New Year

We celebrated New Year's Eve with a game of Cluedo using Charles' adaptations to extend the game, as in addition to having to work out the room, person and weapon, he has extra cards for the time of day and motive - it was great :-) so Amber won having deduced it was Mrs Peacock, in the lounge, with the rope, in the early evening, due to insanity...

I have been doing some knitting in front of the television, and managed to complete my beehive tea cosy. I wanted to make a little one as I'm not following a pattern, so there would be less to unpick when inevitably went wrong. Anyway, I need to modify the pattern a bit and work out the decreasing rather better, but as a first attempt, I am quite pleased:

The weather has been awful this afternoon but we did pop over to Arundel while it was still fairly bright. We saw 4 snipe and the usual selection of ducks, like these lovely shelducks:

The girls had great fun in the cafe sticking all their straws together, whilst Charles and I watched very miserable-looking gadwall, mallards, tufted ducks and pochard sitting in the lake with the rain pouring down on them.

We called in at the antique bookshop on the way home:

I bought a book called 'The Complete Stitch Directory' for knitting, crochet, embroidery and needlepoint, and the girls each got a book too.

Yesterday I had moved the dustbath/perchery station that the hens have so far studiously ignored, and put it in the garden so the chicks at least could use it - they perch on anything. However, all the hens have discovered that the bike port is dry:

Hmm.

I have had a bit of a rough run with my chicken-owning over the last few days. Daisy, one of my original four hens, developed sour crop and after a consultation with the vet, we agreed the kindest thing would be for her to be put to sleep. Then yesterday, Maud suffered a prolapse, and given that it would be more than likely to happen again, she also had to be put down. I felt pretty rotten to be honest. I have decided to wait until the end of January when the local supplier at Martins Wood Farm gets a new supply of hybrids, and go and choose some then.

The children have just left to have 24 hours with their dad, so I have a night off. I've got Charlie Bighams steak and ale pies ready to go in to the oven and there are a couple of good programs on tv so I have my knitting at the ready for an evening on the sofa, on the right hand side so I don't jab Charles with my elbow :-)

Happy New Year everyone!

Time

We all had a great Christmas: my parents came over on Christmas Day for lunch and my Mum brought home made crackers

and the children had the usual present-fest that started ridiculously early - even Tristan said he didn't know why he'd woken up (he got an iPod for his birthday so I hadn't budgeted for anything extra!) but I think they all had fun. I was rather stricken by a migraine in the evening which was gonna happen given all the sorting out I did the previous day :-/ my housework allergy again. Anyway I felt a bit better quite quickly so was able to recover sufficiently to knit my socks during the Downton Abbey Christmas Special. These socks are from a pattern Nicky gave me rather than the gumboot ones and I'm using a beautiful 4 ply wool, again from the Natural Dye Studio, called Sweet Pea:

It's such a doddle after all the stranded things I've been knitting recently although I've fudged the reductions a bit so they'll probably be wonky when I stitch them together. I'm ploughing on with the Encompass circular scarf and I seem to be getting the hang of it, luckily - I'm now on to pale yarn and it's easier to hide mistakes in black!

I had some lovely presents too, including a new Moleskine diary and a Passions Garden journal which is brilliant - I can't wait to start filling in all the sections. Fab pair of leather boots too which are completely waterproof, as it pays to be practical where I live.

Charles and I made a quick trip to Arundel WWT yesterday as my parents kindly offered to have the children for a couple of hours. We saw snipe, teal, a kingfisher and had a cracking view of 2 male bullfinches on a bramble bush only a few feet away from the hide. Unfortunately the peregrine didn't make an appearance, although the teal and all the other ducks probably appreciated that fact.

Nicky put me on to a good website, Devon Fine Fibres, who also have a good blog so will add it to my list. I am looking forward to getting on with things in January now as I find it difficult to focus during this week-in-the-middle. I feel I should be tidying up and planning things for next year but I don't have the sightest motivation for either :-D

Ducks Galore

Charles had a day off today so we took him to Arundel Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, as he'd never been. It's a special place for me as it was where I realised that with so many superb resources around us, the children would benefit from spending their time at places like the WWT reserves rather than stuck in a classroom, and my decision to home-educate was made. It also reminds me of my childhood as we used to visit there when I was little and feed the Hawaiian geese...I think they are probably the same geese as they are very long-lived. Tristan even put down his iPod long enough to feed them:

As did the girls:

I was in duck heaven :-)

It was a beautiful day, unbelievably mild for November:

How anyone spots a bird in that lot is beyond me, let alone fathom whether it is a sedge, reed or Cetti's warbler...

They have electric boats at the reserve and we took a trip, and the guide stopped the boat for us to watch one of the resident water voles in the bankside vegetation. It is such a lovely way to see the wildlife as it is silent and drifts along gently - a bit like a hot air balloon but on the water. The ducks were starting to roost in the reeds as we went past, so it was a great way to round off our visit.

Charles also had a chance to see the guineas:

Milly

Molly

Cute aren't they? All my ducks were fine in our absence, and I had let the big chickens out for a run this morning before we left. While they were in the field I put lots of treats in their run for them to enjoy through the day, but as soon as I went back in the kitchen I heard Henry bok-bokking in the run and he was picking up all the sultanas and corn and showing the girls. Well I tried :-/