Inspirations

Do you remember this magazine? I used to order it from my newsagents every month and I loved it. These particular magazines date back to the late eighties. Some of the pictures and ideas are a little dated now.

 I took some photos of the pages that I liked.

Who can resist these pretty Spring flowers... 

Jumble 3

I also bought this - a Singer button tool. I haven't had a good look at it yet but I'm sure that there will be some instructions on the internet somewhere.

 There was also a Singer tool box

Jumble 2

No 1 turns 21 in September and she would like to have a party at the field.  She will have her party in August as I cannot realistically cater for it in September as I will be back to school. We have a metal barn and fields so we are going to have to work hard to get the party atmosphere. She would like to invite around 100 people. She likes vintage so I am busy collecting teacups for the desserts. 

Some of them may not be my first choice of crockery but we are working to a budget. I had already collected some so I need to have a count up of how many more we need.  I think it's quite a few.

  Although only three glasses, I thought this printed jug and glasses is quite cute.  I thought it could be used for my homemade elderflower cordial. 

 I've also started collecting tea plates...

I've also got this fabric to make some bunting

Now I'm off to Pinterest to get some more ideas

Jumble

Today was jumble day. As usual there were lots of things for sale.  There is a set layout so that the regulars can find the things that they are interested in straight away. We are not getting as many clothes to sell as we used to. It's a sign of the times as I think people are holding onto their clothes for much longer.

 There is still lots of bric-brac.  Over here is the small items...

 The larger items of bric-brac on the stage...

I bought a few things which I'll post about tomorrow

Today I wore these Converse boots to school. They aren't mine, they belong to No 4.  It makes a change to be borrowing things from my children as it is usually the other way around.  Except today I couldn't find any shoes to match my outfit.  Well in truth it was my third outfit, I was having a fat day.  I decided to go casual.  Tuesday and Friday are normally my Casual days as those are when I teach art.  I've learnt the hard way that school paint does NOT come out of your nice work clothes.  I suppose the splodge could be deemed arty but it's not really the look I am aiming for. Anyway that is not why I have taken a photo of the boots.  This morning when I was finally dressed, No 4 looked at my feet, raised her eyebrows and gave me a look! (A look which she has clearly stolen from me!)

ME: You don't mind do you, they kind of match my outfit.

No 4:No it's fine.

ME: Thanks for that, it shows that you do love your Mother after all. (I winked at her.)

No 4: Nah, (she said grinning at me) the dogs weeed on them!

Thank you

I organise and run the craft workshops at school.  I was delighted to have been bought this gift after the last workshop.  It's a new with lots of bright cheery pages and...

 A free gift! I have talked about being a sucker for a free gift before. This one is particularly nice...

It comes as pre-printed cotton fabric which is pretty good quality considering it's a feebie.

 It comes with some delicious recipes...

 Make your own milk glass...

 Make yourself a teacosy...

 Thank you for my thoughtful gift, I really do appreciate it!

Chicks

Last night I didn't post because I went out to an Indian restaurant.  It was quite late and after our busy weekend I just needed my bed. I took a picture of my starter because it was really colourful.

As promised here are my new chick photos.  Twenty four hours old. They are Marans and eight of them have hatched. I've now set some Legbar eggs and some Khaki Campbells.  The chicks will take 21 days to hatch and the ducklings twenty eight days.  I had said that I wouldn't be hatching any this year but here we go again!

One of the turkeys has gone broody, although they sit tight none of the eggs hatched last year under them. However in the incubator I had 100% success and so did a friend of ours.  The other problems with the turkey sitting is that she collects all the eggs that the others lay.

No photos tonight, but there should be some tomorrow.  Exciting news! Two of the chicks have hatched in the incubator and a couple more are beginning to pip.  Taking photos through the plastic does not make for good photos and to give the others the best start I am leaving the lid firmly closed for tonight.
We had our craft workshop after school  and we had a session on crocheting granny squares. It was lovely and lots of concentration was needed by the attendees.  Again I was a bit lax with the camera as there are no photos! I have already planned the next one too!

Blog swap

I have recently taken part in a swap with a wonderful blogger called Alex.  We sent lots of emails to and fro before we swapped our gifts.  Alex sent me the most wonderful stained glass garland.  It has lots of spring like flowers and little insects. My photos were taken when the weather wasn't good so they are against my table.  With the light shining behind them they are beautiful.

 I have taken these photos from Alex's blog because not only are her glass skills amazing, she also takes a mean photograph too! I do hope that she doesn't mind.

Nip over to see Alex and say hello, she will make you most welcome.

Meet the new additions

This is Beryl who is a Welsh pig.  She is the Mum to the two weaners that we went to fetch yesterday.

She is a feisty old girl and the two offspring that she has produced in her last litter are very confident and are already showing similar traits to their Mum. Normally if a sow only produces two in her litter she is off to be made into sausages but her owner Tom has decided to give her one last try,

They are crossed with a Hampshire, the boar looks like dad and the gilt is similar to Mum. This is a picture of dad Gerald.

Once we had got the weaners into the trailer they quickly snuggled down into the straw and went to sleep.



A busy day

No 4 and I painted the bottom of the pig ark with Hammerite.

 If you look closely behind no 4's leg you can see a chicken who made sure that she didn't miss any bits.

 Then of course chocolate lab did a shift of supervising too!

 Then I cleaned out the chicken houses and I had 'help' there too!

 No 4 painted the big chicken house.

I didn't get any photos of husband and son but they were cutting back the hedge ready for fencing. All in all a very busy day, I'll sleep well tonight. Tomorrow we are being taken by Farmer Jack to see another small holding and what they do, so that should be interesting. If time permits we will also be collecting a couple of pigs.

Just a quick field update. All the poultry seem to have recovered, in fact we collected twenty four eggs this evening. We have a busy weekend ahead of us, lots of routine jobs and a few repairs to be done. I'm hoping  to paint the base of the pig arks too. We have two pigs on order although still hoping to get more.

Terrible wind and not a baked bean in sight

The very windy wather has lifted the goose house and tipped it on its side. It was torn cleanly from the base. It also flattened the turkey pen although the pen had been resurrected by the time this photo had been taken.  I'm obviously not a true blogger as taking a snapshot was not the first thing that crossed my mind. I'm not sure if the shock of the house and fence clattering about gave one of the turkeys a heart attack as one had died this morning. It's always sad to lose lifestock, but unfortunately where there's livestock there's deadstock.  It never gets any easier to find that one of them has died.

All housing and fencing is upright at the moment so I'm certainly hoping the worst of the stormy weather has passed now. The flooring has not been reattached as that is a job for the weekend.  Seeing the house on its side I didn't think that we would be able to use it again but thankfully we can.

Just an update from the other day, I have found my swap gift.  I must say the place that I put it really was very safe.  I put it inside of the attic room of a doll's house that I am building.  Who'd have thought it? Sometimes even I wonder what goes on in my head! Whilst searching I found some Easter chocolates that I'd bought to do a hunt.  I've put them back so that if I ever read this blog post, I'll go searching for them again!

My lovely Year 10s

I love my Year 10 Class, who are mainly boys.  This morning they asked if we could watch the funeral of Margaret Thatcher.  Despite their varying views they showed great respect which shows their maturity and I am very proud of them.

Acton Scott

When I was away in Wales I blogged about taking Mum to Ludlow.  We also called at Acton Scott, you know the place where Victorian Farm was filmed. I remember going there as a child. It was lovely.

I loved the dairy and the lady who was making butter.  It looked really quite physical work as she was puffing and panting a bit.  The weather had meant that the cream was difficult to make into butter and she had been churning it for two hours!

But the butter was delicious!

Thank you Charlotte's Mum

I was given this by Charlotte's Mum about three weeks ago.  I should have blogged sooner but I don't know, the time has gone on and I forgot, I think it's my age! Anyway it's a cute handmade keyring which now hangs quite happily from my handbag...

Isn't it just the cutest thing ?

A little while ago I joined another blog swap, we finally swapped gifts and I took photographs of the parcel and of the unwrapping of the parcel but I didn't take a picture of the gift itself.  It is really very fragile and I wanted to keep it safe until after pack holiday.  I was very proud of its temporary resting place, it was all safe and cocooned until I was ready for the photo shoot. Now I have a problem, I just can't remember where I put it.