A day of waiting......and waiting!

The chick is still alone as none of his "siblings-to-be" have hatched out yet.

And a disaster has struck: the lamp we use to keep the chicks warm has broken, so we had a little problem there. This chick really needed to be taken out of the incubator tonight and given food and water, but without the lamp, we were stumped - until I thought of using the spare incubator! He is now in there, with the temperature a little lower and with some food and water. It will have to do temporarily overnight until we can obtain another lamp tomorrow. He seems to be a healthy and sturdy little chap (I am presuming male for the sake of not calling the chick an "it") and I hope he goes on well.

The YFG has been out for the day with her friend M from gymnastics whose birthday it is today. They and three more little girls have been to the "snozone" at Milton Keynes to do some ice-sliding: apparently, they sat on big rubber rings and went down a sort of bobsleigh run/channel. Sounds hairy to me, but her face was a happy one when she popped in on her way back to M's house. I had had a text to ask if she could go for a sleepover with M tonight, so I agreed and they called in on their way home to pick up her PJs and toothbrush! I'll retrieve her at some point tomorrow morning.

Am I addicted???

I feel as if I might be! To what, you ask - chickens and eggs, is the answer. I am spending too much time browsing ebay looking for new and unusual breeds of chickens for which people are offering hatching eggs. I bought 6 Gold Partridge Orpington eggs at the weekend, which arrived yesterday and are going into the incubator tonight, and since I am going to have to run the second incubator, well, it might as well be full, mightn't it? So I am looking for another half dozen to go in there with them.....had my eye on some Lavender Orpingtons last night, but missed them by a pound; there are three more lots on there tonight, so I will be trying to get some of those, without going over my self-imposed limit!

We are also going to put the three older Buff Orpingtons into the Autumn Show at the East of England showground on 11th October - we've never shown any before but these look so lovely that I thought I'd have a go - they won't win anything as I haven't a clue how to present them for showing but hopefully we'll learn from the experience and find out more on the day. There are sure to be lots of people around who will be happy to tell us what to do.

The YFG had her friend H round to sleep over again last night - it was more successful this time, and they slept in the motorhome in the garden. We all got up late this morning and have had a general pottering day. FH's cousin and his cousin's wife have been here this afternoon and evening, bringing the birthday gifts for the girls, and we have been making plans for the EFG's birthday on Friday: I have to make the cake tomorrow so that she can ice it, and we are taking her friend S to the cinema on Friday afternoon.

Tomorrow we are going to see my dad and have lunch with him, and then go and catch up with a friend who lives in the same town who I haven't seen for about a year - shamefully! She has been busy and I have been too, and our lives have drifted apart from the way we used to be, but we are both excited about getting together for the afternoon tomorrow. Might even have to bake a cake to take along - must get up earlier tomorrow with all this baking to get done.

And last night, I had to buy eggs! My girls are all (well, nearly all) taking a break from laying; they managed three between them today and that just isn't enough. Thankfully, Sainsbury's have some very reasonable free range eggs so we bought some of those. I'll be glad when the newer hens start to come into lay!

Birthday girl

Yesterday was the YFG's tenth birthday - and she made the most of it: she was up and opening presents by 7am, bathed and dressed and out rollerblading round the estate by 8am! Then she had to stop for a bacon roll, and catch her breath.

I made her a madeira cake the night before and then yesterday morning, I put a layer of white roll-out icing over it as a base, and she went to town decorating it. She really enjoyed doing it and wanted me out of her way!

At 12, we picked her friend H up and went to Peterborough to Planet Ice for the ice-skating treat. H was rather timid on the ice to start with, edging her way round, holding on, but she soon gathered her courage and went out into the middle. YFG just flew around, and really surprised me. They had a wonderful time and we stayed right up until the last minute when the rink closed at 4pm - they were almost the only children on the ice at the end and the YFG thought that was amazing - to have the rink almost to themselves was bliss. YFG thought that we should go more often - she has only been three times in her life, so that wouldn't be difficult!

We came home and they played whilst I put the pizza in the oven and then we ate. The birthday cake was pudding, and then they went on the trampoline, rollerbladed outside and eventually collapsed to watch a DVD sometime later. H stayed the night, and then they played a lot more today. This afternoon I took them both to the swimming pool for an hour (free for U16s) whilst I raided Sainsbury's for dishwasher cleaner and more sugar for MORE jam!!