Well, the cold finally surfaced – a couple of days of achey stuff but its on its way out now – just a few snuffles still. Its Nathalie’s turn now.
Took the opportunity to crack on with my needle felt sculpture of Milo and have decided that it is now finished – I must stop fiddling with it for fear of wrecking it rather than
improving. So here he is in all his mini glory. And yes, he is anatomically correct – how could I emasculate him!
I now need to decide on my next project – it will probably be another teddy bear. A friend has given me a whole bag of her collie’s combings. Its lovely soft undercoat and looks as though it may work up well. I’ll give it a go.
Before I start that I need to work on a couple of small items that could be made in a workshop setting. May be running a taster one next year for the Nexus women’s group. Much as I fear a lawsuit from women stabbing themselves with the sharp barbed needles it could be fun and a change from doing another beading workshop!
The chickens are still giving us two eggs a day with the odd large one thrown in – 88g was the last, the largest so far – its from Mimi – Gwen seems to have stopped laying the big ones. She is the noisiest bird to lay and takes forever to do it, going in and out of the nest box.
They are loving being let out to freerange. I was worried they would be scoffing all the plants but all they are interested in is a jolly good scratch about and a feast on all the bugs, worms and slugs they find. They’ve been spooked a few times by Ianto the cat skulking about in stalk mood. They actually come running to me which is quite endearing or they immediately leg it back to the run. Milo is still finding it fun to give the odd chase but the chickens just settle back to scratching. I’m always out with them if they are let out of the run. At the moment they think Christmas has come as windfall apples are dropping from one of the trees. As they are not supposed to eat treats until later in the day I clear them from where they have dropped in their run but they are still squeezing their necks through the netting to get to them.
I think this apple tree is an Early Windsor, also called Emneth Early but every July it has an abundant crop of yellowy green apples. They ripen so quickly and just drop – every day there are about 40/50 windfalls. Sadly, the apples don’t store – they are very soft but make fabulous purees and bake well. I just can’t keep up with them and I hate waste. A rotary apple peeler, corer and slicer is on my shopping list this week.
The friendship cake is proving a hit with friends. I’ve made two now and a third is brewing away. Just trying to think of different ingredients to put in this one – I fancy apricot for a change. From Googling it seems it is an adaptable mix so I may as well play with it.
