So much to say, where to start?!?!

Last Wednesday, I thought that I would take the FGs to Church Farm at Stow Bardolph, just north of Downham Market on the A10. However, we stopped en route in DM to go to the famous shoe shop where we got the YFG's winter boots. The same wonderful woman, Tracy, was in the shop, and she remembered the YFG's funny feet and helped us to find some summer school shoes for her. We eventually came out with a pair of black Primigi Italian leather shoes for £36, which I was pleased with, price-wise, having expected Italian soft leather to be more expensive. All this retail therapy meant that it was 1.30 by the time we got to the farm, and I was loath to pay £17.50 for the three of us to go in there for just a couple of hours, when I could see from the car park that the place was packed out and there would be queues everywhere. So, we travelled along the A10 a little further and went to Ely. The EFG has been studying Oliver Cromwell in history, so we went to the Oliver Cromwell house/museum in Ely for a good hour's mooch round. It was fascinating, and good for education as well as interest. After that, we had a wander through the city streets and walked back to the car via the ice cream van and the cathedral, where I took these photos.

This one is (I think) the south side of the cathedral, and the YFG is posing there to show just how HUGE it is!

We do like to go into the cathedral and have a look round, but they charge £4 per person, so we make an occasion of it when we do go in. We are going to a service there at the beginning of May so we are looking forward to that already.

The "girls" were happily waiting for their breakfast this morning when I took this shot from the roof of the hen house - it was the best place to get a decent picture of them all, but it was a teeny bit precarious up there... They just love to scratch around in the straw for their corn, and have enormous fun running after bits of bread that we chuck in as a treat for them some days.

Here is the nest that one of the Dutch bantams made - she had sneaked away and found this incredibly tight spot between some bags of fire wood, lined a hollow with dead grasses and bits of straw, and laid 10 eggs! With no resident cockerel with which to consort, these weren't going to hatch for her, so I have bought half a dozen Silver Wyandotte bantam eggs for her to sit on, from a breeder on ebay, so I hope they hatch as the postage cost more than the eggs!

These are the eggs, just as they arrived on Wednesday morning - we put them under her on Wednesday evening and moved her into a proper broody house so she and the eggs are safe, and the chicks will be enclosed there with her once they hatch out.

And these are some of the gloriously varied eggs which are being laid by our lovely girls - don't they look great?

This is the chocolate-sponge, fondant iced creation that the YFG made all on her own for Easter. She ate the last bit this afternoon. It was all her own work and design - well done!

More photos coming soon!