Update on the home grown Leghorn/Golden Seabright cross chicks: 5 days on
I took Steve_h’s and Cathryn’s advice and examined the remaining eggs in Venice’s nest closely. Just one was addled. But over the past couple of days the four remaining eggs were either crushed or the chicks just didn’t make it when they tried to hatch out. It was very sad clearing up the remains and egg shells. Only one other egg had fully come to term. It was a mess of flattened feathers. What on earth went wrong? The problem was that Venice had collected eggs as and when they were laid over a few days before we realised that...
read moreRecipe for oven braised celery – how to love/hate celery
Celery is so good for you. Apart from many other benefits it helps to lower blood pressure naturally. Danny suffers from high blood pressure but actively avoids celery. Even when I buy a delicious blue cheese and munch it on beautifully prepared sticklets of washed and de-strung celery to try and tempt him to give celery a go, he reaches for the crackers to enjoy his share of the blue cheese. “I just hate celery. The crunchiness, the strings – everything about it. Yuk!” It was an impasse until I introduced him to stove top braised...
read moreChick count is now two
Yesterday morning I turfed Venice of a very smelly nest and discovered another chick similar in colouring to the first chick. Incidentally we have named the first chick Folly. Thumbs up to 5olly for the suggestion. There are now five eggs left. One is large and pale brown and four are Hope’s eggs. Venice hasn’t tried to move any of these eggs out of the nest and seems happy to keep on sitting. I was a bit worried that she wasn’t tending the hatched chicks but the chick crumbs are going down in the bowl and I saw the little chick in the...
read moreUpdate on the superb easy Yorkshire pudding recipe
I was waiting in a check out queue at Tesco yesterday when I spotted that the check out lady looked familiar. I was 95% certain that this was the person that had shared her foolproof Yorkshire pudding with me. I was impatient to get to the top of my queue, not to check out my shopping quickly and motor home but rather to thank her for the recipe and find out her name. “Were you the generous lady that shared your Yorkshire Pudding recipe with me?” She was initially a bit evaisive. “It could have been me.” “The fabulous recipe with the...
read moreNew chick!
A few years ago I was looking through the eBay listings for hatching eggs and I spotted that there were cross breed eggs available. These cross breed bantam chickens laid well – almost all year round. They were tough little birds. I assumed that like cross breed dogs they were generally stronger than pure breeds. I dilly dallied over my choice for several days and in the end plumped for brown leghorn bantam hatching eggs. Queen Zeb and her Italian brothers hatched from this batch. Mysteriously that were all standard sized chickens that...
read moreMum
My mum is a sparkly sort of person. On form she is charming, intelligent and artistic. She comes from a tough and long lived family. My great grandmother lived to 100. My grandmother, a 40 cigarette a day smoker, clocked up 83 years. My mum will be 93 in November. She lives alone and independently in her own home in Cambridge. Reads The Times everyday and is a passionate armchair horse racing fanatic. She negotiates very steep stairs and doesn’t have grab handles beside the step to her front door. “I don’t want them Darling. That’s the...
read moreThe ultimate spaghetti and meatballs recipe in a rich tomato sauce. Slow cooker/crock pot method
“Wow! This is the best spaghetti and meatballs that I’ve ever tasted.” Danny was reaching for seconds before he’d even finished his first portion. Now before you reach for your shopping list I just want to make one thing clear. I have never sampled American spaghetti and meatballs. My recipe tasted pretty good to me too but this recipe is just how I imagined perfect American spaghetti and meatballs should taste. As a child I’m certain that we didn’t eat spaghetti with meatballs. I’ve always thought of it as an American dish....
read moreWe may have new chicks in a few days time
The field hut arrived in a flat pack from eBay a couple of weeks ago. I put it together quite easily and last night finally moved it into the chicken run for our broody hen. It’s not nearly as sturdy as the Pekin Pagoda which is a Rolls Royce of small chicken houses but that’s OK as it will only be used occasionally. It’s the perfect size for a hen and chicks or a retreat for a sick hen. Two days after I ordered the field hut, Hope decided that she wasn’t going to be broody anymore. She has a sort of little girl’s skippy step and...
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