Work, play and chickens

Another week goes past and I'm sat down on Sunday afternoon to quickly write one of these updates for all you lovely people to read. We've just been out to do the watering round and it started raining almost immediately; we stopped watering and it has stopped raining. That is magic that is.

Having lunch with Chaz

First sight of the new additions to our family

Little bundles of fluff running around

Kit keeping a beady eye on us

Ten bundles of joy in their coop

Wednesday I was out all day driving across town to see my accountant to file my books for last year; I drove for nearly three hours to spend twenty minutes paying an admin fee and passing the papers to a girl in an office and that was me done; it wasn't a waste of time totally, however, as I got to catch up with Chaz over lunch and that was a pleasure. He had been working hard and getting out for a bit was a benefit to him also. While I was out all sorts of excitement occurred as Kit, our chicken sitting on 13 eggs, had ten of them hatch out. A was super excited and took loads of pictures and I must admit that when I got home I spent a fair amount of time watching the little bundles of fluff as they peeped and hopped about. So cute!

Strange wavy sky

Zoomed in and then photoshop edited for contrast

The proud mother with her chicks

Thelma and Louise checking out the new chicks

New growth on one of the Olive trees

Poppies have sprung up everywhere again

Flowers that A planted last  year have come back also

A strawberry nearly ripe for the picking

The first tomato; we have lots coming now

After the relatively nice weather on Wednesday there was a change and it was very overcast and grey on Thursday. The clouds were a very interesting shape, very distinct curving waves that were unlike anything I've ever seen before. A was so very busy with her job and couldn't get away from her desk for any period of time; I finished the weeding in the garden (a very satisfying feeling indeed) and also distracted myself with the chicks for quite a while. Thelma and Louise aren't yet sure how to react to them with Louise being the most interested. She loves watching them and I'm sure nothing good would come of her catching one. I took a nice stroll around the garden to get pictures of things growing including a surprise with another of the olive trees showing new growth. We have loads of poppies all over the place, strawberries, tomatoes and lots of peas. That night I had the pleasure of cooking for us as well and made the Spicy Pork Pasta, recipe behind the link.

Beautiful start to the day

Sat together on the floor of the balcony

Louise and Sassy nose to nose

Very strong smelling garlic

Some miniatures I am painting

The cafe was quite busy, though the temperature had dropped

Lovely hot chocolates that went down very fast

Friday was a complete contrast and it was so lovely we went onto the balcony for our brew. I decided to get Sassy out of her run for the first time and she hopped around very happily, not even minding every time the puppies went over to say hello. It was a glorious warm start to the day and very enjoyable to spend it sat there. I was doing a bit of modelling as I hadn't done any for a week so A went outside and harvested our garlic; this is now hung up downstairs to dry. We had some post to collect so went to town together and stopped for a lovely hot chocolate in a cafe in the centre; it's so important that we get out and don't just spend time at home and this was lovely.

Two very excited puppies with their new rope toy

Louise doing her parrot impression

The post had included a parcel with a new toy for Thelma and Louise after the last tug toy was just way too big for them. Thelma in particular was over-the-moon with this new addition to her collection but since then Louise has also shown a huge interest in playing with it - I think the tassles at the end are perfect for her. Rambo, therefore, got to have the huge rope toy and was pulling both puppies and A along the patio. He also loves it so everyone is happy. The coolness of the day passed and it ended up being a stunningly warm afternoon and evening which we spent sat on the balcony. Unfortunately our patio table, so lovingly and carefully varnished by A, has broken once more so I need to fix it again and this meant we couldn't eat outside.

A bee flies past a second bee sat in the poppy flower

Pond draining into the (unfinished) trench

Helping A out with shifting the old hay

Kit and two chicks

Yesterday was also a lovely day and we got our morning chores completed quickly so we could go out on an explore. I emptied the duck pond while A swept out the chicken house and then I helped to remove the old hay and spread it outside. While I was cooking us breakfast to eat after this A snapped some excellent pictures of Kit with her chicks.

Beautiful view up the valley

The path we were signposted to follow

This was very steep to climb

Looking across the deep valley at the castle

One day maybe we'll get over there

The puppies just want to play with a stick they found

Looking across at our failed objective

The bleached tortoise shell with a strange hole in it

Clambering back down

Thelma's "PLEASE PLAY WITH ME!" face

This done it was time for us to head out and we drove Pat towards a castle that we wanted to find, through some stunning scenery. We parked up next to the "1 km that way" sign and started walking up the hill. Google maps told us the direction we needed to take and the logging track we were on wasn't heading that way so after a while we cut up through the forest towards the top and, hopefully, the castle. When we finally reached the ridge we found that there was a precipitous drop into a deep valley and across this, unreachable, was the castle. We sat for a bit on the slab of rock, playing with the puppies (who don't care about falling) and then made our careful way back down the steep slope back to Pat. On the way we found an old tortoise shell which had a hole punched into it; man-made or a bird beak, I wasn't sure. We drove on a bit further up the road but couldn't see a more obvious turning to take us past that valley so we're none the wiser for how to get to that castle; we'll be back, though. We got home in time for lunch, having stopped to shop briefly on the way back, and spent the afternoon chilling out, though I did a little bit of scenery work on a display board. After dinner we settled to watch another Bond and Thelma was desperate to be played with some more - the faces she pulls.

Having a fight in our game

A lovely looking cake

And so we get to today. This morning A popped out to get some shopping while I did the humanure, put up a magnetic knife strip in the kitchen as a surprise for her, did the washing up then went upstairs to start this. I got the video above edited and then sat on the sofa and cuddled the puppies and fell asleep. Awesome. We had decided that today we were going to play a game, having not done one for a while, and that has taken up most of the afternoon and we are still only half way through. We have decided to leave it for a bit as we were getting tired and we may go back to it later. A has just decorated a cake she has made which I think we will be giving to the Little Lady. The sun is now out, the threatened 11mm of rain just hasn't fallen, and we're going to have to go out and finish our watering round now. Typical.

So there you are; chicken roast is cooking and will be ready soon and we're going to head over to the neighbours with the cake.