REMIND YOU OF ANYONE?

 Had to buy this little fella - he reminded me of Dylan in this pose!

CHEERY THINGS ON A SUNNY DAY

 New strawberry bed made from a pallet that the horse bedding came on - the idea is that the fruit will grow on top of the wood & keep it nice & clean.

Morning cuddles...

Treacle tart...

Car boot buy...

Snoozing in the sunshine...

New shoes...

...and a nice cup of tea!

Hope you are all enjoying a lovely day.

SIT!

I'm sure Dylan thinks he is a comedian!

Two weeks ago we moved the horses home - it makes life so much easier & we see a lot more of them & the amusing & cute things they do too! This was Dylan getting up from having a nap - he sat like this for quite a while. He pulls faces too & I swear he knows that he is being funny.

SAD DAYS AT THE COTTAGE

Last week was a very sad one as we had a fox invasion. We have had hens for going on 10 years & have never lost one to a fox, they have lived out their natural lives. Last week we had a fox break in to the hen house by pushing up the floor & pulling the hens out. We didn't have the run on but never imagined that this would happen when they were locked in at night.
Sadly, one of the hens was Tinkerbell, one of our first hens who we had had for 9 years who was a real pet.

Just one hen escaped the massacre - Fluffy Feet, pictured below.

 

We immediately added the run so that Mr Fox couldn't get under the house & temporarily moved the hen house up near the house & made a pen with electrified poultry netting.

Poor Fluffy Feet looked very depressed & just sat inside the house forlornly.

I decided that she needed some new friends to cheer her up, so Bluebell & Jessie have arrived to keep her company. They are young hens & have settled in very quickly, learning how to go up the ladder to bed in no time.

 On the second day that they were here one of them laid an egg so I'm looking forward to having lovely fresh eggs again. Fluffy isn't laying yet after winter but she is about 5 years years old now so won't lay as often as the younger girls.

We live near a free range egg farm & one of the fields has been cleared of chickens - I think that the fox must have been feasting there but is now looking further afield as my neighbour has lost half a dozen hens too. We are going to have to keep them penned in with the electrified fencing to keep the murderer out. In the meantime Toby is on fox watch!

PERFECTLY POACHED

 

As it's almost 'egg time' I thought I'd let you know about a great product I found recently. This is not a sponsored post or anything - it's just something that I have found to be very good & useful.

I love poached eggs but can never get them quite right by just putting them into boiling water. I don't know if it is because my eggs are too fresh - straight from the hen house - but they tend to go all ribbony or the yolk & white separates.

I came across these in Lakeland & decided to give them a try.

They are little pouches made from paper.

First of all bring a pot of water to the boil & pop a pouch into a cup or glass 

 (or two if you want more!)

 

Crack your egg into the pouch.

Simply drop them into the boiling water & the tops seal together themselves. 

Time your eggs - I find that 3 minutes on the Aga boiling plate is perfect - 

I like my egg yolks a bit runny.

Take the pouches out & put them on some kitchen roll to soak up a bit of water, open the pouches & plop the eggs onto your toast - perfectly poached!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Hope all you mummys, grannys, aunts, sisters, daughters, cousins & friends have a lovely day today!

V&H FAIR PHOTOS

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