Quilts and Chickens

It's been a long three weeks but we have been patient. Changing the water each day and supplying fresh food for our broody. I have been chatting to her (yes...I know!) and this evening she rewarded my witterings with allowing me to see what is going on under her wing.

We have a teeny tiny beak!

One egg has lost a tiny piece of shell and there is a little beak poking through the membrane.

Just the one at the moment, and I am totally hands off - after all, I am a midwife in training and there is no need a the moment to intervene - however, I do have my SCBCU (yes there is an extra letter in there - Special Care Baby Chick Unit) ready scrubbed and set up just in case! Of course, in chicken-midwifery one reason to be completely hands off (alongside the fact that there is no need to fiddle with nature) is in order for her not to then reject or eat the eggs because they smell of human and it scares her. From day 18, you need to not touch or pick her up at all - really hard to resist when you just want to have a wee peek...but it's a great learning curve for the future, waiting is rewarding.

Clinic in operation

Incubation and heating lamps

So I will keep you updated with the progress of baby one and mummy over the weekend as we hope that by Sunday we may have one new member of the clan, if not more?

So far as life has been speeding by, I've been working a lot this week so it seems that my feet have hit the ground running as Mr Beehive has been away in Istanbul for the week too.
This weekend I'm not working, so am looking forward to the sunshine that has been predicted and probably the usual shenanigans of British Barbecues and sunburned skin!

My friend Emma's son, Arthur, turns one in July, so I have been busy at the quilting again. It turns out it's pretty addictive. I've made him a small quilt in some very jolly and almost aboriginal colours and patterns. I'm calling it Uluru! Hopefully he'll like it...okay, so scrap that, I'd prefer Em to like it because I honestly suspect Arthur won't give a flying fig!

Finally we're still doing renovations to the house. This week we had someone around to strip the lintels as we're having double glazing put in. Of course, in a house this old, one job is never just that. One job, it would seem leads to a plethora of other jobs - rather like a Russian doll...or the magic porridge pot. We have bowing lintels, the worst of which is under LMB's room (do you remember the tree that nearly hit her room when it fell down in CT? - it would seem she is jinxed!).

Obviously we need to repair this, for her landing on our laps in the living room on a Friday night would seriously upset our evening ;-)

Oh and she's lost another tooth, so we're raining in spit and lisps this weekend too - poor lovey, but she does look cute!

Theee, I've lotht two teeth!

Have an Eggciting weekend, I hope we will !

Spiffnicking

What is it with teeth?
No, rephrase that, what is it with hanging off teeth that just cling on by a thread?
No, rephrase that even; what is it with hanging off teeth that just cling on by a thread, owned by a seven years old who loves to push it forward with her tongue?
Eugh!
Childbirth I can do, watching suturing I can do, blood I can do, teeth...I cannot!

I do think though that some of the eugh factor comes from the fact that LMB actually enjoys making me squirm! That one is for the stage if ever I saw it.

This afternoon we had lost Master Beehive the younger to cub camp and we headed off to a Jazz afternoon in the park with a picnic. We went with a full mouth of teeth but came back one less after she insisted on pulling it out so she could eat cucumber!

Of course we were stoically British, eating our picnics under a grey, cloudy sky with smidgens of sunshine every half hour, and a bitterly cold wind. We Brits will not let anything destroy our desire for cucumber sandwiches, sausage rolls, hard boiled eggs and warm lemonade in plastic cups.

When it is really cold, even two people can get in a poncho!

That said, the bar set for British picnic food has seriously gone up in the world these days!
A cucumber sandwich eaten with a flask of luke warm tea on a plaid picnic blanket will no longer pass for a decent fare when having a picnic - oh no sireee! Today the spread around us (not ours I hasten to add) consisted of quiches, salads (in bowls with servers!), olives, pinwheel wraps, sushi (!!!), individual cheesecakes, bottles of wine, bottles of beer. There were barely any picnic blankets - we were obviously the lower class of picnic goer, instead people brought tables - fair enough - and chairs - fair enough again, although I'm not sure there was quite the necessity for Cath Kidstonesque matching picnic chairs with wine holders (but perhaps I just don't understand the need yet?) - tablecloths, (which blow away unless...being a seasoned picnicker you will have brought your table clips), condiments, and vases of flowers!!!!!!!! Really? Perhaps we need a new name for this sport, after all, posh camping is known as glamping, perhaps the new trend we are setting ourselves is Spiffnicking?
Maybe, in my desire to be cynical, there is actually an in-born hardiness to all these Spiffnickers that us lesser picknickers don't appreciate? By tempting yourself outside to sit in the bitter cold with sunglasses and a woolly hat, there is some need for exotic goodies to entice oneself. Maybe the draw with the cucumber sani just isn't there otherwise?

I also wanted to show you the quilt I made yesterday on the course I went on. I'm chuffed to bits with it - a really useful quilt....lovely and warm... just big enough to wrap around yourself....when going on a picnic...if you remember to take it *sigh*!

Bank Holiday at The Beehive

It's finished! My dad has been here again this weekend and he and Mr Beehive have managed to secure one day of sunshine to finish the deck, just in time for bank holiday tomorrow and more forecasted rain! However, sun will come and sit on my deck with a nice cool drink I will! I think it'll look rather lovely with my hammock on there!

 Do you see what we'll have in full beautiful blue glory in a few days time?... Our own bluebell field.
The previous owners of this house put a lot of time into thinking through the planting of bulbs seasonally. From January through to early summer, this particular bed is just a mass of colour from aconites and snowdrops through to these beautiful bluebells and later on, aquilega. We've done a lot with this bed to try to remove the hideous couch grass that took over whilst we had tenants in for a year and finally this year we may get to appreciate it once again.

 And this is the new temporary home for our broody. We have tried all sorts to get her out of her funk, but after at least 2 weeks of trying, we have decided that the kinder thing would be for nature to take its course. I have no idea how this will turn out, but with the help of some useful websites (www.allotment.org.uk) and some more experienced friends, we now have her in her own space sitting on six aracauna eggs. We have no idea if these are fertile as they come with no guarantee and/if they'll hatch or she'll mother them. We have our indoor guinea pig cage and an infra red light on stand by just in case she decides that she's not cut out for motherhood after all, but fingers crossed she will be.

Oh ho, look greenhouse! That's a much better image for you.

So, a change for plans for my strawberries this year. Last year we planted out a plot of around 10 plants. The yield was around 10 strawberries! (That may well be an exaggeration!) The chickens decided in the autumn that the plants tasted rather nice, so we ended up with no more plants, no big deal really. They're truly more trouble than they're worth. Yes, it is nice to eat a homegrown fresh from the plant, however, after you've taken second dibbings to the slugs and the birds, it's hardly worth it. On a visit to the Edinburgh botanical gardens a couple of years ago I remembered a slightly more novel way in which they'd planted a few strawberries. So today using left over decking wood and other bits lying around, I cobbled together this frame for a growbag encased in hessian sacking. I now have 10 plants in a fraction of the space that was used on the ground and the slugs are in for a hard time if they're getting up there. The birds are still laughing, but once I get my fruit cage installed, hopefully it'll be egg on their faces!

Finally these two girlies have enjoyed the rare bit of early May sunshine today, a run in the fields this morning and then some cute nose rubbing with the guinea pigs in their run on the grass this afternoon, coupled with some chewing of wood cut offs from the decking - it's a fait accompli if you're a dog!





Have a lovely bank holiday whatever you're doing.

May

Why, hello grey skies and rain again!
May and we are still midst a drought and hosepipe ban and yet the rain pours. It is the wrong type of rain! Of course, you didn't know there was a right type did you?

Just two images taken by reporters from The Guardian this week:

Apparently, if this rain had fallen during the winter months, it would have filled the reservoirs, however, as it is falling now, during spring, all the lush vegetation is greedily using it up! I'm sure that the farmers and families whose land and homes are flooded right now are agreeing wholeheartedly with this concept *sigh* !

The British and their weather, no wonder we all understand irony!

However, I am happy for one thing, well, for three really; firstly my greenhouse was installed on Tuesday, so I don't much mind about the rain as it's not going to stop me getting out there to grow things now. I actually frighten myself at times how I am turning into the epitome of the person I never thought I'd be when I was a teenager. How on earth can a greenhouse fill me with so much excitement and love, but it does! As soon as I get my tomato plants from my mum I will take a few photos.

Secondly I had an unexpected day off yesterday. Of course, I could have been dutiful and used it wisely...no. scrap that, I did! I jumped on a train with my camera in tow and went to Camden Lock for the day. To be fair, not much photography took place as I spent so much time wandering and looking and people watching (and a wee bit of buying *guilt*) that the camera stayed in my bag! I must have walked around 10 miles round and around the market at the lock. I ate Lebanese sheshwara for lunch and drank Arabic coffee at one of the vendor's stalls and bought some lovely little gifts and clothing - my soul was truly refreshed.

Oh and the third thing...I nearly forgot; breakfast!
At breakfast this morning I was awarded a double yolker to go with my spinach and oatcakes - Obviously my girls don't mind the rain too much.


Today I'm back to the grindstone - next essay - off we go!

'You may turn over your papers'

I always find it truly amazing  that I can go from a fully grown, generally fairly confident and sensible woman to a jibbering wreck.
I can wake early in the morning and be indecisive - Do I get up? Do I feign sleep and stay in bed? When I get up, do I want coffee or will that be bad (bit late for that in my stage I life I hear you cry), perhaps tea that may calm my stomach...but I don't really drink tea...well, not builder's tea...dilemma, dilemma.

I can't eat, so that's out of the question, but then if I don't just eat a little something... my mother's voice by now has joined my own inside my head - it's quite a party in there believe me.

What to wear? OMG, what to wear? It needs to be comfy, you can't possibly sit there with a crotch splitter for two whole hours - so comfy, but not too hot...however right now I'm cold, in fact...no, I'm freezing...but if I put something on to warm me, I'll then need to get up and take it off...that might not be allowed, so then I'll just have to sit there and overheat...and what if I pass out because I'm too hot? Oh good grief - I might even VOMIT???!!!

Finally when clothing is decided upon, I need to go to the loo...no I don't, it's okay.

Oh, wait, hang on...yes I do. Erm, well okay, so a teeny teeny bit.

And pens - this is always a REALLY important point. Do I do biro - that hurts after too long writing, or ink - but that could smudge - and...god forbid...what if they run out?

Loo! I think I need to go again...do I? Yes, let's go. I may have even prolapsed my bladder to force that out!

And once there, the choice is almost too much.

The clock has started and we're off:

Are the questions the ones I wanted first of all, can I retain the information long enough to spew it henceforth onto the page, and...if I even get it down, did actually answer the bloody question correctly or have I in fact, missed the bleeding point entirely?

Do I know more about this question or that? Actually, maybe I know more about that subject but that question makes it easier to answer...decisions, decisions...ink pen or biro...I brought both, of course!

Two hours pass like 20 minutes.

And it's over.

Brought to my knees by 8 questions on an exam paper.

Tonight, we don't mean to, but the whole paper is replayed. Did I get that in? What did that question actually mean? Ten points for WHAT? I couldn't come up with ten facts for the ten points! The textbooks are meant to go away, but there is a sneaky look in them just to see what was missed. Why do I do this to myself? Then there is the facebook ping pong - the analysis of the paper, the texts fly back and forth.

And now...we wait!

Birthday boy

Today is Master Beehive the eldest's birthday. He is 12! Can you believe it. I have been writing this blog since he was five! It's been quite nostalgic looking back at his antics and the photos of his birthdays up to date.

From this...oh, alright, NEARLY from this, sadly he was born in the era of negatives and printing

so I don't have his early birthdays on the computer.

Age six

Age four here I think.

Age nine!

Age seven

Ten, I think!

Eleven

Such a dude now! Age 12

He went bowling and for pizza with his friends yesterday and today we're taking it easy. He's asked for roast gammon for dinner with an ice cream cake and he's been to buy his iPod touch that he saved for with his money. I guess we may now not see him again until he's thirteen ;-)

Mr Beehive (the very much oldest!) has been fixing me up some rather cool hanging guttering for my lettuce. He and my dad spent much of Easter weekend building a deck in the garden to hide the patches of earth and concrete that have been ruined by the fact that one of the previous owners of this house had stored diesel in concrete tanks underground.

We were unaware of this, but by law, we have to do something about it when we do know about it because, as you can imagine, if it leaches into the soil, it's an environmental hazard. 

It's not 'quite' the same as hitting oil in your garden, however, and we were soon considerably poorer with the professional draining and removal of the diesel and the tanks filling with concrete to prevent subsiding. This then left us with three ugly tank covers and nothing that would grow there. So it was decided upon that a deck would be the best idea.

I'm thrilled! All this has come out of my own and my dad's imagination and his creativity to be able to build this with Mr Beehive as his labourer ;-) We are intending to grow an eating grape over the top and a passion fruit (again, edible) and wish for lots of sunny English weather ;-)

Anyhoo - the lettuce thing came around from me being sent a 'pin' from a friend with these gutters down the side of a house. What an excellent idea! So lettuce...or strawberries maybe...although I have other imaginative ideas for those!

This week I have midwifery exams again, so Friday is the day of reckoning. I have just spent the last hour writing an attempt at a question...in all honesty, I think my hand might seize up before my memory...which is really saying something! I wish I could type my answers.

After this week, things are quieter for a couple of weeks, so I have treated myself to a Raggy Quilt workshop and we have cram packed our weekends before I start working on labour ward and may not see daylight again for around 4 months!

Still, I'm sure the boy will have an app for that on his new device...even if it's a direct line to a caffeine hotline to keep me awake after all the nightshifts!

Carbon conversations

Recently Mr Beehive and myself have been attending fortnightly meetings with other likeminded people from our own and neighbouring villages. We are meeting to run through a six week course called Carbon Conversations.

Basically the idea is that we look critically at our carbon output as a family/house and even community I guess if it gets that far...but we're still on baby steps; to look at ways to reduce it.

We initially filled in a crude footprint questionaire, I say crude, because the results don't really take into consideration the things you Do do they just look at what faults you have, so there is no trade value ;-). However, mine came back as a very low score of 8.63 tonnes a year, which is over 3 tonnes less than the national average.

My high scores were travel - not really surprising, and shopping. You could say not really surprising as we are a family of six, only this was done on a crude estimation of bedrooms and income not on bills. It presumes that because you earn over a certain amount and have a certain amount of bedrooms you must spend x amount more than the national average. There is no consideration for home grown veg or home produced food, eggs from your own birds, making your own clothes or those of your kids, using recycling or second hand clothes. So, as I said...before I started a mini rant...it's a bit crude.
Then Mr Beehive's score was done differently?! Weird. He, again, scored high for travel, but he is cutting back to two days working from home whenever he can, which will reduce a bit.

However, the course is great for new ideas. Despite the fact you think that you are already 'doing your bit', it's amazing how much you realise there is much more to do.
We have the solar panels and recycle our condensation and hot air to keep our water warm, we have wood burning stoves and an insulated loft, however, one area we fall down on in an old stone cottage is crappy window insulation.

We do have double glazed windo
ws but they are not with the recommended amount of space between them, so we are subjected to condensation, mould and cold...lovely!

Mr Beehive's task for the Easter break, along with deck building...that is for another blog post...was to ring and speak to some local glazing companies.

We are currently in a state of shock receiving back the quotes...our five year plan is hastily looking toward becoming a ten year plan with one window per year at this rate!

In the full throw of trying to be efficient and green one of my other 'ten year plans' after this degree is to try to get together a co-op for the village like we had in the US. It was a fantastic arrangement where people put together their larder/pantry lists once a month and we bulk bought in, so everyone got their goods from an eco store at a low cost because it was bought by the case load. We then had an evening per month where we all met at one of the organiser's homes and sorted the goods out ready for delivery or collection. I do have 'grand designs' on things...but check out these links for a bit of tree huggin' greenery today:

http://www.simondale.net/house/   I'm sure you've seen me post his hobbit hole on my blog before, but check out some of his links and the commencement of his new home!

http://www.plunkett.co.uk/index.cfm

http://www.sulgrave.org/Shop01.html

Such illusions I have!
If you have any experience of running a co op or village shop, or if you have your own five year plan, it'd be great to hear from you as this area is a little lacking in my neck of the woods!

Ah well, back to studying about Jaundice and the bladder as exams round two are next Friday.

Have a good Wednesday

Easter

We are home again and it is lovely to be home. We have had a wonderful week away visiting friends and cousins, but there is always something nice about snuggling up into your own bed. This morning I even slept in until I was joined by the smallest Beehive at 8am! How divine - it rarely happens!
I even awoke to yesterday's roast being transformed into a shepherd's pie for dinner this evening:

I have also been treated by a day of quiet and solitude today to study.

Even Pip and Meggie are relaxing.

Easter yesterday was just us this year, possibly the first time in a long time. I love to host; Easter, Christmas, birthdays, I would rather host than go visiting, but sometimes others like to host too, so this year we were just us.

I cooked and baked...twice....thanks to Master Beehive the younger's enthusiasm for all things chocolately and managing to drop the first lemon meringue cake all over the floor *sigh*. The second one was good though!

So, I am back at the grindstone and just literally jumping in here for five minutes break to add some photos of our few days.

This is my tidy workstation! Do you like the sign??
I am the world's best procrastinator as I've also made soup this morning instead of studying!


Here is the soup too along with the recipe:

Squash, chilli and ginger soup with coconut milk:
Fry one onion, two garlic cloves in some butter and oil.
Add the squash and gently sweat
Add a thumbsized piece of ginger and some fresh chilli and enough vegetable stock to cover.
Allow this to simmer for around 20 mins
Whizz in the liquidizer and add a sachet of coconut cream before you heat to serve.
It comes from one of the Covent Garden soup books and is delish!

Tomorrow my parents are coming as my dad is helping Mr Beehive to install a deck for my morning coffee in the summer months...well of course...every woman needs a coffee deck right? We have an area of the garden that gets the sun from early sunrise to around 5pm in the afternoon in the height of summer. For some reason, however, the grass won't grow, so we're going to put in a deck with a pergola over it so we can grow some grapes too...we will harvest our own wine before our time is up! I intend to put a small two person cafe style table and chairs there along with the chimenea and some plants...a perfect hidey hole (ha ha!)

For now, however, I just 'need' to download some more music and then I'll get back to the revision...I promise!

Forty is just a number!

So the bridge has been crossed over and, if I'm truthful, it wasn't so very painful.

A few weeks ago, I'm embarrassed to say, I was stuck in a dark hole of not wanting to turn forty.  It's not forty per se, or ageing myself that bothers me, it's just that it does seem so final a number for all the good things that happen - getting married, setting up home, starting a family, watching and celebrating friends get married and have children. Forty just seemed to be the age of no more babies, seeing friends divorce (potentially - thanks guys for not doing this, very proud of all of you celebrating hugely high numbers of years wed from 7 right up to 43 as we speak!!), watching illnesses set into parents and older friends (luckily we aren't seeing this either).
Forty seemed to be the age of watching those crow's feet spread and the hips fill chairs. Ridiculous I know as there is still so much of life to celebrate, I suppose I just love life so much. I have loved becoming a wife and developing my role and style, and having my children that I didn't want to cross the bridge so start on the road to watching my own children grow up to have children...just yet...I suppose I didn't want to say my own personal journey in having children is actually over.

 However, now, I will just aim to become a wise, grey haired matriarch holding my family and children's children within my embrace. I will aspire to sit on the stoop in my rocking chair in my future years rocking my future grandbabies to sleep and watching my own children find their ways in the world.

So I have given myself a jolly good slap. Forty is just a halfway point in the good stuff. Forty is the time to watch the harvest of what has been sown before and it isn't an end point of anything, just think of the things that are achieved by the over forty club...and add to that the fact that forty makes you far more comfortable in your own skin, it means you don't particularly worry about what people think over what you wear, you can say what you like (within reason) and get away with it, you can complain about the temperature of a meal or price of a dress without raising too many eyebrows. Forty is the age when you can actually do anything because you're not "too young" or "too old".

So, how did we celebrate? Well, my terribly, wicked, wonderful, scheming, amazing, much loved friends and family were all in it together! Listening patiently to my whining about no one being able to make a date or find the time or cash to commiserate with me. I'm actually quite surprised anyone wanted to attend after all the self pity that reeled out over the past three months. It really was all seeming quite downhill.

However, the man I inflicted myself upon some 14 years ago, and thought I knew inside out, appears to have somewhat of a cunning and scheming side to him. I won't go into huge detail, but will just share some of the wonderful photos of my special day with so many of my special friends and family, some of whom travelled a very long way and others of whom I've not seen for over 10 years due to the travelling we've been doing.

Sis, Bro and my eldest's god mum and one of my oldest pals, Annabel.

Gorgeous Em and her handsome son, and a handsome son of my own in the foreground

Really! THIS lady should be celebrating today, it was thanks to her that I'm here...and Dad of course!

Love these ladies in their shadies xx

The cake! Such a wonderful montage of me and my life. Thank you x

What a wonderful weekend. Forty rocks!

This week is Easter holidays and I've brought the children up to Edinburgh for a
to meet with our friends up here.

We're chilling out, visiting some of the Science festival, drinking ridiculously sickly hot chocolates with marshmallows, doing some shopping...thank you Anthropologie for moving to Edinburgh... dodging the snow, eating Middle Eastern food and catching up with friends...oh and not forgetting a visit to the Bear Factory - of course to purchase an Easter Bunny!

Have a great Easter weekend xx