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.
Showing posts with label chickens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chickens. Show all posts
Saturday, 29 August 2009
An early visitor
The FH crept out of bed in the early hours (well, it was early to me, but it may have been 6ish) and came back to say that we have one hatchling!
He said it was black, so I presumed it to be a Cuckoo Maran, but on looking myself and noting the position of the egg in the incubator, it is in fact a Gold Laced Orpington, so I guess it will lighten up a little as it dries and then as it grows.
It is exhausted from its struggle to get out of the egg, so it is just lying there most of the time, as its plumage is drying out from the egg. How exciting, though, to have one hatched, and still the hope of more to come today and perhaps even into tomorrow. Can't take photos in the incubator as I mustn't take the lid off or the humidity will drop....
He said it was black, so I presumed it to be a Cuckoo Maran, but on looking myself and noting the position of the egg in the incubator, it is in fact a Gold Laced Orpington, so I guess it will lighten up a little as it dries and then as it grows.
It is exhausted from its struggle to get out of the egg, so it is just lying there most of the time, as its plumage is drying out from the egg. How exciting, though, to have one hatched, and still the hope of more to come today and perhaps even into tomorrow. Can't take photos in the incubator as I mustn't take the lid off or the humidity will drop....
Friday, 28 August 2009
Cracks?
No, not a one, yet! Disappointing, but there's always tomorrow.....
Just cooking the risotto for supper - red peppers from the greenhouse, courgette from the garden, onion from a friend's allotment and garlic from Sainsbury - along with the rice, and veg stock; it smells good already. I have decided to serve the chicken cold on the side rather than incorporating it into the risotto as there isn't a lot of it and that way I will have more portion control. There was more chicken last night, but it seems to have been picked at a little over the course of the day!
I saw the Economy Gastronomy book in Sainsbury's today for £12.99 so I spent £10 of my nectar rewards on it (well, towards it!) and got it. I have had a look through it over a cup of tea and there are a lot of good ideas in there - and more than just recipes: how to stock a larder, items you shouldn't really buy (like ready made mash), how to shop efficiently, etc - the sorts of things that they are trying to cover in the programme but in more depth. There isn't a lot that is new to me in that, but I think it would be useful for people who hadn't been brought up to do that sort of thing. The recipes are the attraction for me, and there are some interesting ones in there which I shall be trying. Not this weekend, though, as I have lent it out already to my friend and neighbour D to peruse over the weekend. She accepted it with some joy this evening so I think she was pleased with my offer.
My bargain of the day (I'll take a photo when I have washed it all) is a dinner service from a charity shop. We have needed some new plates and dishes for some time as ours are getting chipped badly, so when I saw this all for £20 I bought it: 4 mugs, 8 large dishes and 2 smaller ones, 9 side plates and 9 dinner plates. I was pleased with that find, but it took some hauling back to the car!
I also made these (bread rolls) today, and put half in the freezer. If you try them, please bear in mind that the recipe says to let them rise for 15 minutes once you have shaped them into rolls - it just isn't long enough! I left them for nearly three hours whilst we were out, and they have come up as lovely, light rolls which the family adore. I also made 16 instead of 12 and they are a good size. A recommended recipe.
I am hoping that the weather bucks up for the Bank Holiday weekend as today has been very "sunshine and showers" and there was a spell at about 5pm when it became very blustery and cold. We can do without that kind of thing in August, thank you very much! However, I have got my fingers crossed for some kind of an Indian summer once the kids are back at school - a sunny September would be lovely.
Just cooking the risotto for supper - red peppers from the greenhouse, courgette from the garden, onion from a friend's allotment and garlic from Sainsbury - along with the rice, and veg stock; it smells good already. I have decided to serve the chicken cold on the side rather than incorporating it into the risotto as there isn't a lot of it and that way I will have more portion control. There was more chicken last night, but it seems to have been picked at a little over the course of the day!
I saw the Economy Gastronomy book in Sainsbury's today for £12.99 so I spent £10 of my nectar rewards on it (well, towards it!) and got it. I have had a look through it over a cup of tea and there are a lot of good ideas in there - and more than just recipes: how to stock a larder, items you shouldn't really buy (like ready made mash), how to shop efficiently, etc - the sorts of things that they are trying to cover in the programme but in more depth. There isn't a lot that is new to me in that, but I think it would be useful for people who hadn't been brought up to do that sort of thing. The recipes are the attraction for me, and there are some interesting ones in there which I shall be trying. Not this weekend, though, as I have lent it out already to my friend and neighbour D to peruse over the weekend. She accepted it with some joy this evening so I think she was pleased with my offer.
My bargain of the day (I'll take a photo when I have washed it all) is a dinner service from a charity shop. We have needed some new plates and dishes for some time as ours are getting chipped badly, so when I saw this all for £20 I bought it: 4 mugs, 8 large dishes and 2 smaller ones, 9 side plates and 9 dinner plates. I was pleased with that find, but it took some hauling back to the car!
I also made these (bread rolls) today, and put half in the freezer. If you try them, please bear in mind that the recipe says to let them rise for 15 minutes once you have shaped them into rolls - it just isn't long enough! I left them for nearly three hours whilst we were out, and they have come up as lovely, light rolls which the family adore. I also made 16 instead of 12 and they are a good size. A recommended recipe.
I am hoping that the weather bucks up for the Bank Holiday weekend as today has been very "sunshine and showers" and there was a spell at about 5pm when it became very blustery and cold. We can do without that kind of thing in August, thank you very much! However, I have got my fingers crossed for some kind of an Indian summer once the kids are back at school - a sunny September would be lovely.
Fingers and toes crossed today!
We have 6 Gold Laced Orpington eggs and 6 Cuckoo Maran eggs all due to hatch today, so I have been peeking through the window of the incubator at regular intervals but alas, there is nothing, not even a crack, to report yet.
Last night's sleepover went OK, although the YFG woke me at 3.15am to say that she was hungry, so I think I told her to get a biscuit or something, and then she went away! When I came downstairs this morning, they were all still asleep - and it was nearly 9am by the time I had showered and surfaced properly as I felt the need to stay awake on patrol until 1am as they were being a bit silly last night!
FH and I watched "Australia" on the EFG's laptop in bed, and it was a good film, but it was longer than we thought. Each time something happened to make us think that a good conclusion had been reached, another drama eclipsed that one and it went on. It lasts a good two and a half hours, I think, and we had to have the subtitles on as the FH couldn't hear it very well (you can't make the laptop as loud as he likes the TV!) but I would definitely watch it again.
Last night's sleepover went OK, although the YFG woke me at 3.15am to say that she was hungry, so I think I told her to get a biscuit or something, and then she went away! When I came downstairs this morning, they were all still asleep - and it was nearly 9am by the time I had showered and surfaced properly as I felt the need to stay awake on patrol until 1am as they were being a bit silly last night!
FH and I watched "Australia" on the EFG's laptop in bed, and it was a good film, but it was longer than we thought. Each time something happened to make us think that a good conclusion had been reached, another drama eclipsed that one and it went on. It lasts a good two and a half hours, I think, and we had to have the subtitles on as the FH couldn't hear it very well (you can't make the laptop as loud as he likes the TV!) but I would definitely watch it again.
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Eggs!
I sincerely hope that today was not a fluke, but we have gone from getting one solitary egg a day for just over a week to getting four today - I thought I had hit the jackpot - I came screaming into the house, shouting, "The vinegar's worked - look!!" and I am sure the FH thought I had flipped (again!) but hey, something's happened in the hen house, and I am pleased as punch. Now, 4 eggs from 25 chickens is not great, but it is a huge improvement on one!!
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
"To see if I could do what my grandmother did"
I have lifted that quote directly from Rhonda Jean's blog here because it reminded me so much of the correlations between the life I am trying to live and the one she had that I know of - there are years and years of my grandmother's life that I know nothing about!
My grandmother was a marvellous old woman when I knew her - I was born when she was 69 so by the time I was old enough to remember her, she was already an "old" woman; she took a nap every afternoon between 1 and 2.30pm, and then it took her nearly half an hour to get washed, put on an afternoon dress and come downstairs for afternoon tea at three. Her life was full of ritual and routine. Breakfast at 9, making beds, preparing a hot lunch every day for 12 noon, her rest, her afternoon tea, and eventually retiring to bed again at about 9pm. She moved at her own speed and seemed to get a lot done in her own time. I know that she had a thrombosis in her leg which gave her some pain and made her walk with a stick so she was limited when we went out and about, and she frequently would sit in the car and look at the sea whilst we went for a walk on the beach.
My grandfather is a shadowy figure, dead before I was born, and so I know only what others tell me of him. He fought in the First World War, he had something to do with the first Arsenal football team when he played football, he was considerably older than my grandmother... and that's really about it. My grandmother owned a row of cottages, an orchard and some pigs and poultry which lived in the orchard, and I am sure worked very hard looking after them. She sold the orchard land at some point in the sixties and used the money to buy land in the same village in south Cambridgeshire on which she planned to have two houses built for her two sons. The younger son didn't go for that plan, and some of the land was sold off. The remaining land forms a very large garden where my Uncle J gardens to this day. He and Granny moved in there sometime about 1962, and he has lived there ever since. She lived there until her death in 2002, just less than a month short of her 99th birthday - as sharp as ever, her body was failing her but her mind was very clear.
So, I don't think that I can do what my grandmother did, as I can't have pigs here, and I envy anyone who has an orchard - but I am doing my little bit. I made my last batch of plum jam tonight, thinking of her again. I can do the "make do and mend" that she practised, although I haven't got to the keeping of the button box yet. The chickens are definitely an interest that has come from her, and she was a good plain cook. She used rags for cleaning as I do, but she used beeswax polish on her good wooden furniture once a month whereas mine is more damp dusted and left at that! Recycling and composting were second-nature to her, and growing your own fruit and veg was just the done thing as far as she was concerned - she rarely bought anything like that, just as Uncle J rarely does even now. She shopped in an old-fashioned way right up until the late 1990s; she would send a list to the village shop on a Thursday by my uncle, and then he would go back on the Saturday to pick up a small cardboard box containing their groceries for the week. It was really only the things like flour, sugar, tea bags and loo roll, for example. My mother always bought their meat from our local butcher and we took it over on our weekly Saturday afternoon visit.
It was a different way of life, but one that we would do well to learn from, and one that I can easily learn about as Uncle J keeps up many of her traditions and ways of doing things.
I have set the 12 Black Orpington eggs tonight in desperation as the third incubator still has not arrived; I have had to squeeze nine eggs in alongside the Gold Partridge Orpington eggs and three in with the Lavenders in the automatic incubator. It is temporary but I didn't dare leave them any longer.
Today we have also been to Downham Market to the shoe shop; it is time to buy school shoes again! For an inordinately large sum of money, we came home with two pairs of black shoes - the styles this year are all very plain, but with feet like my two have got, we were over the moon to have got some - the lady fitting them said she felt like she had won a prize when she found a pair to fit the EFG. It took 45 minutes to fit them both and we were still there 15 minutes after closing time! I cannot recommend the ladies at Smith's Footwear highly enough - they came close to sainthood for their patience and excellent attitude today.
My grandmother was a marvellous old woman when I knew her - I was born when she was 69 so by the time I was old enough to remember her, she was already an "old" woman; she took a nap every afternoon between 1 and 2.30pm, and then it took her nearly half an hour to get washed, put on an afternoon dress and come downstairs for afternoon tea at three. Her life was full of ritual and routine. Breakfast at 9, making beds, preparing a hot lunch every day for 12 noon, her rest, her afternoon tea, and eventually retiring to bed again at about 9pm. She moved at her own speed and seemed to get a lot done in her own time. I know that she had a thrombosis in her leg which gave her some pain and made her walk with a stick so she was limited when we went out and about, and she frequently would sit in the car and look at the sea whilst we went for a walk on the beach.
My grandfather is a shadowy figure, dead before I was born, and so I know only what others tell me of him. He fought in the First World War, he had something to do with the first Arsenal football team when he played football, he was considerably older than my grandmother... and that's really about it. My grandmother owned a row of cottages, an orchard and some pigs and poultry which lived in the orchard, and I am sure worked very hard looking after them. She sold the orchard land at some point in the sixties and used the money to buy land in the same village in south Cambridgeshire on which she planned to have two houses built for her two sons. The younger son didn't go for that plan, and some of the land was sold off. The remaining land forms a very large garden where my Uncle J gardens to this day. He and Granny moved in there sometime about 1962, and he has lived there ever since. She lived there until her death in 2002, just less than a month short of her 99th birthday - as sharp as ever, her body was failing her but her mind was very clear.
So, I don't think that I can do what my grandmother did, as I can't have pigs here, and I envy anyone who has an orchard - but I am doing my little bit. I made my last batch of plum jam tonight, thinking of her again. I can do the "make do and mend" that she practised, although I haven't got to the keeping of the button box yet. The chickens are definitely an interest that has come from her, and she was a good plain cook. She used rags for cleaning as I do, but she used beeswax polish on her good wooden furniture once a month whereas mine is more damp dusted and left at that! Recycling and composting were second-nature to her, and growing your own fruit and veg was just the done thing as far as she was concerned - she rarely bought anything like that, just as Uncle J rarely does even now. She shopped in an old-fashioned way right up until the late 1990s; she would send a list to the village shop on a Thursday by my uncle, and then he would go back on the Saturday to pick up a small cardboard box containing their groceries for the week. It was really only the things like flour, sugar, tea bags and loo roll, for example. My mother always bought their meat from our local butcher and we took it over on our weekly Saturday afternoon visit.
It was a different way of life, but one that we would do well to learn from, and one that I can easily learn about as Uncle J keeps up many of her traditions and ways of doing things.
I have set the 12 Black Orpington eggs tonight in desperation as the third incubator still has not arrived; I have had to squeeze nine eggs in alongside the Gold Partridge Orpington eggs and three in with the Lavenders in the automatic incubator. It is temporary but I didn't dare leave them any longer.
Today we have also been to Downham Market to the shoe shop; it is time to buy school shoes again! For an inordinately large sum of money, we came home with two pairs of black shoes - the styles this year are all very plain, but with feet like my two have got, we were over the moon to have got some - the lady fitting them said she felt like she had won a prize when she found a pair to fit the EFG. It took 45 minutes to fit them both and we were still there 15 minutes after closing time! I cannot recommend the ladies at Smith's Footwear highly enough - they came close to sainthood for their patience and excellent attitude today.
Chicken health and hatching
I have been thinking about worming the chickens for a long time now, but we have never wormed them before, and my grandmother didn't believe in using pills and potions on anything, so I have no experience of it. I have looked at adverts in the various magazines like "Grow Your Own" and heard of a raft of worming and tonic-like potions for the chickens. Then I browsed a forum and found a post from a Yorkshireman who sounds entirely down-to-earth and old fashioned (Granny would have approved of him, I feel!) and he says to forget all those special commercial preparations, and just put cider vinegar in their drinking water every day and it will do wonders for their health, worms and all. So I liked the sound of that - vinegar has amazing properties and I am very willing to give it a go, so I picked up three bottles of it today; one to go in the cupboard, one for the utility room where I fill the watering can for the arks on the lawn and one to be put down by the tap near the workshop where I fill the bell-waterer for the layers. They have all had their first dose this afternoon, and they obviously don't mind a weak solution of vinegar or object to the taste as they all continued to drink. Perhaps they don't taste!?!
As for the hatching, today is Day 18 for the first lot of eggs, the Cuckoo Maran and the Gold Laced Orpingtons so the eggs are not turned after today. Another egg cup of water is introduced to the incubator to increase the humidity slightly, and we just have to keep our fingers crossed now.
As for the hatching, today is Day 18 for the first lot of eggs, the Cuckoo Maran and the Gold Laced Orpingtons so the eggs are not turned after today. Another egg cup of water is introduced to the incubator to increase the humidity slightly, and we just have to keep our fingers crossed now.
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Quick picture roundup
My lovely Silver Wyandotte bantam cockerel has really found his voice now and has to be kept shut in until about 8.30am so he doesn't disturb the neighbours.
One of the younger Buff Orpingtons posing by perching on the feeding trough in the new pen - a nursery pen for them until they are big enough for the laying flock's run. Two pens were amalgamated into one here so there was some pecking order sorting out to be done this morning.
This is one of the gorgeous Light Sussex which hatched on 1st July. They are all well and healthy and I am rather proud of them as our first incubated hatchlings!
My bargain of the week! We went to a car boot sale after church this morning and I noticed a heap of rather drab looking cloth and realised that there was an absolutely gorgeous quilt hiding there. All piled up, it looked nothing, but washed and out on the line, you can see how lovely they are - yes, there were two so perfect for the FGs to have one each. And they were only £5 each - they are easily worth many times that!
A closer shot to show the detail.
The spiced Apple butter from yesterday - one jar has been given away and the rest safely in storage.
This is the incubator we have borrowed. We turned it on last night and it easily got to temperature by this afternoon so we have loaded it up with a dozen eggs and are praying hard that it works. It is automatically turning the eggs as they are on dowels which are connected somehow to a motor which rolls them this way and that.
They say that what goes around, comes around.......I took a small jar of the apple butter up to the older gentleman who gave me the apples, to share with him and his wife what I had made from his apples, and he gave me two cabbages! When I walked home with them, I re-gifted one of them to my neighbour who loves cabbage and who has been sharing his cherry tomatoes with us...I had already been given a cabbage on Friday evening so didn't need two more, so I was pleased to know someone who would appreciate one. Truly a community garden around here!
Friday, 21 August 2009
Happy Birthday EFG
EFG is now a teenager - 13 at last! Wow....makes me think. She's going into Y9 at school this year as well, and will be doing the first of her GCSEs this year - she's getting so grown up. We have had a lovely day today celebrating; she was up and opening her gifts at 7am, pottering with the YFG and her friend from up the road in the morning after she decorated her cake, and then we went out after an early lunch to go to the cinema for her birthday treat. After picking her friend, S, up, we got to the cinema a little late to see Bandslam, but I think that they were already going off that idea in the car anyway - so we ended up seeing "Ice Age 3" which was an animated film - a good one.
The friend stayed for pizza and cake before we took her home again, we popped in to see my sister in the same town, and called round to see the Head Coach from gym who had some allotment produce for us: runner beans, rhubarb, courgettes, onions, potatoes and a cabbage. Some of that will get eaten at the weekend, and some of it will have to go into the freezer. Being given all this lovely food makes me really feel that we are going into autumn now - the harvest is being gathered in; the slightly dusty smell of the combine harvesters in the fields around us and the balers ejecting the round bales onto the fields - we love to watch the bales magically appear! I'm not so keen on meeting the combines in the narrower roads round here, but the drivers are usually accommodating and move over....
Tonight there has been a massive plume of smoke visible on the horizon for hours and it has been on the news tonight that a tyre shredding plant has gone up in flames at Littleport which has worried the YFG. She remembers the Australian and Californian bush fires and was worried that the fire could spread over here - I had to explain that this fire was under control and that we are lucky that there is a big river beween us and Littleport which would stop the fire, should the fire service lose control. The EFG solemnly pointed out that all that smoke wasn't doing the ozone layer any favours, as we could see it throughout the evening.
I succumbed to the ebay temptation and bought some eggs on Wednesday evening - they arrived this afternoon by Special Delivery. Trouble is that I had to buy another incubator to put them in. End of poultry purchases for this year - totally! I bought some Black Orpington eggs (a dozen), half a dozen pure Lavender Orpingtons and half a dozen split Black Orpingtons ie carrying the Lavender gene. I'll explain that another night! They are all "resting" after coming through the post today, so they will get set in the incubators tomorrow or Saturday nights - I have to calculate the availability of the brooder space, so I need to make sure I can cope with all the potential hatchings.
The friend stayed for pizza and cake before we took her home again, we popped in to see my sister in the same town, and called round to see the Head Coach from gym who had some allotment produce for us: runner beans, rhubarb, courgettes, onions, potatoes and a cabbage. Some of that will get eaten at the weekend, and some of it will have to go into the freezer. Being given all this lovely food makes me really feel that we are going into autumn now - the harvest is being gathered in; the slightly dusty smell of the combine harvesters in the fields around us and the balers ejecting the round bales onto the fields - we love to watch the bales magically appear! I'm not so keen on meeting the combines in the narrower roads round here, but the drivers are usually accommodating and move over....
Tonight there has been a massive plume of smoke visible on the horizon for hours and it has been on the news tonight that a tyre shredding plant has gone up in flames at Littleport which has worried the YFG. She remembers the Australian and Californian bush fires and was worried that the fire could spread over here - I had to explain that this fire was under control and that we are lucky that there is a big river beween us and Littleport which would stop the fire, should the fire service lose control. The EFG solemnly pointed out that all that smoke wasn't doing the ozone layer any favours, as we could see it throughout the evening.
I succumbed to the ebay temptation and bought some eggs on Wednesday evening - they arrived this afternoon by Special Delivery. Trouble is that I had to buy another incubator to put them in. End of poultry purchases for this year - totally! I bought some Black Orpington eggs (a dozen), half a dozen pure Lavender Orpingtons and half a dozen split Black Orpingtons ie carrying the Lavender gene. I'll explain that another night! They are all "resting" after coming through the post today, so they will get set in the incubators tomorrow or Saturday nights - I have to calculate the availability of the brooder space, so I need to make sure I can cope with all the potential hatchings.
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
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!
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!
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