New Things

It has been a very long time since I posted! As alluded to in my last post, I have been feeling the need to tackle something arty and as a result I enrolled on a distance learning course with the Open College of the Arts and am halfway through my Foundation Drawing course. I have to keep a blog for that here if you want to see what I've been up to and so with that and Wayward Bee, (and a Facebook page of the same name if you want to look me up there!) I have neglected this one, which is a shame as I do love reading back over my previous posts. So, having spoken to good friend Nicky this morning (of Warpsidaisies fame) I thought I'd better reacquaint myself...

As well as the art I have started a pottery evening course. I say 'course' but it's much better than that: turn up and play with clay would be more like it. I've been working with pinch pots and slab work and last week we made marbled clay (combo of buff and terracotta) to line a mould, the end product being a flat square dish. The sides of mine chipped off when I turned it over to scrape it back but the term 'organic' has been used quite a bit with my pottery so far and this was no exception. It dried to a slightly muddy coating but once I started paring back with a metal kidney [-shaped scraper, before you start worrying] the swirls of the different clays came through:

This is the base of the upper surface, so when it was still in the plaster mould. In other words before I er, sculpted the 'organic' edges...

The bits I'd done the previous week also had to be neatened up but because I was using up the remainder of the marbled clay, it's a bit too blended to be interesting so I'll just glaze these masterpieces once they've been bisque fired (the first heating to make them solid):

I've made 2 bells and some measuring spoons, plus a few other bits. Ideas from Pinterest, hmm...! I have been a bit ambivalent about trying to throw a pot on the wheel as I thought if I enjoy it, I'm not going to be able to practise and it's something that needs A LOT of practise. And I'd want to be really good at it, blah blah. Anyway, needless to say I loved it and according to Sue, our lovely host, I managed to do very well indeed for a first attempt! I made a vessel. Not quite sure what type of vessel, and Sue's vague suggestion of putting a handle on it would commit it to being a mug which I'm not sure it's quite ready for but hey ho:

I was so thrilled and I can't wait to have another go this week when I also get to glaze my chicken and fire my spoons!

Autumn In Full Swing

Arghghgh I'm so rubbish at posting! It was the beginning of August when I last updated :-/ apologies. Anyone who works outside will forgive me though I'm sure; trying to squeeze those long heady days of summer as the daylight rapidly declines means I have spent September on a permanent back foot! It's been lovely weather so my bees have been foraging long and hard on the remaining garden flowers - Cosmos are still going strong and the hardy geraniums have put out a helpful late flowering thanks to my 'Hampton Hack', a later variant of the 'Chelsea Chop' which coincides with Hampton Court Flower Show.

The allotment has provided me with numerous squashes and runner bean beans (I don't collect them frequently enough to eat them fresh). I took the ducks up with me to eat some slugs but they were more interested in the view and messing about in an upturned lid full of water but that's nothing new!

Some produce displayed uncharacteristically neatly on
the uncharacteristically clear dining room table

So, now that the poultry are in bed by 5.30, I have been able to get on with some drawing and others such creative pursuits in the evenings. I've been running some sustainable beekeeping courses here at my house and and wanted to do some illustrations for the handout that my students receive so I've been doodling with my lovely sepia pens:

I do love sepia ink and as such I am steeping some walnut husks in water so that I can boil them up, strain them, reduce the liquid and use it as ink. As my wonderful Ma pointed out, I could go and buy a bottle of walnut ink but hey I love a challenge...! I'm also going to give some of the dye to my friend Nicky, of WarpsiDaisies fame so that she can use it to dye some yarn - it's a wonderful rich brown according to Pinterest, although I've come to view Pinterest with suspicion since nothing I ever try to recreate looks even half as good as my pinned pictures :-( Anyway I'm quite pleased with my doodle so far, but I'll probably add to it as the mood takes me! I keep photographing it so that if I mess up I can go to the last best version. 

Holidays

Having home-educated the three children for many years, it's always a bit strange to have the concept of 'holidays' but now that Tristan is happily ensconced at college, and Amber due to start in September, the idea of a summer break becomes more relevant. We had our first family holiday for years this July: four days in London which meant everyone had something to do and I actually had a break from transporting and cooking and could wander round to my heart's content. Much as I love the peace and quiet of the countryside, and wouldn't choose to live anywhere else, I do love the scale and anonymity and contrast (not to mention Tate Modern, the British Museum, Covent Garden blah blah)so it was a fantastic thing to do and gave the children confidence with travelling by Tube and not getting flattened by buses.

Meanwhile, back at the farm (which was ably looked after by Animal Angels during our absence) everything is growing and getting bigger and stronger. The bees are now getting ready for autumn and making the most of the Himalayan balsam to fill their larders. The two Buff Sussex chicks have gone to live with my friend and have apparently settled in well although I'm not sure if Herbertson has started crowing yet and how well that will go down with her neighbours! The Welsummer chicks have moved in with the bigger hens and apart from some argy-bargy between the two young cockerels, all is well. Sadly I have ha a few losses on the poultry front, including my little Rhode Island Red bantam hen which was very sad, so there have been a few coop-swaps and a few new purchases, and a few new ones on the way! :-)

Herbert on 6 Buff Sussex bantam eggs

I have another hen sitting on another 6 BSB eggs and once hatched, these will all go to a lady who wanted hatching eggs but then both my hens went broody so I said I'd get her chicks instead...

My knitting has had to go on the back burner but I still enjoy a weekly meeting with Nicky as part of our Country Crafter's Guild. She has recently started spinning, dyeing and looming (find her at WarpsiDaisies on Facebook and Etsy) and has produced some lovely textiles:

Organic cotton tea towel

Time for tea and then a trip up to the allotment methinks! Have a good Sunday :-)

Reaping Rewards

June is proving to be an abundant time of year - I've been so busy! The garden is full of colour and the hens are enjoying being able to bask in the sun. Although the days are long (getting up at 6 and going to bed at 10) there is plenty to show for it as the weather has been consistently fine. The allotment has produced buckets and buckets of strawberries already with more to pick, and the raspberries have ripened.

I've made two batches of jam - strawberry and Muddleberry (strawberry, raspberry and rhubarb) and for the first time, used proper jam sugar with the latter. I wasn't terribly impressed with the results - it tasted very sharp but in an artificially acidic way rather than pleasant tartness, whereas although I had to boil the straight strawberry for ages, the jam is mild and sweet and fragrant. I did use the Muddleberry for making a simple ice-cream - 500ml each of thick sweet custard (Bird's!), full fat natural yogurt and jam. I have a small freezer which isn't butch enough to use an ice-cream maker so I had to take it out an whisk/beat it a few times and it's still a bit sorbet-ish and crystalline but it's very good considering the simplicity.

I've not done much baking recently as a) the kitchen and lounge are too messy to contemplate it and b) there seems to be too much to do outside, but I'm hoping to be inspired by this recent purchase:

This book has been in my Amazon basket for a while but I then found it in a charity shop for £1.99! I get so bored of cooking especially when I see so many other things that need doing so it becomes a chore to be slotted in among myriad other demands but I'm looking forward to sitting down with a cuppa and reading through - it's had very good reviews. I've also ordered a cloche from Bakery Bits as my oven isn't terribly reliable and this particular piece of kit should iron out any fluctuations in temperature and help the bread cook evenly. Some of the recipes I want to try are Rolled oat and apple bread and Red wine loaf with pine nuts and figs. 

Early Summer

It has been a busy last few weeks with poultry, swarms and um, other stuff which has taken up my time but I now can't think of what...

The chicks are growing well and now that the nights are milder, are in the broody coop with Beatrice, and enjoying their daily explore of the garden under her watchful eye:

Ooooh!

The chick I thought was a boy I now think is a girl, and the white 'hen' seems to have a prominent comb already. I tried to talk myself round to it just being because it's a white chick so it shows up more but it's seeming less and less convincing!

Son of Henry

I really wanted a white hen as since Peggy (Amber Star hybrid) had to be put down due to a kidney infection, all the chickens have been varying shades of brown. Ho hum, I'm sure he'll be a handsome chap like his dad tho so I'll keep him as a replacement. The other two 'Welsummer' chicks (either the hens were running with another cockerel and retained his semen for longer than I'd anticipated, or Henry is not a pure Welsummer) are orangey-brown and have smaller combs so fingers crossed. I am pretty sure the two Buff Sussex bantams are pullets though, which would be brilliant as I need to replace the two taken by rats; I still feel pretty sad about that incident to be honest.

In other news, we've rescued a baby bunny from nextdoor's cat - it sadly didn't make it but it was a little poppet:

Ketchup, the young bunny

Clearly it wasn't a victim of my cat who is now on a diet due to his sedentary lifestyle - thankfully the rat problem seems to have lessened now it's getting on to summertime and the spring traps I bought have caught a few.

My allotment has been a bit neglected as I've been so busy elsewhere but a session with the girls saw off most of the burgeoning willowherb. The slugs have had a wonderful time as I'm the only person who doesn't use pellets, but I was delighted to see that the sheet of corrugated iron I left in a sunny spot has encouraged a large and expert slug-eater:

A warty friend

As Amber and Rose were with me, it had to be named, so meet Todd the Toad. I'm really hoping I might get slow-worms as I love them! I'm not sure if hedgehogs frequent the area; I hardly ever see them these days. I read an interesting article in Permaculture Mag about slug control: as usual, the more the ecology is fiddled with, the more problems you have. So, if you do everything to encourage natural predators the balance will be restored. Using pellets or even nematodes discourages the birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians from coming in, hence the problems the minute you don't use any control, or miss a bit. Utilising slugs and snails as food for beneficial animals means the predators will patrol the area looking for food on a regular basis and do a far more efficient job with none of the negative side effects. However, I would like to fence off my plot so I can take my ace slug hit squad up there periodically for a sweep:

Be afraid, be very afraid

I've not had much time for knitting recently but I have picked up some art - a timely and excellent birthday present from a like-minded friend has inspired me to pick up my pencil and paper and I'm loving it, to the point where I see something and my first thought is to want to draw it rather than photograph it. I'm only getting proper time to indulge about once a week but I'm hoping to start a sketchbook as well as galloping through A3 printer paper for my practise exercises, and a trip to Tate Modern beckons...

A Birthday Treat

My birthday this year happily fell on the same day as the Antiques Fair at Ardingly. We'd visited there for the first time at the end of last year so I was interested to go again (when hopefully the weather wouldn't be quite so cold and dreary).

I had a few things in mind to keep an eye out for - a stoneware pot and wooden masher for making vegetable sauerkraut, maybe some bedlinen, possibly some cutlery; it's difficult to predict what's going to be there! Last time I saw a fantastic carousel horse....

It was quite busy:

This is just one of the halls

I did see a gorgeous toile de joie (is that how you spell it?) bedspread which now adorns my four-poster, and found myself an antique stoneware pot from France, as well as a masher with a lovely smooth handle from years of wear. A cheese knife, and an old chipped enamel dish for sempervivums too. The girls enjoyed themselves and spent their £20 wisely.

The cat approves of the new bedspread

I have also had the first crop of honey from the bees, and first crop of chicks too! (See waywardbee.blogspot.com for that update.) The weather has turned a bit cooler and we've had a welcome drop or two of rain which the allotment has definitely needed, but the garden is waking up now and soon the bees will be thinking about swarming! Busy times ahead :-)

Jars of raw honey

Twelve Years Old

My youngest turned 12 recently, and because her birthday fell on a Sunday, we could extend the fun across the weekend. Friday involved a sleepover, Saturday was Stagecoach and then tea with grandparents, and Sunday was a day of treats and time with my daughter.

Thankfully, Rose was happy to be dragged come along to a Poultry Show and Sale on the Sunday morning but alas, no hens were suitable to join our flock, although we did have tea and cake and admired the Pekin bantams who were all very cute. Lunch consisted of vegan burgers in home-made buns with oven-baked potatoes, at Rose's request. In the afternoon, Rose asked if we could go to the allotment (she really did ask) as we have just become new tenants of a plot in the next village. The shed was painted and weeding was done and we found lots of worms as we forked through the soil. The allotments are situated on a fruit farm so we're all looking forward to spring blossom time as the view will be spectacular! Once the flask of tea had run out we headed home for vegan carrot cake with cashew frosting which was just absolutely delicious! Rosie's decision to explore veganism has been challenging at times but we've made some great finds and it's been good for me to get out of the rut of baking and cooking the same old stuff all the time.

So, it was low key and understated, but we had a lovely weekend, celebrating in our own inimitable style!

Kitchen Cultures

First came sourdough, then kefir grains, then sauerkraut. Moving on to cultured buttermilk and sourdough friendship cake, I'm now fermenting mixed corn for my poultry so that they can benefit from friendly bacteria.....

I purchased a book called "The Art of Fermentation" by Sandor Ellix Katz, a large, orange tome giving an easily read yet well researched basis for all things fermenty. It's an absolutely fascinating subject (it really is) and does an excellent job of reconnecting ourselves with the food we eat, and the nutritional availability of that food. There's home made and home grown and home cooked, but this adds a whole other level, as you're using the very air you breathe and the water you drink and the warmth and humidity of your immediate environment to create a unique foodstuff for your personal consumption - it's actually part of you and your home in a real sense and I find that fascinating.

I've been feeding my sourdough starter with organic rye flour and tap water, and it lives in a kilner jar with the lid on but minus the rubber gaskit ring to allow for release of any excess gases; same storage for the sauerkraut. The kefir grains are fed on raw milk, and the buttermilk is cultured from raw milk, then propagated with pasteurised organic whole milk, both in jam jars with the lid screwed on. The sourdough cake batter is technically a friendship cake recipe but I'm keeping it for myself, although I have given away one batch so I think that counts....does it?

A bucket of grain is soaking in the kitchen and I'll see if I can ferment that for the chickens, as they require a community of bacteria to digest the food in their crops. I have been giving them kefir and excess sourdough starter which they enjoy. Once I could get my head around the idea of fresh food existing in a state of bacterially-maintained equilibrium in these days of sell by and use by dates, it really made a lot of sense. Allowing the good and healthful organisms (from our perspective) to flourish keeps the less desirable ones in check. It's been going on for time immemorial and we have evolved to utilise these bacteria in our own systems - most people I would guess recognise the worth of say, yogurt and its beneficial cultures and different fermented foods are just other members of the family.

It also saves on fridge space; my worktop now has a beautiful array of jars and pots and bowls contentedly doing their thing with a gentle stir here, or a quick sniff there to check they're happy.

A Lifelong Ambition

Yesterday I achieved something I've been wanting to do since I was a young girl. My favourite book when I was growing up was this, the Usborne Naturetrail Omnibus:

I was, and continue to be, a keen amateur naturalist if that's not too grandiose a term (not, as I was corrected once, a keen 'naturist'.....) and one of the pages that always fascinated me was this one, about owl pellets:

 

I have never found one, and although I am aware that you can buy them for dissection purposes, it just wouldn't be the same; there wouldn't be that connection with place and time and the feeling of happening upon a moment with nature.

On yesterday's morning dog walk up through the copse of Scot's Pine, I spotted what looked like a large dark grey pine cone, which on closer examination - including a quick sniff to make sure it wasn't poo of some description - I took to be a pellet. We get tawny, barn and little owls around here, as well as buzzards and kestrels nesting in the copse. Cradling the frozen pellet in my gloved hand, I walked back home and put it in an old dish to warm up a bit so I could investigate.

I found this PDF from the RSPB about studying owl pellets and deduced after a surprisingly relaxing and hugely absorbing hour or so with tweezers and disposable gloves, that I had a pellet which had emanated from a tawny owl with a predilection for wood mice. The diminutive size of the bones was rather enchanting and I must admit, not remotely morbid! Sadly I didn't discover any rat bones which would have been quite welcome. Mandibles, a skull, teeny ribs and femurs: just incredible.

Maybe such a find wouldn't put a grin on many people's faces but I was thrilled to finally realise this long-held ambition!

Super-Duper Coop

Following the sad demise of Esme, the Buff Sussex bantam, the new coop has now arrived and been put together. I decided to have a bit of a swap around, so in fact Hugo the Buff Sussex cockerel and his three hens are now in a Cottage Hen House whilst Simba and his four girls get the new Haven coop. The Haven is bigger than the Cottage and Hugo and co have an extra run so the bigger footprint of the Haven is more appropriate for the larger sub-flock...

I must just say that as a company, Flyte So Fancy are absolutely terrific. The products are well thought out and it is clear that they are designed by someone who actually keeps poultry. The attention to detail is brilliant and the customer service exemplary. I noticed a large crack on the handle of the henhouse when I unwrapped the flat pack (the deliveries don't have to be signed for and I was out when it arrived) and so I sighed and emailed them a photo of the dinged section. I put my iPad down to finish bringing in the panels when my daughter called me to say there was someone on the phone for me - James at Flyte So Fancy! He apologised for the breakage and said that as the length of wood with the handle was screwed rather than nailed on, he would send me out a replacement that afternoon so it would be with me either Saturday or Monday. He reassured me that the integrity of the coop was not compromised by the lack of handle so if I didn't mind making do with the broken section for a couple of days, I could go ahead and construct the coop. No quibble, no fuss and having been on the receiving end of appalling excuses from another company that have sent out goods that have been damaged it is always such a relief to order from such a reputable firm.

So, those hens are now safe from rats and foxes. I did notice rat droppings and a stash of food in one of the other coops so I am worried that they have been running up in there during the day and making a little rodent nest. I daren't keep the popholes shut though as it's such a cold wind at this time of year and the hens often retreat to the shelter of the house to escape the weather. I've been checking vigilantly and since doing so there's not been a problem....

The Haven Henhouse

Rats in the Coop

Rats are a perpetual problem with poultry and to be fair, I tend to take a bit of a view as it's impossible to clean up every scrap of spilt food each night, and there are sheds and hedges and the carport and all manner of places for them to hide. However, I have had to review that attitude since losing one of my gorgeous little Buff Sussex bantams to a rat attack.

I noticed Gloria had blood around her vent and feet, so bathed her cuts in warm saline solution and used gentian spray on her wounds. Putting her in the puppy crate in the shed with food and water, I also put her on antibiotics to address any secondary infection and assumed perhaps a fox had tried to snatch her through the wire.

The following day, I let the hens out of the coop and saw that Esme, the other Buff Sussex bantam was looking hunched up with a mess of damp feathers around her back end. I bathed her too and rang the vet. He diagnosed vent pecking (where the hens peck at the rear end of another hen, usually while the vent is distended and reddened just before laying an egg) but I didn't agree as a) that doesn't tend to happen at night when the hens are calm and it's too dark for them to see and b) the bantams roost on the low perch and the larger hens on the high one so I didn't see how they could have found the bantams to peck...

Sadly, little Esme looked so terrible this morning I took her back to the vet and he put her to sleep. Having cleaned out the coop yesterday I found a few rat droppings and the pophole had been gnawed at the slightly warped edge, producing a small access hole. So, whilst Gloria is still in the shed recuperating, I have blocked the front door of the coop with a metal grid and will do this until the replacement coop arrives.

The coop I've chosen is the Haven Hen House and as a long-time devotee of Flyte So Fancy, I'm confident that the hens will be safe from predators as well as damp and cold. I'd made the coop they're currently in for when I had a large cockerel who couldn't negotiate his way up the ladders, but Emu is now no more and it's time to pension off the home-made house in favour of something more fit for purpose. I will cut a large opening in the front so the hens can still use it as a shelter so it won't be wasted.

Hopefully Gloria will recover her faculties and soon be fit, well, and back laying eggs. I have the two other Buff Sussex bantam hens with Bertie, their rooster, so I'll be putting a couple of eggs under the first broody hen I have so that I can rear some replacements.

Gloria, looking quite perky in
the puppy crate

Let's Hear it for the Boys

One of the advantages of going to the feed merchant is picking up a magazine to browse through with a cuppa once all the animals are in bed. Practical Poultry is a fave, not least because they have a lovely pin-up poster in the centrefold and it's always of a stunning-looking cockerel. The temptation to pull it out carefully and stick it on my wall as I used to do with pop heart-throbs is enormous though as yet unrealised.

There is an excellent article in this month's edition (Issue 131, December 2014) called 'The Cockerel Conundrum' highlighting the sad fact that for every hen produced commercially, there is a brother who probably doesn't get to spend more than 24 hours of this world as they are gassed and put in to the pet-food freezer for pythons, falcons and other such beneficiaries. The genetics to make an excellent laying hen mean the males are worthless and useless and literally a waste product as it's not like the old days when the females laid some eggs through the year and the boys would be reared for meat as utility breeds are not specialised enough for today's market; it's exactly the same with the dairy cattle industry.

The problem of too many males is of course the same for domestic hatching with many people brooding a batch of eggs, some of all of which could be unwanted cockerels. These end up in all sorts of horrendous situations such as being dumped for a fox to get, or put in the paper under 'Free to good home' just to be dispatched unceremoniously or worse, in pain and suffering. However, at least the offspring can potentially be reared for meat depending on the parentage.

I think it's a huge shame that urban henkeepers are obliged to be cockerel-free because of the perceived nuisance of crowing. It seems bizarre when the songbirds' dawn chorus is mourned for being lost, or swamped by car alarms, drunken revellers, dogs barking and sirens yet a cockerel announcing the beginning of another day is somehow abhorrent. Are we that detached from our agricultural roots? Besides, anyone who keeps hens knows that the girls can make quite a racket when they see something unnerving, lay an egg or run out of food. Cockerels are a charming addition to the flock as he will balance the hierarchy and find nice things for the girls to eat (theoretically) and generally add a certain flair to the proceedings. They are equally if not more characterful than the females, and the plumage can be beyond handsome.

A solution is to cull the males, however, this to me is not as straightforward as it's sometimes portrayed. I wouldn't be able to do it. Not only would I struggle to actually kill one of my birds for all sorts of pathetic anthropomorphic reasons as well as lacking the necessary technique, but I don't have anywhere to process the bird, even if I did know how to dispatch it humanely. It seems odd that if one owns a pig, or a cow then one can contact an abattoir and a butcher and if both are willing, the deed can be done for a single or small number of animals in a legislated and skilled environment and then the meat returned having been professionally taken care of.

Anyway, it would present less of a problem if the boys were held in higher esteem instead of being viewed as a troublesome inconvenience. With beekeeping, there is a similar view about drones, the male bees. A lot of beekeepers remove the comb with drone brood as they are seen as a drain on the resources in the hive but once again, we are skewing the natural balance without knowing the whole story. Cockerels are not dispensable but without the forethought to produce a reasonable meat bird from the males and accessible facilities to process them, they will need to be enjoyed for who they are. I think they're great :-)

Eggs

It was my son's birthday on Thursday and college commitments mean we're celebrating this afternoon; a cake is required. I had a frisson of enjoyment at cracking the eggs for his lemon drizzle cake as it's been such a long time since I've used any! I've had to prioritise my customers and even then I've had to reduce the numbers I've been selling so that everyone can have a few. I know some people artificially light their coops so that the hens still lay but as I don't cull my hens at the end of their productive life, I figure I'm just extending their laying capabilities if I let them have a rest in the winter.

The pure breeds seem to be coping with their annual moult much better than the hybrids as they just get on with it and look pretty terrible and moth-eaten for a few weeks but apart from hunkering down more than usual, they've been fine. The 2 year old hybrids though...they've been off their food, squabbling, hunched up, lost all their feathers in patches off their bottoms or necks or shoulders. I suppose selective breeding for constant egg production has compromised their ability somewhat to moult normally.

It is a bit annoying when you've got cakes to make and customers to please but I guess it is yet another thing that we've lost any sense of seasonality over and giving the hens a decent rest during the cold dark months is what nature intended. Although the hybrids are great, I'm leaning more towards the traditional breeds but of course they won't lay much (anything!) from November to February minimum. Maybe I need to breed chicks that will hatch at such a time that they'll be potentially laying over winter in their first year, thereby reducing the need for replacing the egg machines as buying new hens is expensive and I've had some duds in my time.

I did get some prebiotic and probiotic tonics from Flyte So Fancy and this has definitely perked up the birds, especially Maud and Peggy, the Goldline and Amber Star who seemed completely disinterested in everything. Their appetites have improved and they are now scratching about in the woodchips and there's a lot less squawking and arguing.

Cora the RIR bantam looking a bit moulty
around the neck area

Sourdough, and a Duck

In the same way that spring triggers a hormonal response in my call ducks, the reduced light and cooler weather of autumn subtly changes me. No longer do I want to spend every waking hour in the garden or outside; painting, baking, reading and knitting become my activities of choice.

Having discovered this recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall thought I'd resurrect the idea of a starter to ring a change from the regular bread I usually make (I can't bear sliced supermarket bread although the children love it. Why??) and even though my previous attempts a few years ago weren't terribly successful, well - nothing ventured etc. I do sometimes struggle with the idea of yet another thing to look after and try and keep happy and content with daily ministrations but this recipe gives some hints as to how to forgo that occasionally so I can have a few days off from parenting a jar of fermenting gloop...

Of course, the first go is always going to be tricky and I realised it has a whole different rhythm to regular bread so didn't complement my other baking I was doing regarding oven use and me having to go out at one point but - BUT! I followed the recipe exactly, no short cuts or 'clever' ideas, and wow, it is just like sourdough! I'm thinking a proving basket would be a nice Christmas present now.

Just out of the oven

Cut to reveal texture
(And so I could eat the crust slathered with butter)

I was really pleased!

With less demands on the poultry and bee front (although I am putting together a Beehive Adoption plan to roll out next year - more of that on my other blog, WaywardBee) I've picked up my watercolours again. I love painting, largely because as yet I don't have any sort of neurotic perfectionist agenda with it and simply enjoy the process. I copy photos, am seriously lacking in any technical ability and never plan or think through what I'm trying to achieve. I get so absorbed in observing what I'm painting though and have some excellent watercolours which are a pleasure to work with so despite the lack of frame-able results I can easily spend an hour happily entertained and still feel pleased with what I've managed to produce:

Autumn?

I keep thinking autumn is here and then it gets really hot and sultry again. I'm hoping this will bring out the autumn colours as the leaves are just starting to turn. There is wet weather forecast for next week though so I'm trying to get a few bits done while it's dry and solid underfoot.

The bees are loving the ivy and continued flowering of the Himalayan balsam (it'll get zapped by the first frost and vanish) so for once I am fairly confident about their prospects over winter. It was so mild last year that they didn't really quieten down so got through a lot of stored honey but they are full to bursting with the long dry summer we've had.

I've bought a new extension run for my hens which is fox proof and gives them more height to perch, preen and flap their wings. It's more open too so I can see them more easily through the kitchen window.

Jason, Pippa, Amelia, Peggy
Daisy and Maud

There are 6 chickens in here - 3 bantams and 3 hybrids and I'll get some more polycarbonate sheeting for the roof and also the sides to protect them from the weather. There's a local supplier of hardwood chips which I will be able to put on the floor of the run as this drains well and will stop the hens getting too mucky and wet. They've all just been wormed and the houses have been treated for red mite so they are ready for the winter now.

They are ploughing the field behind my house which is making dog walking a bit of a chore as it's hard work up the field over the clay. I feel obliged to stamp out a trail along the designated footpath though as otherwise everyone wanders around the headland and I get other people's dogs in the garden, or my dog does his usual defensive-aggressive teeth-gnashing thing at passers by which is all rather embarrassing. The seagulls were doing a fantastic synchronised dance in front of the tractor as it went up the field, but they do make a real racket!