Getting some energy back at last

The flu tiredness is beginning to pass, at last. This weekend I have felt better and had a little more enthusiasm for life.

Yesterday the YFG and I went to town to Sainsbury's for some picnic items and then I cooked and baked for several hours to make some goodies to take to the street picnic/barbie which we went to in the afternoon and evening. It was good fun and there were a lot of neighbours there to catch up with and we had a good time chatting for several hours. The girls had a great time, playing swingball and rounders with other kids and with some more athletic adults...

This morning we went to church - we took along some Hobnob biscuits to share, home made, of course. They went down well. The girls and I helped out with the prayers and readings in the service as it was a DIY service, there being no minister or lay preacher available to come to us this morning - it happens occasionally! We manage quite well. One of the other mums played the guitar and her children and husband also did prayers and readings too, so we all took part who wanted to; some of the older members of the congregation prefer to leave it to the "youngsters" to lead.

This afternoon, the EFG went to the cinema with a school friend and her family to celebrate the friend's birthday; they saw Harry Potter and then went to Macdonald's afterwards. The YFG and I had already seen the film, so we all had a little chat when she got home about what we thought to it. Mixed reactions. The YFG played with some neighbourhood children and did some ironing for me this afternoon - at a price! She's actually jolly good at ironing and folds the laundry up very well. It was worth £1 for there to be one less basket load when I get to it!

This evening we have been spoilt with visitors - my dad and MB came first, and then my Uncle. It was like the Harvest festival when he arrived with tomatoes, dwarf beans, two kinds of plums and some beetroot. I gave him half a dozen eggs to take home - I definitely did well out of that exchange. I feel more plum jam coming on - just got to find some jars!

Second annual visit to Oxburgh Hall

We went up onto the roof and I took this photo of the parterre through an arrow slit in one of the towers. The little tower/folly you can see in the photo is in the garden - one of the owners in years gone by put up a folly when each of his children was born; there are five around the perimeter wall.
Oxburgh Hall in some of its glory - it does look more magnificent when the sun is shining on the red bricks, but it was still a lovely afternoon.
This view (above) is the picture of the hall as you come from the chapel - one of my favourites.


This is the first view of the hall as you arrive - you walk through the orchard and come to another little archway in a redbrick wall and then, wow - there it is in front of you, looking very serene and peaceful with the lovely gardens and the swans on the moat.

The girls and I just had an afternoon out there today - it is a very relaxing place to go and wander. Even though we had seen it before, it was very restorative to go and walk around again. The house is still being lived in by the original family which had it built in the 1400s, although they have signed it over to the National Trust and just live in one corner tower now. It is amazing to be able to see the tapestries which Mary, Queen of Scots and Bess of Hardwick worked on, although they are heavily protected and very dimly lit. We enjoyed the trip and there will no doubt be a return visit - it is only an hour away and a pleasant drive there and back. And there was no actual spend at the Hall as we are NT members, although the motorhome did demand another little top up of fuel (£20) and the girls spent some of their pocket money in the shop.

Light Sussex new girls

Aren't they lovely?!? They came out from the house a little timidly this morning but they are having a good look around their run now and tucking into their pellets for breakfast. This run is not their permanent house as they will grow to be large fowl, but it is fine for them to start with, whilst they are still growing up. They are 13 weeks old, so it will be a while before they start to lay for us.

Update on the spending

The biggest spend of the day was the £40 on the Light Sussex hens. They are safely tucked away in their new house tonight, ready to be let out in the morning. Hopefully they will be happy here. It is always interesting to meet other chicken breeders and talk with them; this chap has a pen of Silver Laced Wyandotte bantams, just like my pair and it was really lovely to see so many of them together!

We put £20 of petrol in the motorhome for today's excursion - I stopped at a petrol station which I have never used before and it was amazing: the chap came out and served us - we just said, "Twenty pounds worth of unleaded, please" and he did it all so that the YFG just handed him a £20 note through the window and we were off again. You don't find service like that any more!

There was a little supermarket spend as most Tesco shops in this area do not stock the Free From sausages any longer - but the one at Wisbech does, so I bought 6 packs at £1.99 each. That will keep me going for about three weeks - I like sausages.....

We also went to a discount shop (Else's at Leverington) where the FH stocked up on wood glue, a container for rabbit food and other bits (including a couple of packets of sweets, shhh!) and we were soon relieved of £18.

We also picked up the Cuckoo Maran eggs but I had already paid for those via Paypal, thank goodness. The lady was lovely and showed me around her chicken pens - I learned a lot in a few minutes there and she was really kind. Fingers crossed for a good hatch.

I was watching some auctions for Orpington eggs tonight and was totally shocked to see a clutch of 6 eggs sell for £124.00. Apparently, chocolate Orpingtons are very rare and I should think so too, as I shouldn't think too many people can afford the eggs at that price. Never mind thinking twice about bidding, I wouldn't dare as it is such a gamble anyway. I can't afford to gamble at those kinds of stakes - I don't mind taking a punt at the £6 set of eggs I have got this week but that is a whole other ball game. Anyway, the incubator is turned on and should be at the right temperature by tomorrow evening so I am hoping to set them then.

Nocturnal visitor in the garden

This rather large hedgehog has been visiting us for over a year now, and feeds quite regularly on cat food - and our cat only has dried food, so it must be good! I thought hedgehogs preferred wet cat food, but this one is not fussy.

The girls and I were able to watch our visitor for a couple of minutes before it finished its snack and disppeared into the night - and it really did go quickly, vanishing from sight before we could work out where it went.

Garden photos

These girls are about 9 weeks old. They are the from the clutch of eggs which should have been Orpingtons but weren't all - you can see we have one Orpington at the front of the picture and then there are two others in here - mystery visitors again. We have removed two cockerels from this pen for the auction trip today.

Apples growing on my dwarf apple trees - Braeburn and Jonagold trees have a couple on a piece. The plum and pear trees have declined to produce anything this year so we are just keeping our fingers crossed that next year they will fire up production!

Pepper plants in the greenhouse. These are the younger set which the FH bought somewhere. They need potting up this week and then perhaps they'll get into production mode!

The runner beans are going mad!

This cucumber plant is a star purchase - the cucumbers are not huge but they taste gorgeous!

The older pepper plants have peppers nearly ready for us to pick - looking forward to these.

The hybrid girls are still settling in to their new home and yard. I rotavated the yard for them so that they would have lots of scratching to do to help them settle - there are worms aplenty in there!

The other pen of "Orpington-should-have-beens" - again, there is one, and the others are Heinz 57s - hopefully we'll be able to work out what they are as they grow up.

These are the beautiful Silver laced Wyandotte bantams which were our first hatch of the year. They are now happily Mr and Mrs and we hope that they will have a long and happy life together with us. I am hoping that Mrs will go broody next spring and present us with some more little ones!

Courgette cake recipes

These are the courgette cupcakes (above)

This is particularly for silversewer but for anyone who has a glut of courgettes!

I will just link to the chocolate recipe as it came straight from someone's recipe site/blog. The cake works fine, and I just smear a little chocolate spread over each piece to serve it although the picture has cream whipped onto the cake. The girls and FH like it, so we are keeping the recipe in use here!

I did modify it a little - I only used half a cup of oil instead of the full cup; we had a very oily courgette loaf cake recipe years ago and I didn't want to risk repeating that. I think a full cup might be a bit much - but each to their own: it's going down well here with just the half cup. Let me know what you think.

The courgette cupcake recipe - I don't think I can put that on here properly as it came out of a recipe book. However, I can tell you to beat 2 eggs with 4oz caster sugar, till light and fluffy. Then beat in 8oz grated courgette (peel it first so there are no green bits at all in the cakes) and 5oz plain flour, with 2tsp baking powder and a teaspoon vanilla essence (the good stuff if you can). We made it up as cupcakes in little bun cases and they took about 10-15 minutes to cook but watch them as the high sugar content seems to make them brown quite quickly. They are sweet! We cooked them at our normal 180C. When they were cool, I beat up some vanilla-flavoured buttercream and piped it over the top in swirls. They were very good! TOO more-ish for the good of the hips, if you see what I mean - well, you would if you had seen my hips!!

Those little cupcakes hide the courgette most admirably - the Head Coach at gym didn't believe me when I told him he had had veggies in his cake at morning tea last week!!