Its a fact of life that chickens will only lay for a few years. They may live until they are ten but there productive life according to farmers is only 18 months – maximum, it may even be shorter than that. This even includes the free range hens eggs that some people truly believe are free range and that they roam in open fields and have enough room to allow the grass to grow and the hens have enough room that hen pecking is not a problem.

I am sure there are hens like that in small holdings, but I fear the commercially raised free range hen does not have this type of freedom.

I am no activist, I eat meat, I will if eating chicken away from home generally be eating battery farmed hens. But I can raise my own eggs, so I do.

Our hens had reached the age of six, which meant that they had almost stopped laying. One to two eggs a week is simply not enough for a family of four. The time had come, the deed was done humanely, quickly and sensitively. We kept the Auracana for two reasons, firstly she is younger than the rest, so may still lay some eggs for us next year. And secondly, she can show the young hens the ropes such as how to use the feeder, (you have to peck it and then it releases a few grains of food – it keeps them busy and active) and also how to roost, as I very much doubt these hens have learnt to do this yet.

We set off to The Domestic Fowl Trust having phoned first to check that they had the birds we were interested in. These are Rhode Rocks, which is a hybrid of a Rhode Island Red and a Barred Plymouth. They lay extremely well in excess of 300+ eggs per bird per year, they also lay well for four years.

I have enjoyed having rare and old breeds in the back garden and although generally much prettier to look at the time had come to purchase the ultimate egg laying machine. And this is as good as it gets. Four of these birds won’t be too much work, will lay through the winter which the old breeds won’t and we should generally be getting two dozen eggs a week. At the moment they are 18 weeks old, point of lay is 20 weeks, so by the end of August we should start to be in production.

Having been raised in a barn its unlikely that these hens have seen daylight.

There first adventure, seconds after leaving the safety of there cardboard box they were carried home in.

Whats this?

Dunno, its quite tasty?

Yes it is rather nice.

Sunbathing, relaxed enough to do this even with a Golden Retriever in the garden.

And the Auracana showing them the ropes. She was also a bit of a bully, its the first time – ever that she has been bigger than the other hens, so took full advantage of it and made sure they knew their place. I have tried to whisper to her that the Rhode Rocks will grow, but she wasn’t listening, simply enjoying her new found status!

I’ve finally managed to block my V- Neck Vest and its turned out beautifully.

The pattern is one from Knit Simple Magazine, Fall 2008 called V-Neck Vest designed by Elena Malo. I knit this up with some Rowan Cashsoft in Aran colour Brown 020.

Its very soft and very warm and will be perfect with a nice winter skirt and blouse,

although it will be equally perfect with a pair of jeans.

(squinting as usual, I do miss eyelashes in the summer *cough* sun)

Happy 20th Birthday to my darling first born son.

Its quite frightening how you can go from this…. which must have been taken 9 years ago as Charlie is a puppy,

to this…. in just a few short years..

and I thought you might like the amusement of this photo.

The boys had ‘borrowed’ my camera, which was strictly off limits, boys tend to mislay/break/scratch/say oops a lot/along with it wasn’t my fault at this age.

So they took my camera and then took photographs with it.. which sort of gave the game away… they were still denying it (you don’t think things through properly at this age) whilst I was downloading the photographs onto my computer. And then to top it all, they had photographed both boy and whippet, In My Bed!!! I laughed like a drain.

Happy Birthday Son!

(it could have been worse, it could have had photographs of a bare bottom in)

As promised here are a few arty shots of my Kiri shawl. I had hoped that I would spend a few minutes setting them up to make them look pretty. But what actually happened was the rain started just as we set foot into the garden, so these photo’s are from a quick dash around..




and the latest Lizard Ridge square. 128 lot D.

I feel strangely comforted to be working back on this project, its familiar yet always has an element of excitement about it as the colours reveal themselves as you knit.

Last time I knit this I was side tracked by socks, but as I am all socked out at the moment I feel deeply contented to knit this.

As soon as I saw these socks on Ravelry, I knew I just had to knit them. Charlie’s paws (my golden retriever) have always amused me and his pads have always had a slight aroma of cheesy wotsits. I adore them, when he was a puppy they were particularly cute but even some 9 years later I still love them. When I say I love the ground he walks on, I really do.

The pattern is called Pyewacket socks and I knit them up in Handmaiden Fine Yarn Casbah Sock in colourway Sangria. 2.5 mm needle.

The yarn is gorgeous, 80% merino, 10% nylon for strength and 10% cashmere which takes it onto another level for sock yarn. Also if you so wish, (although I have finally learnt to hand wash socks) it is machine washable.

Son no.2 has been asking for some socks with a Pi symbol on for a while. Bearing in mind he has size 13 feet, it wasn’t something that I was looking forward to knitting for him.

One evening recently I decided to look through Ravelry for inspiration and came across this pattern, tweaked it and knit it up for him, he loves it.

Hubby and his work colleagues also shared the joke, being professional engineers it was right up their street.

My Kiri shawl designed by Polly Outhwaite, knit in Wollmeise Lace Terra di Siena is finished!

I joined in a knit along with a group on Ravelry, mainly to keep me focused and have a time line to work to. Also I felt it might be a good idea to have a little help on hand as it was my first lace shawl.

I swatched on June 14th and desperately tried to understand the pattern, started to knit the shawl on the 15th and finished just a few minutes ago on the 15th July. Which means I am just in under the wire and have completed in time and its taken me one whole month of knitting.

There may be arty shots later.. It needs to dry and the sun needs to come out. (and the chances of that this week are slim!)

Before I go, the shawl is blocking on a 6ft bed – Diagonally!

I had to stand on tip toes and take the photographs with my camera high above my head to get the shawl into shot.

Its going to be Huge!

The Royal Show opened its doors for the last time this year, after 160 years, a very sad moment.

We trundled along full of hope that we wouldn’t be rained out, which we weren’t and a promise of good times to come, of which there were many.

This post is just a snippet of the fun and laughter that was had.

We started our first day in the sheep pens. Is there anywhere else that you would expect me to start first? No, I thought not. (for the uninitiated I am a knitter, I love wool, I also love lamb to eat, and I very much like sheep)

The Jacob Sheep Society were doing very good work on putting on a wonderful display, it was the best display in all of the sheep pens.

They were spinning, I would have loved to have had just a little turn with a spinning wheel, but I also knew, deep down, that this would be another rabbit hole I would fall into.

and there was also peg weaving, which I was lucky enough to be taught.

there were as you can imagine, lots of sheep, but this particular fellow caught hubby’s eye. He is a Blue Faced Leicester, and he is a complete tart. Just begging for affection he was, Hubby spent some time giving him a chin rub. Whilst we laughed at just how friendly he was, his very proud owner came up for a chat. He had been bought in auction last Autumn and at that point was a law unto himself, which if your looking for a breeding ram, is not a good idea. He is a true testament to his owners patience and stock keeping abilities. We loved him, I could have brought him home.

There was yarn buying, I was lucky enough to buy some hand spun Jacob, which I am quite dreamy about. And I have to say I bought it for a pittance, considering the amount of work that is involved.

along with some gorgeous hand dyed kid mohair from New Forest Mohair, who will be launching her web site to sell her lovely yarn in the next month or so.

There was also Toft Alpaca to buy from, I must admit to buying a lovely colour and amount to make something wonderful. (the knitters amongst us will have to wait for this)

Whilst sitting with friends in the Charolais Society, I was able to photograph one of there favourite bulls. Isn’t he magnificent.

and just a quick snap of me.

a garden pig caught my attention

along with a corn – cow- dolly.

my favourite breed of hen, Buff Orpington (also the Queen Mothers favourite) won first prize.

and a rather pretty duck, I just loved her hat, that caught my attention.

along with runner ducks that always catch out attention. The whippet of the duck world!

The Grand ring had various events, he is riding on three horses!

along with Jinty, thats the girl with the long legs and rather short skirt at the front – who assures me she had chosen big knickers to wear that day, and could barely wait for them to call for volunteers! She is such a part of the Royal Show that it wouldn’t be the Royal Show without her.

and just because she really is very lovely, and its only fair to put a pretty photo of her.

and then there are the boys. (not my boys you understand)

I am very blessed to know a chap who has been honoured enough to receive an OBE who was the president of the Young Farmers, during his career he turned things around and put life back into that organisation some years ago. Well two of those are his sons, of which he is very proud and they are my lamb supplier.

We had good times and towards the end, rather sad times too.

The end of an era.

Just before we left the showground for the very last time.

Hubby dragged me down the plot today.

Because I’ve been a bit of a coward.

The thing is…. you know that hysterectomy surgery, well I believed them, you know the part where they say… ‘and you can now lead a normal life’ after twelve weeks. Well I tried, I did, and it did not work at all well for me. I would work for an hour, no more, and then I suffered for a week. Even now, for some reason the right hand side of my scar deep inside pulls really badly,, that it hurts.

I am a great believer in that time heals, I’m also a believer that scary situations should be avoided..

Which is why I needed a hubby to drag me back down the plot. (you have to remember that everytime I have gone to the plot, it has resulted in pain)

Today, was different, there are lots of light jobs I can do.

Firstly there was photography,

cucumbers the first we have ever successfully grown.

globe artichokes, such architectural plants.

courgettes are doing well.

as are the parsnips

carrots on the other hand have done very badly, although..

the carrots in the new experiment which might be protected from carrot fly are doing very nicely.

the raspberries, well, Wow,

haven’t they done well.

I only picked just over a row, I have work to do tomorrow.

There were peas that I picked. And potatoes that hubby harvested,… Kestrel, which looked wonderful. Potato blight has come in, so hubby has pulled all the tops off to leave the potatoes safely in the ground.

There were many little gem lettuces that are ripe and just about to bolt, they will make a lovely braised vegetable dish, with a little onion, a little chicken stock and a dash of cream..

Our harvest for today.

The lace bug has bitten and its bitten me very hard, I’m really enjoying knitting lace. To the point that it has taken over my life, I will randomly call a cat, child, hubby to look at my beautiful, beautiful lace.

May I present the beginnings of my very first lace shawl, Kiri, in Wollmeise lace – Terra di Siena.

I can see a very tiny flaw where a stitch twists the wrong way, but its staying put. Now I really must go and have a shower, get dressed and think about what I am going to feed those children.. (its only just gone five… – p.m!!)