Well well well, look what we found this morning!

Hmm...one of these eggs is not like the other ones...

Someone better tell Sam it's blue eggs and ham, not green! How cute is this egg?! As cute as the little fluffy bum that laid it, that's how cute. Aww, our Gum Nut has finally joined the big girls and we're very proud of her. I can see there will be fights over who gets the blue egg for breakfast! Somehow I don't think these ones will be going in the gift boxes of eggs that leave Dome central.

In other eggscapes, the wild child is back at it. After a cacophony of cackles called me into the backyard during the week, and a head count revealed we were missing Pippy, I have to confess that I thought the worst. Either she'd gone bush (as I always suspect she will one day) or a predator bird had taken her, but there were no feathers or sign of struggle, just the others going nuts and scattered all over the place in a panic. Well, not an hour later I heard a familiar egg song and just happened to look out the window at the moment someone's shiny black feathers appeared in flight. She'd been hiding in the pile next to the compost and here's what I found in a neat little nest up the back:

Pippy, you bolshie little hen! You've never let us touch you or pick you up, the roosters tried and failed to win you over, you escape at the first glint of freedom and cause all sorts of noisy strife in the hen house if we are late with your breakfast or slow letting you out. You drive us crazy! (but we love you all the same):

Braaak!

It was only a matter of time

2010-09-16T16:23:00.000+10:00

before the barrier was breached...

This is what I found when I opened the back door this morning:

Gum Nut nesting in a barrow of straw. No egg yet, but must be soon!

Go the grannies: The Knitting Room

2010-09-14T09:56:00.000+10:00

How cool is this? A group of grannies in a nursing home in Tasmania started knitting things that reminded them of the 1950s...and ended up knitting a whole house AND a garden (including the people inside the house and animals outside!). My favourite moments are the knitted Elvis record, the kitchen sink with the soap inside the wire holder and the knitted duck in the knitted pond. The video isn't great quality so the visuals just don't do it justice, which is a shame. But enjoy it anyway!

PS Your comments of the lovely Fluffy were very funny, thanks!

She's not fat, she's big boned

2010-09-05T23:28:00.001+10:00

It's hard for people who don't have chickens to understand how you can love them like you love a dog or a cat but I really do love this chicken. Watching her move around the yard is like watching a ship coming into port, her low-pitched 'ooot' greeting us like the air horn of a big cruise liner as it pulls into the quay. Makes me laugh every time. Fluffy, you magnificent thing, life just wouldn't be the same without you around.

For those of you who are interested, she's a Cochin, a Chinese bird (I think) bred for meat - not hard to see why!

Crack and grow egglings

2010-08-26T17:31:00.004+10:00

Oh I'm a sucker for stuff like this. Behold, the Eggling:

The stuff you find on the internet. Think of it as an early end-of-the-week distraction. One more day to go...

---

PS I can report that the Chicken Proof Fence is indeed chicken-proof. It took them a while to figure out today that it was there but when they did there was a great amount of perplexing (?perplexment? ?perplexation???) and at one point they just took themselves back into the Summer Palace to think it through some more. Even Gum Nut hasn't breached the barricade, but it's only a matter of time before she finds a way being little and light and able to fly over obstacles with ease (and out of reach of the fat nasty chooks who are giving her a rotten time, poor little thing. Not hard to see how the youngest can become the favourite!)

So far the score is:

Herb Garden: 1
The Girls: 0

Gotta be happy with that.

Chicken-proof fence

2010-08-24T09:35:00.000+10:00

You've seen the Great Wall of China:

Image Source

You've seen the Berlin Wall:

Image Source

You've even seen the Rabbit Proof Fence:

Image Source

I now present to you - the Chicken Proof Fence:

No chickens beyond this point!

Yes, that's right - no more chickens this side of the fence. I have tried everything (including finding the will power to keep them locked up in the Summer Palace, weed-matting the garden beds, fencing off all the trees, pegging plastic wire down over mulch to stop them digging up new beds) and all has failed. This is the final frontier. Behind this can be a dustbowl but I can't look out my window and see nothing but dirt and fluffy bums scratching away my herb garden anymore.

My feeble attempts to plant flowers amidst the ruin of the herb garden

The question is, will it work?

Ode to the small things

2010-08-16T11:11:00.001+10:00

Figuratively, and literally.

Battery hens in need of a good homes

2010-08-11T09:35:00.000+10:00

My friend sent me the link to this site this morning. I would love to give a battery hen a new life here at Dome central but we have reached capacity. If you think you can help provide a home for a hen in need of a good life, please contact Catherine at NSW Hen Rescue

Here's some of what Catherine has to say about Hen Rescue:

Recovering hen 'Dorothy' shows off some new feathers
(Dorothy does have two legs she's just standing on one foot!)

"NSW Battery Hen Rescue exists to give ex-battery hens a second chance. By rescuing and rehoming ex-battery chickens we are able to give them the chance to discover their inner chicken and start behaving the way they were meant to.

Ex-battery hens have lead a life where they are unable to stretch their wings, find a quiet place to lay an egg or feel the sunlight on their feathers. They have been standing on wire for years unable to peck or scratch at the grass or to perch. Weaker hens who want to hide from their bossy companions have nowhere to go. They may try to scramble underneath other hens, but will not be able to get away..."

Read more here

The secret to a perfect poached egg

2010-08-06T10:18:00.001+10:00

Back in the far far away time when we lived in the city, I got into a fix trying to poach eggs.

Poach Pod silicone egg poachers

I could never get it right - stirring while the water boiled and adding vinegar etc etc - it never seemed to work for me and I gave up in frustration.

ceramic egg poacher

Well, here's the thing: the secret to the perfect poached egg is fresh eggs.

microwave egg poacher

Not shop-fresh but warm-out-of the-layer-box fresh. Just drop them in the water and there you have it - a little ball of goldeny goodness for your breakfast pleasure. Yum! (and no need for a poacher, no matter how cute they are)

Make hay while the sun shines

2010-08-02T09:43:00.001+10:00

If it doesn't snow up here today I'll eat my beanie. It is freeeezzzziiiiinnnnggg (well, by local standards that is). Good day to be in doors (you might think) 'cept in doors it is 9 degrees according the thermometer inside the backdoor. Outside the August winds are howling a gale. Poor M. had to walk to the station in this at 6am!

Yesterday was a beautiful day and we did manage to get some things done. I've been busy planting out the rest of the front yard with native tubestock while M. rebuilds the garden beds out the back so they are more manageable. It's slow work in cold weather but you have to grab every opportunity you can or nothing would ever get done.

The new garden beds

Some of the plants that went in over the last month

Looking forward to seeing these little fellas grow! There are 45 new plants in these two beds! A few are more advanced - they came from a local nursery and were chosen for screening. We're keen to get them growing as quickly as possible but all the rest are $4 tubestock from either Katoomba Wild Plant Rescue or the Blue Mountains Plant Conservation Society. It's good to get plants that grow well up here or are indigenous to the area and tubestock seems to grow much better than nursery bought plants.

Here's what the front yard looked like four years ago when we bought the house and what it looks like now:

August 2006

April 2010

It's slow progress but we're getting there. And hopefully one day not too soon we can give the house a bit of a facelift and some much needed insulation. In the meantime, any idea of what to do with the paths?

Crochet and cake

2010-07-31T14:08:00.000+10:00

There is seriously little to report on here at Dome Central - the girls are laying again ('bout time), the garden is a wreck from their continuous scratching and there isn't much growing. But! That doesn't mean we haven't been busy. I recently organised a play date with a special little person who I like hanging out with. We made mini chocolate sponge cakes with strawberries, in preparation for our annual Christmas in July with friends from Sydney. They were quite tasty if a little dry. Easily remedied with a splash of liqueur but not suitable for my junior chef so we left that step out. Here we are having fun:

There's been a bit crochet action lately - M. requested a scarf and even chose the wool himself so I'm making progress with that. I've even tried a few fancy-pants stitches (for me, that is) and I'm pleased with the result. M.'s mum is a mean knitter, and I'm sure he would have done better asking her to make him one but I wasn't going to say no now, was I?

M's 'manly' scarf

And in other crochet news, a dear friend who finally made it up for a visit (four years after we moved here!) gave us these two spectacular vintage 'house-warming' presents:

A true labour of love this one

A delightful little egg cosie

Go figure

2010-07-15T10:58:00.000+10:00

When you've waited around for an egg for, oh, I don't know, maybe six weeks, the answer to this question seems a bit bloody obvious doesn't it? Oh well, I'm not complaining, seeing how I got two surprises yesterday morning when I braved the howling winds and freezing cold to give the girls their morning grub.

Thanks Buffy and Fluffy - looks like 'the twins' are at it again
(must do everything together at the same time)

In other breaking news (droll, aren't I?), Gum Nut has reached the ripe young age of 12 weeks and has at last joined the big girls in the Summer Palace. S/he is finding it a bit hard so I get lots of cuddles everytime I go in. We've never had a hen like this that is so gentle and happy to be patted and picked up - I'm really enjoying it.

Gum Nut 12 weeks

Momentous morning!

2010-06-24T11:04:00.001+10:00

Have canvassed the chookens and Fluffy says Yes to a female PM and Yes to a redhead. Can't argue with the boss (not that she is biased or anything!)

There you go...

2010-06-22T20:58:00.001+10:00

...seems I do know a thing or two about chooks after all! Not just a Pekin but a Prize Winning Pekin!!

Fussy's prize

And apparently she got her name because she had a penchant for milk thistles, which my Dad had to scour the neighbourhood looking for. Hmm sounds like a few chickens I know....layer mash anyone? Um no, we prefer whole grains (no wheat) preferably mixed with treats, thank you very much.

It's all in the genes...or maybe the beret?

2010-06-21T22:09:00.007+10:00

Dad with his little chooky friend, Fussy.

Well looks like chicken-love runs in my family. This is a photo of my Dad as a little boy with his bantam chicken, Fussy. Just looking at her I'm wondering if she might have been a Pekin - that could be a fluffy foot sticking out there. I love Pekins, they are a tiny version of our Fluffy Bum and meant to be very placid little things (like this photo suggests) and great pets for kids. I don't know what's cuter - my Dad in his beret or Fussy sitting up there on his back! I must ask how she got that name - she doesn't look that fussed to me! Thanks Dad! I know who to blame now x

Sunday silliness

2010-06-20T09:15:00.002+10:00

There, you see, I'm still here and now you can see the truly sorry state our garden is in. Yes, it's winter, but we have neglected our garden so much that there is only one bed of veg growing and to be honest, I couldn't even tell you what is in it! Well, actually I can, because I pulled out a 'shallot' for lunch the other day and um, it tasted very garlicy...needless to say, the gardener was not happy with me. I say the gardener because I have not gardened in our back yard for months - busy out the front and that has likewise ground to a halt until M. can help me move one of the young trees that we planted in a bad spot. It has lost all it's leaves so should be safe to transplant now.

And that, dear friends, is all from me for now. Thanks for your visits and I hope to be back with more verve sometime soon. In the meantime, enjoy my silly video - Gum Nut is growing heaps and we are now back to the conclusion that we have a young roo on our hands. Ah well, we'll see - he might be a charmer (and modest on the crowing front) - still early days. Have a stupendously good Sunday!

Thank you, thank you very much

2010-06-04T18:08:00.008+10:00

Wet winter days...

Gum Nut at 7 weeks

Fluffy bum

Well, there's been a few dramas in the hen house this week. First I saved Gum Nut from the claws of the no-longer-cute cat next door. I thought I had lost her but she turned up ten minutes later, her little heart pounding, and with no complaints let me lift her into the Dome where a very distressed Buffy was pacing back and forth calling for her. Then yesterday I found my lovely Fuffy with her head covered in blood - on close inspection it looks like a peck wound (Marjorie! I know it was you!!) and is already healing up. Ah dear, that's enough chicken drama for one week thank you very much.

So...not a bad little quiff on Gum Nut eh? It sticks up heaps more when it isn't wet, and she's still getting some feathers on her head so it will be interesting to see how it ends up. As you can see we are back to thinking she's a she. Eternal optimists that we are!

That's it from me at chicken central - pretty exciting eh? Well, what do you expect from a chicken blog? Eh? Eh? Ah well, I'll get my mojo back soon...promise. Have a snuggly night in for those in similar climes, and for you spring possums, hope you're enjoying a balmy night out.

Going to do some sewing tomorrow so I might have something to laugh at with you soon :)

Chicken coop envy

2010-06-02T17:29:00.004+10:00

coop.02, originally uploaded by LolaNova.

Sorry for the lull on the blog front - been busy with that thing they call work/life balance, 'cept it's more like work/study/life unbalanced or something like that.

Anyway, I've finally got back to my blog roll and found this on Ms Drewzel's blog and had to follow the links. Talk about a swiss cook house (did I write that? I meant a swish chook house)(just a bit tired) - not a poo within cooee (she says, picking some off her ugh boot)(sorry 'bout that!). Aww, and it's red, so not only does it go faster, I love it.

Thanks Drewzel - I've been sleeping under a blog rock and I needed something to lift it up.

Oh yeah - and Elvis has not left the building - he's come back as a chicken and we accidently called him Gum Nut. The quiff on that peep is great! Wait til you see it!!

Quick catch up

2010-05-23T19:29:00.002+10:00

Gum Nut with more feathers and Buff (in post-broody molt) with less - what a pair!

Thanks for the lovely comments on our wall! We did move a fair bit of the dirt around last weekend and managed to plant the first few rows (grevilleas and hakeas) of garden but we have been busy with family festivities this weekend so no more progress on that front.

With all the attention out the front things have gotten a bit neglected out the back. We've been struggling with our veg beds for a while and have finally come to the decision to decommission the domes. We just don't have the space for them to work properly as a crop/chook rotation system and the girls have the Summer Palace now so we don't really need them.

We're also struggling with shade caused by two gigantic radiata pines in a back yard of a neighbouring property and on the sunnier side a neighbour who is growing cyprus? cedar? along the fence line for screening so anything we try along there, just can't compete. There are only a few precious spots in the yard where things can grow so we'll build some upraised garden beds and have a think about what to do with the rest of the yard (maybe even talk to the neighbours to see if we can meet them halfway on the cost of removing or pruning the pines and on the other side, see if we can talk them into planting something else for screening - fruit trees would be great!

Autumn glory

2010-05-15T17:26:00.001+10:00

Here's our little Maple, putting on her autumn show.

And here's our new wall

...with a big pile of dirt behind it that we have been moving around today.

And the little gate that I found at a salvage yard and fixed up.

It's a long way from the crazy-paving idea we first had and frankly, a bit posh for the Fibro Majestic, but we love it all the same. We are now working on the paths and getting the garden bed ready to plant but the afternoon got a little chilly so we downed tools and put the fire on and are snuggled up inside for the night. It's our market day tomorrow so all in all, a good weekend. Hope you're enjoying yours!

Brrrr

2010-05-11T10:18:00.001+10:00

Getting cold up here, time for woolly socks and tea cosies! I love this time of year in the mountains, the trees are all changing colour, the sky is bright clear blue and there is a real bite in the air. My favourite time of year! My little Maple tree is turning a glorious firey-red out the front - I'm glad M. convinced me it's OK to have a few non-natives that aren't fruit trees. It's going to be lovely when it gets bigger. Time for a cuppa - hope you are all having a good week!

Happy Mothers' Day

2010-05-09T16:58:00.011+10:00

Happy Mothers' Day

to all you mothers out there
I hope your peeps have been kind to you today
---

Buff and Gum Nut enjoyed a morning out scratching today. The others didn't take much notice of them - I think they've accepted there's another beak to feed. We're pretty convinced now that Gum Nut is a boy, which makes him the eighth rooster we've had out of 15 chooks to date. Our boys:

First up we had...

Penny and Pearlie

um yes well we thought they were girls 'cause we'd never had chickens before
we even looked up 'crowing hens' on the internet
when my Mum saw them she couldn't stop laughing
"They're roosters Jac!"
Yes I can see now
beautiful Plymouth Rocks (with a bit of Dorking and Silkie)
I cried when we gave them away

[I don't have photos of the two chicks who replaced P and P
they turned out to be boys too
two little Light Sussex lads
who tried to fight each other to the death every chance they could get]

Next up was...

Friday or 'Baron Freitag von Knicker Bocker'

and a dear boy he was too, and very gentle like Penny and Pearlie
And at the same time we also had...

Tuppence

Poor Tuppence (Welsummer) was not the brightest crayon in the box.
And also...

Barnaby Pyjama Pants

and his brother (both Anconas)...

Twinkle Toes

I even wrote a song about these last two
and sometimes I sing it to M to make him laugh.

And last but not least...

Gum Nut

(cross Barnevelder/Araucana)

Gum Nut update

2010-05-05T09:27:00.001+10:00

Here's little Gum Nut, getting some feathers. I took this about a week ago and since then s/he's got what looks like the beginnings of a pom-pom head. Chris did say this might happen. S/he's very cute and still getting lots of attention from her Mum who is doing a fine job of looking after her. Well done Buffy.

PS Thought I'd better include Gum Nut in the audit since I started with the girls.

Country cousins

2010-05-05T09:03:00.003+10:00

I've been away - playing in the mud, out bush. Well, three hours from Sydney isn't exactly bush but it's not Sydney, and it's not the mountains either, so it's good enough for me!

It was fun, not perhaps for the reasons it was meant to be, but it was fun all the same.

I made new friends, I got my hands dirty and well, as usual, I found chickens.

I always find chickens when I'm away, to the point that now when I go away and I don't find them, I feel a bit uneasy.

Isn't this one beautiful? A Campine perhaps? Any ideas? Oh and the Australorp rooster was magnificent - I think even Pippy might have been a bit taken by him, and that's saying something. Of the eight roosters we've had - by accident - so far, none of them have managed to have their way with Pip. She flatly refuses to be had, but I think this fella might have caught her eye. And here's a few things that caught mine:

The Nana Knitting Shop was the best find - I love my crocheted washers and this little embroidered glasses case. A talented potter made this lovely tea cup but I stupidly forgot to write down her name.

Up and that

2010-04-25T19:26:00.001+10:00

One of my new favourite t-shirts from our recent trip up north.
The image is a bit skew-iff, 'cause I took it while I was wearing it.

I wanted to post some shots of little Gum Nut (who is looking so cute with almost two wings worth of feathers and a little sticky-upy tail) but I've misplaced the thingamy-jig that I need to download images from my camera. So I can't show you our new wall either (it's very schmick, and best of all, it's finished, so we can finally resume planting the front garden). So I'll leave you with this piece of t-shirt wisdom instead, which seems a fitting sentiment for this day of remembrance

Lock me up

2010-04-18T15:53:00.004+10:00

Above: Garden wreckers Below: plants behind bars. Around the wrong way perhaps??

Chickens ruin your garden - it's that simple. No, actually, we're simple for letting them ruin the garden but we just can't seem to help ourselves. Grumpy about having to do the same things in the garden over and over 'cause we keep letting the chickens scratch around. Have I nothing better to do with my life? Oh sure, the little one is cute now but pretty soon she'll be using those cute little claws all over the garden just like the rest of them. Curse them!!! Why are they so damn adorable? Why?????????

Peep update

2010-04-17T13:22:00.004+10:00

Introducing...the newest addition to our brood, little Gum Nut!
Looks like we got another singleton but that's OK, we're happy just to have one more.
Here's hoping she's a hen!

Peep Peep Peep Peep!

2010-04-17T09:13:00.000+10:00

Friend or foe? This beautiful creature met me at the door yesterday morning.

We have a peep!! Just one so far, three more eggs to hatch. Looks like it might have hatched yesterday, little yellow fluff ball! No pics yet - Buff is still busy so I'll try get some later today. Ah that's lovely - thanks Chris!! More later.

---

Let their be light!

2010-04-11T19:46:00.005+10:00

Well it's quiet in the blogosphere. Maybe you're all out enjoying the change of seasons. I probably should be too - lots to do in the garden. I think I need a little break from the audit - we're pretty much done in the kitchen, aside from lovely Henrietta, who you can see in my header. And Beanie (well, that's what I call him).

Henrietta looking after our seedlings - cabbage, chard, broccoli - basically,
all the things the bugs like to eat before they can grow strong.

Here's Beanie. I think the artist forgot to paint his head, then decided she liked it like that.
More a balaclava than a beanie, but that's his name. A birthday present from a dear friend.

I can't quite believe how many chooky things I have left in my audit. Oh yes, there's more. But I think we need a break - or should I push on and dazzle you some more? You decide!!

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After starting this post this morning, I decided I needed some sunshine on my head and some dirt under my fingernails. So I left off and embarked on a cunning plan to chicken-proof the garden that I have been thinking about for some time. Yes, yes, I know, it's easier and cheaper to keep them locked up but we are terribly weak-willed when it comes to the girls, so after a trip to the landscape supplier to get some jute matting, I got stuck into saving my poor herb garden from the girls claws and while I was at it, the fruit trees too.

This is the best compost we've made - it's full of worms and lovely and crumbly.

The plan: sprinkle compost around the garden, cover it with jute matting, cut slits for the plants to grow through, peg it all down, water, and cover with mulch. So far, so good!

The pumpkin harvest begins.

Not all the corn was a complete failure!!

Tomatoes were pretty good in the end - the leftovers have gone into green tomato chutney

The joy of chickens

2010-04-10T11:23:00.016+10:00

Tea towels...chooky tea towels. And an apron. I do love them and that is something I'd happily have more of. The egg sign is one of the first chooky things I was given. And the memo chalk board is a recent gift that I'm still looking for the right home for.

No more chickens? Yeah, right. Who am I kidding? Especially when Buff is sitting on her little clutch of eggs (due to hatch next weekend/early week after next)(EXCITING!!). Here she is, refusing to roll the eggs under her while I was watching with camera in hand. Of course, as soon as I turned away she had already tucked two under. Not very cooperative at all Buffy!

Feeling rather tired today from our week of social activities. Also had the pleasure of having my girlfriend visit from the UK with her husband and brood. Needless to say the curiosity and joy that children experience, on seeing chickens, is not a reciprocal exchange...

Marjie escapes!

Lovely girls

Unless of course they are broody, then they really don't care what's happening.

Wild night out

2010-04-09T08:26:00.006+10:00

Oh yes, it's possible that every once in a while I have a wild night out. This time in Paddington, at a book shop I haven't visited in so long it was like a reunion with a long lost friend. Last night, dear friends, I had the pleasure of attending the Grand Purl Baa's book launch for Really Wild Tea Cosies

and it was a hoot!

And may I introduce to you none other than Pedro de la Panteloon! No surprises that this feathered/knitted chooky is definitely one of my favourites!

Congratulations Loani - much fun and laughter was had (and did I mention the cake? Oh my goodness the cake was good)(and poor Georgina, my kindred-spirit non-knitter, if you by chance are reading this I'm sorry for talking your ear off I think I was just a little bit over excited!!)

The egg

2010-04-04T10:10:00.000+10:00

Yes, the egg. Especially given it is the day of rolling eggs down the hill or of eating so much chocolate you'll puke.

Which reminds me....when I was little, we went to visit our Dad one Easter and each one of us got a box that had one large egg in it and a little tray of chocolates in the bottom. I distinctly remember two things about that day: 1. sneaking off with my brother to the rockery under the block of apartments and scoffing the lot in one go. 2. Dad finding out and going berko (berserk). I even remember trying to reshape the foil of the egg to make it look like I hadn't eaten it all but obviously it wasn't very convincing. Or maybe it was the chocolate all over our mouths, fingers (and clothes probably) that gave us away.

Another Easter Dad asked us what we wanted to do when we visited him and we conspiratorially had already decided the answer would be "Go to the Easter show!". Oh man did we have fun - we went on heaps of rides and we got three show bags each and it was probably the worst day of my Dad's life but we went nuts (and loved it). Thanks Dad!

Anyway, back to the eggs. We're still auditing you know. Um hm...now you're getting a feel for it, aren't you?

Left: From my uncle in Adelaide and right: From a girlfriend in the UK. I love my henny penny egg cup - we have little chats while I eat my egg from her cup in the morning and each time I admire her neat little shape and how like our hens she looks. A Cath Kidston creation I believe.

We've had a great weekend so far. My brother and his family came for lunch and a visit on Friday. His youngest daughter is coming on to ten months and we had lots of fun seeing her. Here she is with her aunty having a bath:

So cute!

Chicken or the egg

2010-03-27T10:43:00.001+11:00

Hmmm...which chook to entice you with next? Let me see...

It's Limoges, darling, by Picasso...

And if only my dear brother, who gave this to me (and his lovely partner), had photographed it - not the best shot, sorry. This fine fellow adorns one of our kitchen walls and was a gift for my mid-life-crisis birthday a little while back.

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Look what arrived in the post yesterday:

Fertile eggs!! I know, I know, it's stoopid of us but...Buff is on the brood again and I just couldn't resist the offer of a Barnevelder/Welsummer buddy for our Pumpkin (the girls tend to hang out by colour so poor Pumpkin is often on her own). Thanks Chris! After I've let these little treasures rest some more, I'll take them outside to present to our Mum-to-be. I don't know who will be more excited - her or us!

Chicken Little

2010-03-24T09:54:00.000+11:00

Merci (again) Ed and Cecile - another Frenchie

And counting...

Designer chooks

2010-03-22T10:28:00.007+11:00

Alessi egg holder

I can safely say that not much designer anything happens around the Fibro Majestic, with a few notable exceptions. This is one of my favourite things, chooky or otherwise, gifted by our jet-setting friends Ed and Cecile. Don't they have good taste? Sadly it doesn't fit into our small saucepan and we don't often have occasions to boil four eggs at once but with guests coming at Easter it will be used again soon.

And sitting in it is something we use all the time - our trusty Burton Egg-Perfect Colour Changing Egg Timer from Jack and Deb in Canberra. What a winner of a present that was! If you see them in a shop, grab two and make one of your friends a happy camper like me. Honestly, it's tops.

And in case you missed it, here's the Collectors segment on rare breeds of chickens. I think my favourite is the Phoenix - so beautiful and placid. Although it is hard to go past the pom-pom heads!

On ya!

2010-03-20T14:25:00.002+11:00

On ya fridge, that is. My Grandma covered her entire refrigerator in postcards and souvenir magnets, a practice I seem to have adopted. Most ambles around the countryside result in a new addition, usually from small country towns visited. So alongside the Big Merino and the Dog on the Tucker Box (to name a few), we have a few chooks:

Left: These chooks came from the UK and are also from my sister in law. Unfortunately they have taken the occasional dive from their perch and a few beaks have suffered as a consequence. Right: This lovely came all the way from India, via our Melbourne friends.

Also from Melbourne, this one is a gift from Ms Gidgetknits. It reminds me of the Kitten Kong episode from the Goodies. Beware the giant chicken people - this is what might happen if we keep breeding them wrong.

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Drewzel, this is the embroidery booklet I mentioned, in case you are reading:

It is yours if you would like it. And if anyone reading this would like a pile of vintage ('30s-'70s) knitting patterns for kids, I'm culling my stash. Just email me your address and I'll post them to you (chooksrus4 at gmail dot com).

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And, here is a picture of the Dome as it currently looks:

Completely covered in pumpkin vines! I really must take over some of the gardening!!

Ninja chicken meets the Queen & King...well, sort of

2010-03-18T22:37:00.006+11:00

Ninja Chicken fridge magnet, a chooky gift from Meg & Pat?
Yes, I think it was from Meg & Pat. Ninja chicken from ninja Meg.

Yes, dear readers, we are now entering the strange territory of the chicken magnet, having moved into the realm of the kitchen where will spend quite some time perusing the many and various chooky offerings to be had in this special domestic space. I hope you are ready.
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But before we do, here's a few more pics from our brief, but full, stint away up north where we were made welcome by none other than the Queen of Tea Cosies herself and the King of Fish (and all things Marine).

rain ponchos 'r 'us

The Tea Cosie Queen in her chair, knitting, of course

The King of Fish in his kitchen, cooking up a dinner that would make
your taste buds sigh...we are still reminiscing!

Wes aka Storm Kitty - "All whom I look upon will fear me" (and they did!)

Fresh

2010-03-16T19:58:00.003+11:00

All the way from the UK, this lovely retro-style mug is one of my favourites. You will have to wait for my egg cup 'collection' - we are still only in the dining room!

Well we are back from our jaunt up north and Oh. My. Goodness. Did. We. Have. Fun! It rained a lot but it didn't stop us having a great time. We ducked through the markets in rain ponchos, delighted over handmade goodies, ogled at the lush green of our rainforest surrounds, and were captivated by the hospitality of our friends who ferried us around, cooked us mouth-watering meals, and entertained us with hours of amusing and intelligent conversation. And even our flights took off and arrived on time. You can't ask for much better than that!

Here's a taste of what we saw:

A popular board-walk attraction. Yes, but look at the view will you!

We did a 6km walk through the national park. The grass trees are spectacular,
especially when you consider they grow about 1cm a year!

The serene surrounds we woke up to each day

with lots of laughter

This is as close as we came to meeting any chooks while we were away (something I do like to do while on holidays for some strange obsessive reason). The old Bush Turkey is not too popular with the Northerners and I guess if I lived up there I might agree but I was happy to meet this fellow.

Tea time*

2010-03-14T20:13:00.000+11:00

All the way from France, a duck for the lady and a rooster for the gentleman.
How very civilised. Merci Ed and Cecile!

One might think, seeing the above tableau of a tablecloth and cloth napkins, that we live to high standards at the Fibro Majestic. Sadly, not. With no children to corrupt we happily lick plates and nurse meals on our laps in front of the tellie. We do use our napkins, and the serviette rings, every day though - usually to clean the muck of my shirt that I've spilt while not paying attention to what I was eating. Usually a white shirt.
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While you are reading this I'm off to Queensland with M. to visit friends and family. It's what my friend living in the UK now calls a 'mini break' (instead of 'a weekend away' when she lived here). Either way, I'm mightily looking forward to it. Rain or no rain. Until next week then.

* What do you call the evening meal in your house - 'dinner' or 'tea'? We say 'tea' thanks mostly, I think, to my Grandma. I've been told that's a very English expression.

Happy hens

2010-03-12T10:27:00.006+11:00

Another gift from my Spanish friend. All the little chicks come out from under her wings. I love the fabric - she is from Guatemala.

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While I have some time on my hands, I thought I'd join Drewzel in the My Place and Yours meme. This week's theme: Behind the camera {a self portrait challenge}. The idea: Tell you a little about myself, let you peek through the window and see a small snippet of my life and who I am.

3am. I have a sore ear and haven't washed my hair for three days. I'm wearing M.'s bath robe 'cause it's old and big and like putting a blanket on. Me and the early hours have been making fine acquaintances of ourselves of late. Behind me is my favourite vintage pillowcase - blues, greens and purples like the wallpaper I had as a kid. The cup is one of a set given to me by my brother's partner - good for a late night hot chocolate to help coax the body back to sleep. And behind that is a 70s anodised orange lamp to write by. Sometimes it's better to get up and write things down. I'm thinking about the art of living - doing things, being active and taking part, going with it, getting out of the house, getting on with it. All the sorts of things you think about when you're not feeling 100%!

3pm. Hair still needs a wash but there's only me and the chooks to care. Antibiotics are kicking in and ear is MUCH better. How about those ~~hen's feet~~ laugh lines?! I hope I'm one of those old people with big deep crinkles all over my face from living life to the full.

Chickedy chicks

2010-03-11T09:58:00.000+11:00

Would it help if I said they were attached to a bottle of alcohol?

Just to refresh your memories, this is the 2010 chicken audit and we are still in the lounge room. Sure, you'd want to live here, wouldn't you? It's really not that scary.

Hit and miss

2010-03-10T11:23:00.002+11:00

I'm not sure if I can keep this up as a post-per day but we're on the road with the chooky audit so there's no going back. Here's one of my favourite things:

Chicken coop dominoes given to me by our lovely local friends. It was a big hit with my god daughter. You lay the dominoes down in the shape of chicken legs and the person who finishes first gets to hit the button in the middle. Lots of fun even without alcohol.

And on the gardening front, how's this for some corn growing:

March 2010 - a little bit better than our 2008 effort below but not much!

Soft smelly things

2010-03-09T10:00:00.022+11:00

Oh that could be so wrong, couldn't it? No, I mean these soft smelly things (they have lavender in them). I bought them as a housewarming present before we got the girls and as an auger of things to come ('cept the girls don't smell this nice).

Lavender ladies. What's missing? Oh yeah...

Your dandy man (a gift from another lovely sister in law) (I have 10 you know!)
(sisters in law, that is, not dandy men)

I meant to mention a story about one of those chicken bags (the one from the UK). I was in a garage talking to a mechanic about my sick car when a woman walking past spied my bag and cried out "I have a pair of pants just like your bag!!". The mechanic looked startled and I, well, I was lost for words. Chicken pants. That's one thing I don't have. Never say never, I suppose!

What's in your book bag?

2010-03-08T12:57:00.001+11:00

My Wendy book, gifted by one of the lovely folk in my reading group.

The book that started it all. Extraordinary indeed!!

This audit thing is a bit scary you know. I really hope I don't end up on Collectors one day, in a house full of chicken-themed objects. Not because I don't love these gifts but because if the house was full of chicken things then there's a good chance the bag lady of Lawson will have moved in and my tomato-growing beer-brewing husband will have moved out.

Bag lady

2010-03-07T10:00:00.106+11:00

Left to right: A Thai RSPCA bag featuring a lovely rooster brought back to Aus for me by friends in Melbourne. My handy chicken bag all the way from the UK given to me by my lovely sister in law.

Actually, I am a bit of a bag lady. I have quite a few stashes around the place that drive M. crazy. I blame my Grandma - she recycled everything. I just can't throw them out, I really can't. So now I hide them. If anything every happened to M. I could very well end up as the bag lady of Lawson. And I'd get a cat. Thinking about this the other day, I asked him what he'd do if anything happened to me. He said he'd brew beer and grow tomatoes. Ah dear I love that man.

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Just for something different, I thought I'd join Drewzel with this meme.

Currently I'm:
Watching :: Breaking Bad on ABC2 :: so very very wrong but oh so good!
Reading :: The Lovely Bones :: beautifully written
Making :: promises to make things
Eating :: cheesecake :: sometimes you just need it.
Feeling :: exhausted :: finishing off my work project - will it ever end? Half a day left to go
Thinking :: about our trip up north next weekend :: Can't wait!
Hoping :: that the year ends better than it started
Wondering :: when our wall will begin...
Hearing :: Ken Stringfellow and anything new I can get my ears on
Liking :: autumn approaching
Wanting :: to sleep
Playing :: with clay and some new ideas
Wishing :: for days where I don't have to be anywhere or do anything :: and for the pumpkins to die back so we can plant something else!
Enjoying :: time at home with M. and the girls :: cups of tea
Coveting :: full-grown fruit trees :: a garden big enough for a rooster :: creativity to spare :: a room with a view (a tree house, a house boat, a mountain chalet, a stone house by the sea, a yurt on a hillside, a house with a turret and a cellar...)

Play along if you'd like...what's on your mind?

The 2010 chicken audit

2010-03-06T12:49:00.014+11:00

The little boy saw dead people - I see chickens. Everywhere. How many are there? I wonder to myself. I only bought two. And so the chicken audit begins.* One a day, til I'm done. Starting in the lounge room. Are you ready? *PS I started at 7, so as to include the girls (only fair they get counted too!)

Behold, the Portuguese chicken toy, gifted by my Spanish friend, chosen by her 4yr old daughter in a market in Portugal, and enjoyed by visitors small and large. But not the chooks - totally freaked them out, even with sultanas to entice them to play.

Tuesday Wednesday

2010-03-03T05:11:00.004+11:00

Jeff Luker via Detour

Monday Monday

2010-03-01T07:54:00.001+11:00

Found at Made by Joel

Day 7: A week of happy...home

2010-02-27T19:26:00.000+11:00

Oh what a long week this has been! I have been in Sydney since Sunday morning and today just couldn't get out of bed. Despite being in a stupour of tiredness, I somehow managed to make these, my favourite semi-dried tomatoes with garlic and herbs. Yuuuummmm!!

Pure bottled sunshine!

Oven on 50 degrees
Cut your tomatoes in half and place face down on a flat oven tray greased with oil
Sprinkle with crushed garlic, fresh herbs from the garden, sea salt & cracked pepper
Put in the oven for 3 hours
Sterilise jars and fill with dried tomatoes. Top up with olive oil.
Keep in the fridge.

Lovely on fresh bread, stirred into pasta, on baked potatoes, as a sauce for roast chicken....endless happiness to be had.

and that's every last bit of energy I have. Back to the couch to finish my book and catch up on some tellie. Happy Saturday to you and yours.

Day 6: A week of happy...feet

2010-02-20T19:09:00.001+11:00

Ok, so this is a catch up post, there being seven days in a week and all, and this being the sixth.

I don't know if this is a terribly daggy thing to 'fess up to or not, and obviously I don't really care if it is or I wouldn't be posting about it, but when my brother gave me his compilation of favourites from 2009, and I heard this song, I fell in love with it myself! After watching the clip just now it's clear Melody and I don't have much in common. She doesn't have the same problem I have with her glasses fogging up in the bath for one thing, and I don't recall ever having had a dozen men dancing around me in top hats while having a soak, but...when I hear this song, I just feel like swanning around the house in a top hat myself. I don't know what the neighbours thought when I came home all hot and sweaty from a walk yesterday only to start dancing around the backyard waving my arms (it was on my headphones after all). The chickens didn't like it, that's for sure.

I did dancing from when I was 6 or 7 until I was 17 (not that you could tell) and just lately I'm thinking I'd like to do it again. To get fit and to have fun. So I'm on the look out for classes for adults. Until then I'm sliding around the house in my socks like an idiot having a great ol' time. Can you wear your pyjamas to dance classes? God I hope so...

Day 5: A week of happy...drawing

2010-02-20T18:26:00.002+11:00

Alas, not mine. I love the creative output of the little people in my life and this grinning cat is a favourite that I have by my desk - every time I look at it I can't help but smile back!

Now that work is finishing I intend to start drawing again - no excuses not to, unless of course I get carried away doing things around the house like sewing something from my fantastic fabric stash. I have to say I don't like having a stash - I want to see it all transformed and useful (as well as lovely).

I had some 'wine time', minus the wine (?!), with the girls last night. Sitting on the grass enjoying the close of the day while they scratched around me. Here they are in all their glory - Marjie and Buff are moulting so they look a bit shabby and poor Violet just couldn't get close enough for me to take a pic. I do love my girls and they make me VERY happy.

Day 4: A weeek of happy...stuff

2010-02-19T13:24:00.001+11:00

I know it shouldn't, but stuff makes me happy. Especially stuff that has been pre-loved and passed on. Two things that came home with me this week:

I'm a bit behind on the happy week, having been caught up at work finishing my project off. It's so weird to be filing and packing after three and a half years but hopefully new horizons will open up for me soon. My parking fairy is my general bringer of good things - she has multi-tasked for me in the past, so I'm hoping she'll come through again with something spectacular. In the meantime, one week to go til I'm foot-loose and fancy-free, as my Grandma used to say.

Sheesh, I can't believe I'm alone in the Elvis fandom - come on, fess up!

Day 3: A week of happy...songs

2010-02-17T21:22:00.009+11:00

Sometimes it's the small things that make me happy. Like driving home...

...singing along with Elvis at the top of my voice where no one can hear me.

Yep, that's happy stuff!

Personal favourites are: If I can dream (above), The Wonder of You, Kentucky Rain, Love Me Tender, oh the list is too long!

Day 2: A week of happy...holidays

2010-02-15T19:00:00.004+11:00

I'm out of a job. No, you're right, that's not happy. Not happy at all. I can't say I'm thrilled but looking on the bright side, it means I can take a mini-holiday. In less than a month, M and I are going north...a long way north, in fact:

Woo hoo!!

Day 1: A week of happy...starts now!

2010-02-14T21:51:00.066+11:00

Happy Mass-Commercialism Day!

And before you think I'm just saying that 'cause I didn't get any flowers - wrong! I got this lovely flower from a stall-holder at the Blackheath Growers Market:

Oh now that's my kind of flower!! What to stuff it with? Hmmm...

In honour of this special day I spent the afternoon mucking out the Summer Palace and giving the girls lovely new bedding and a bit of mulch to scratch around in and some new nesting straw. I filled up their grain and cleaned out their water and wiped down their perch and ladder. What with the rain and the mud and the straw and the poo, by the time I finished I looked like the Creature from the Black Lagoon!

Feels like ages since I've had a good play in the garden. The girls were very helpful, backfilling every hole we dug and excavating every one we filled. What would we do without them? It was almost as much fun as the Doctor Who special - well, maybe not the mucking-out bit. How happy can a girl be with David Tennant and John Simm in one fabulous episode? Answer: very happy indeed!

Anyone would think I have a thing for tall skinny men. Hang on a minute...

Night all

Go nuts

2010-02-14T09:30:00.003+11:00

Pests? What pests? Our first hazlenuts - yah!!

Just a quickie - I'm off to the Blackheath Growers Market for a bit of conviviality and gourmet indulgence. Starting ~~tomorrow~~ [tonight] I'm going to be doing a week of happy - posting every day for the week something that makes me happy. If you'd like to join in, leave a comment and I'll post a list so visitors can have as much happy as they can stomach for the next seven days.

Of tree and stone

2010-02-12T12:12:00.002+11:00

The rain has paused (sorry everyone waiting for rain) and we've started to survey the damage. Sadly, we've lost my favourite tree, lovingly planted three years ago and the first tree of our trees to go in. It's a silky hakea, a beautiful Australian native with delicate pink flowers in Winter and a great hiding place for the tiny birds we get up here (Rock Warbler? or honey eater?) (smaller than my thumb). In the rain the hakea looks like a chandelier, with droplets of water hanging from each spiky leaf. But alsas, with too much rain hanging on the branches, it has split in half and the broken branch has taken a huge chunk out of the remaining upright branch.

Probably not the best plant to have close by where we walk (unless you like brushing up against needles) and actually, it is making me rethink whether we should put in the other two waiting to go in when the wall - if the wall - ever gets finished. So far, it looks like this:

What started off as a fairly simple desire for a 1950s style crazy-paved low front wall to fit in with the era of the Fibro Majestic turned into something else entirely when we got talking to Max, a local stonemason who had other ideas. It was also hard to resist Max's stories of the 90 year old supplier he gets the rock from who insists on quarrying it alone, in a secret location somewhere west of the mountains, only calling on his son and grandson to truck it out when he's done. Apparently in his younger years he worked on bullock teams! The rock arrived just before Christmas and Max's brand new baby girl arrived on Boxing Day so it'll be a little while yet before things get started. But given the wall will be there for a long time to come, we're not in much of a hurry.

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PS hello to my new readers - hope you find things to amuse and interest you here and I look forward to poking around your blogs soon

Let them eat cake!

2010-02-07T17:00:00.003+11:00

Well, I know it didn't go down well at the time, to tell the starving masses to go eat cake, but I love cake and I'd happily eat it every day. I'm not a big fan of the chocolate cake, although one of my reading group buddies made a delicious chocolate slice with almond meal this week and wow, it was melt in your mouth good without being sickly sweet. My favourite type of cake is more plain - sponge, butter cake, banana cake, apple cake, lemon cake oh dear I love cake, I really do.

So in this time of general lethargy, I've been doing a bit of baking. Mainly because a dear friend made a fantastic cake to celebrate the Epiphany this year then wouldn't give me the recipe. She likes the fact she has a cake I love that she can make for me. I like that too but I also like that I have a recipe I love that I can make for me. So...I've been scouring my cook books for what I think is her secret recipe and I reckon after a few trials and errors I've cracked it. I did take a picture of the glorious finished product but I wiped it off the camera and now it's half eaten but at least you can see the texture (mmmm it's good).

And before you think I'm going to scoff the lot, I do plan to take some next door to my elderly neighbour who doesn't seem to be eating well since her husband recently died. Or maybe I'll make her a fresh one, after all this was an experiment...

Here's the recipe ('cause I'd like you to treat yourself):

Lemon yogurt cake
I use a fancy ring tin but you can make it in a loaf (22 x 13cm)

4oz (125g) of butter
3/4 cup of caster sugar
3 eggs
finely grated peel of one lemon [edit: second time around I added 2tbs of the juice plus rind]
3/4 cup plain yogurt [edit: I tried it again with 1 cup and it is much more moist]
2 cups self raising flour, sifted

- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. I've recently picked up a few tips on this: leave the butter out until it is soft at room temperature (not melted) and if you've got a mixer, leave it beating on high for at least 10 minutes and add the sugar slowly then leave beating for another 10 minutes. I know it sounds like a long time but I've tried this a few times now and it seems to make a big difference).

- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition
- Gently fold in the lemon peel, yogurt and sifted flour ( I used a slotted spoon - another new tip - for the folding and it works well, keeping the mixture nice and airy)
- Spoon into the tin and bake in a preheated oven at 160 degrees for 45 minutes.
-cool on a wire rack.

Icing
I don't usually bother with icing but I had some nice organic passion fruit so I used that but you could do a simple lemon one:
1 tablespoon of plain yogurt or lemon juice
1/2 cup icing sugar
some grated lemon rind sprinkled on top

Bon appetite!

City Chicks comes to the Blue Mountains!

2010-02-07T10:22:00.004+11:00

Just goes to show, if you have a good idea, you should do something about it before someone else does! While we were enjoying M's baking efforts over breakfast this morning, I found this in our local paper:

Well, at least we have somewhere to get organic feed from close to home now!

And how's this for a bit of breadmaking:

With our weekend plans postponed due to the heavy rain, we're having an inside day baking and reading. I found a link online last year to no-kneed bread and my goodness, it really is very simple - anyone can do it!

One extreme to another

2010-02-06T16:34:00.005+11:00

I don't know - one day it's so hot I come home drenched in sweat with a brain like soup and the next day we are having landslides with blankets of rain (we got 90mms in the Blue Mountains according to tonights news!!) washing half the garden away. I know it's wrong to complain about being bucketed on from a great height while others are measuring the down pour incrementally and looking at dry wilted gardens but I'd be happy to share it. The garden is sodden, the girls are sodden, the washing won't dry, the driveway has been converted into a pond and as the rainy days continue, I'm thinking about getting some ducks to put in it.

This morning M and I went to a workshop at the Katoomba Community Garden on pests and disease in fruit and nut trees in the Blue Mountains. As you know we've had some problems with the almond and now the hazelnuts are being attacked. We got some tips on what might be the problems there and some other general tips that'll I'll share. But first, what I loved about this morning:

I love the sense of community embodied in these events - there is nothing quite like the generosity of spirit of people taking the time to share their knowledge and experience and expertise with others - raining or not.
Which brings me to my next point: I love that it was pouring down rain and the little enclosure in the garden where we all met was packed-out with standing room only. Seems there was no way we were going to let a rainy day get in the way of such an important event - it was gum boots and brollies at ten paces while we all listened attentively.
The gardens are a labour of love and I really want to get more involved in them.

I've been telling myself for a while now that when we have our own garden going then I will volunteer for the community garden and for some bush regeneration work. I keep telling myself that when I'm not bound to work in Sydney and can spend more time in my community I'll have the energy to spend on that sort of thing. But now I'm thinking that being part of all that would probably help get the garden going and give me the energy and enthusiasm I'm missing, so really, there is no time like the present. I'd love to use my project management skills to get some things up and running in the mid-mountains community. There! I've said it now. That's about as close to a new year's resolution as I'll go.

Most of the talk this morning was about integrated pest management (combination of site planning before you plant, soil quality, and natural predators and companion plants) - all useful to know. Some other random tips I came away with today were these:

To make up for a zinc deficiency in your citrus trees - get a zinc roofing nail and nail it into the lower trunk of the tree. The plant will take the zinc it needs from the nail and one nail is enough for a lifetime of deficiency. Ours are a bit little for that so we might put a few in the soil around them instead.
The best mulch for around trees is woody mulch, not straw. Woody mulch has the right bacteria and fungi in it that help prevent pests on your trees while straw is more suited to vegies.
You can wrap some trees in bubble-wrap if they aren't really suited to your region in winter and this keeps the frost and cold out (e.g. lime trees). We don't have any trees here like that but I thought it was a good tip.
You can stop some grubs crawling up your trees by greasing the inside of a bit of corrugated cardboard and putting it around the base of the tree at the end of Spring, beginning of Autum. The grubs think the cardboard is bark and congregate on the greasy bit and you can remove the whole lot. Mind you, chooks work pretty well for this sort of grub if the trees are old enough to be scratched around.

I had some nice pics of the gardens in the rain but I just accidentally wiped them off my camera instead of downloading them. So here's some of the trouble-makers, who love to congregate on the back veranda when we're at home and they are free to wander. It's only a matter of time before they move in.

Yes?

Someone is moulting. Who could it be?

Who me? Moulting? No you must be mistaken.

So while we're all here - got any snacks?

Garden extension

2010-01-17T19:40:00.005+11:00

We've run out of room in the back garden to plant all the trees we want. As a work around we've espaliered trees, planted dwarf heirloom varieties, and trees grafted with two varieties...but the hankering for more trees just won't go away.

There's always been a bit of demarcation between 'the front' and 'the back' - natives in the former (no chicken access) and productive veg garden (mostly) in the latter. The back gets all the morning sun and the front gets the harsh afternoon sun so we don't spend much time out there. There is a little bit of grass left outside the front door - mainly because one day we have plans to extend our tiny house that way. But when I was thinking about that recently, I thought it is actually a waste to leave it bare for something that might (or might not) happen years down the track. So that got the brain working...

...and when the rest of Grandma's outdoor furniture arrived, and we remembered the old sun umbrella we'd rescued from M.'s mum and dad, well, things just started to take shape.

We now have somewhere for the beer ambulance to park out the front.

A new home for our bay tree and a pomegranate.

And at long last a St Dominique Violette fig and Manzanillo Olive. Yah!!

And if one day we build a yurt or an underground mud house or even something as pedestrian as an extra room on the Fibro Majestic, we can move the beautiful trees and maybe plant them. And now that's done, there's a little square just in front that I think would make a lovely berry garden...but first we have to get the wild wood under control again.

Happy gardening all.

The humble flower - part 1

2010-01-16T09:00:00.006+11:00

I thought I would share some pics of flowers growing in the wilds of our garden that are bringing me some peaceful pleasure at the moment. Enjoy.

Sunny sunflowers

Hiding their sunny heads from the birds

Ever wondered what an artichoke flower looks like?

Magnificant, no? (said with a french accent)

Random purple flower...holly hock? I'm not too good with the imports.

Chicken-proof flower (in case you thought it was a metaphor for caged beauty, you poet, you)

Why are hydrangeas always more lovely when they come from your Mum's garden?