A Special Sunday

It has been a long day in the sense that we seem to have done a lot! The FGs and I were at church bright and early, then we had to go on a quick shopping trip. It was the kind of trip that I hate to make - one caused by my own lack of organisation and foresight - we were having roast lamb for lunch and had no mint sauce and lamb without mint sauce is unthinkable, so I had to go to the local shops and get some, along with some other bits and bobs! Another reason not to do that kind of shopping. We live and learn. My uncle came to share lunch with us and celebrate his recent birthday, which was lovely. During the afternoon, I made him a cake and we had that at teatime.

This is a picture of the YFG and her friend who came back again today. They had a great afternoon, painting their faces, playing on Nintendos, on the trampoline and in this fab den that they made adjoining a rabbit run! You can just see that they are in there, comfortably set up with rugs, blankets and their sandwiches. The rabbit out there with them is the mother of these two:

It is hard to see the colours in this picture, but one is black/white and the other is grey/white. They are SO cute. They are the two that are remaining from the litter of four she had recently. They appear to be well and healthy, and are now eating solid food and drinking from the water bottle. We put the mother out on the grass so she could have a break from them and also so that she could have the opportunity to eat some grass.

Tess of the D'Urbevilles has just finished on the TV - the second part of four and I am now wondering if I can find a copy of the book and catch up before next week. I did read some Thomas Hardy at school but not this, and it is addictive - I need to know what is going to happen. The costumes and settings in the series are fantastic - but I can't comment on the closeness of the filming to the original book until I have read it.

We are now getting ready to prepare the first two cockerels for the table - we have been advised that it is best if they have their last food about 12 hours before they are killed, so the two that we have chosen have been separated from the flock, so that they didn't eat the second feeding today. I am confident that they have had the best life that we could give them, which has been miles better than that of the intensively reared "2 for £6" kind of chicken found in the supermarkets. We are hoping that they taste good and are keen to know how much they weigh once they are at the "oven-ready" stage, so that we can compare what they have cost us with how much a similar bird from a shop would have cost if we had chosen to buy one reared in a "happy" environment. We'll let you know later.