A Beautiful day! and unusual find up the road!

When I got up at 5.45am this morning I thought it was chilly which is surprising bearing in mind we have the Rayburn! As it got light I realised we had, had a frost so threw on my clothes and dived down the garden, not to see if the chickens where alright, although I did let them out on my way past, but to check if my tropical plants in the greenhouse where alright!! Fortunately having wrapped the greenhouse up earlier in bubble wrap it was a cool 5C so no damage!

Neither Mark nor I recall the weather man forecasting frost last night! But this morning at about 6.30 a bloke did the BBC weather and told us we would have rain most of the day!! At 7.ooish a lady said it would be sunshine all the way!!! Now with todays modern technology you would think they could at least get the weather right just one day ahead!!!

After my lovely dippy egg and soldiers I went outside to clean out the chickens and do some bits and bobs in the garden!

I know this looks abit untidy but I will sort that out another day! I have been putting the used aubiose from the chickens on to my veg patches, today I decided to dig it in! I could not believe how many worms we had !!! I must remember to ask Lottie if I can put this aubiose on all the veg patches, because I think there are some plants that don't like having freshly manured ground!!

Having finished the digging, then helped Mark move the Chimnea and wooden table then whilst he finished off I came in as I was begining to get cold!

I made my most favourite soup of the moment Butternut Squash and Sweet Pepper! Yummy! Mark went out to get a paper and post a letter to Kathryn and one to my eldest neice Zoe, whose baby is due on Monday! Imagine me being a Great Aunty???? I remember my Great Aunty, unfortunately she was an alcoholic and rather odd, I always thought she was very old!! I hope Zoe's baby doesn't think that of me!!!!! Even stranger will be that my sister will be a Granny!!!!!! I have been knitting away for the baby and have finished one (can't say what) I need to do the second one, when I have finished I will post a pic!

I was going to start putting marzipan on the Christmas Cakes until I remembered I'd forgotten to get some boards! I still haven't really decided how to decorate them... I fancied a rustic look this year, and whilst I was trolling around the internet I found this......

totally nothing to do with cakes, but I liked the simplicity of it. I don't think it would be hard to make... dried oranges (I will have to ask Lottie again, and I really must get the hang of this drying lark!) bayleaves, of which I have a massive bush, cinnamon sticks and whole nutmegs!

I do have a glimmer of and idea for decorating the cakes with, but its still in the processing stage!!

Mark decided to go for a bike ride this afternoon, so I thought I would go up the road to deliver some chutney to my friend. This is the route I walked every single day when the children where little in the afternoon to get them out for some fresh air!! I don't actually do this walk as much nowadays, so decided to take the camera and what a surprise I got!! So read on.....

This is about halfway up the road looking back towards my house, you may just make out the cars opposite where we live...

this is looking up the road in the direction I was going

this is alot further up the road and I really tok this pic to show how few leaves had dropped!


then I got closer and saw......

yes you can see what I saw... look closer....

Saddleback piggies!! This was a very common site when we moved here 18 years ago! Not necessarily saddleback pigs but free ranging pigs! Calne housed the 'Harris's' factory which supplied the famous bacon and sausages!

and now a little closer

These are younger than the first group and they are Gloucester Old Spot! I passed the farmer whom I thought they belonged to and had a chat and he said go in and have a closer look. So I did but the battery on the camera ran out!!!! I will have to go back!!!!

Wiltshire in the Rain!

Boy! has it rained today. I'm not complaining! We definately could do with a lot more of this!!

I love the autumn and this is the view even in the rain

This is from Kathryns window looking straight down the garden. It is really only the last 7 - 10 days that the leaves have changed. They are still dropping, you can see there are still alot of trees with leaves on, which fro us is exceptionally late. But look at the colours... the green of the lawns, orange berries, autumnal orange and red of the leaves. I love it!

This as you can see is just to the left of the last pic.

Again you have a fantastic contrast between the different shades of gree and the deep reds! When Mark retires I would love to go to New England in the fall, I believe it is quite spectacular!

I have decided not to beat myself up about the chickens!!! As much as I like the idea of them free rangeing in the garden it is just not practical, especially in this weather! This is them today sheltering in the eglu from the rain, the stalks hanging down are the remains of the Chard from the morning! They have plenty of room to scratch around, they have good food, lots of treats and are cosy amd warm at night! I could take the run off the eglu to give them more room, but at the moment that is the only shelter they have from the rain! We have looked at another part of the garden up by the veg patch, where we could construct a run with roof, but needs some more thinking about! Until then they will have to stay where they are!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey/

Back Later!!!!

Wrecked Garden!!!

Now I have always loved my garden but currently...... I'm not so sure. I have fenced off all the bits I could but look, at my so called lawn!!! It is actually alot worse than the picture shows!!!

This is at the bottom of the garden, before the shed. The muddy bit at the top of this picture extends out some 2 ft now!!!! It was only about 1 ft.

this is a closer view and you can actually see just how bad it is now! Can you see my hobbit hiding in the corner. If you didn't know already you would be able to tell it was chickens because of the bare branches close to the ground. It is really funny watching them reach the leaves, they actually jump. Unfortunately a photo can't show you!!! It would certainly make you laugh!

Now the bed on the left was a big flower bed and had large plants of beautifully coloured sedums in which usually lasted all winter and where gorgeous. Plus many other plants and bushes that gave the garden something during the winter months. Apart from the buddlia there is not alot left!!

So my probelm is what on earth am I going to do? We are only in November and haven't even reached the wettest or coldest months! Do I build a run and keep them shut in all the time? I am definately not getting rid of them once you have their eggs you never want a shop bought one again!!!

Pondering!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just so everyone realises that not everything I touch works..................................

I have been knitting this delightful cardi for my friends daughter for Christmas. I have knitted for years, usually fairly simple patterns but they have always turned out well! I have already had to undo both fronts on this as the pattern was wrong and when I went to sew up the sleeves they totally didn't fit!!!!!

It is a pattern my neighbour lent me and not a cheap one either! After the problems I have had I reckon it must be the pattern! But that doesn't help! I'm not actually the fastest knitter in the world and I have loads more to do by Christmas!!!!

Finished Soap!

I'm a bit late posting today, due to the fact my soaps didn't want to come out of the moulds!!!!! Eventually 3 came out and the 4th as we speak is in the freezer (cos apparently thats what you do)...

and once cut up

look like lumps of cheese with chives in!!!!! Actually they smell abit peculiar but apparently it will improve with age!! We hope! I've got all the ingredients to have another go with a different type of soap, so will post pics as I do it!!

We had another meeting with Tori's school, I think they are beginning to get the message! I hope to find out what they have put into action by Friday. Anyway on the way back (well not really) we went to our favourite garden centre and yet again I came away with £65 worth of plants

Now I know you might think I'm mad, but I actually got all of these for the princely sum of £3.95 ! The bottom 2 are not dead they are dormant and you can see green buds in the top of the corms. The top and middle pic are huge! They are all ferns by the way. The front of my house is north facing so I will get some nice pots (which are currently 50 - 75% off) and pop them out the front next year!!!! Something different for people to look at!!!!

I am currently knitting a very nice cardi for my friends 2yr old daughter for Christmas. I enjoy knitting and can do basic stitches, I've never done cable!!! So there I was knitting away finished the back, fronts and arms last night. So I thought I would pick up the stitches down the right front, as per pattern! But it didn't look right??? So I gave myself a very good telling off, as I thought I had done something wrong. But after re-reading the pattern its the pattern thats wrong not me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I have to undo both front pieces all the way back to the armhole shaping!!!! I am not impressed and will complain accordingly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!