Rough Fell Sheep

We found these sheep on the towpath of the Leeds to Liverpool Canal at Barnoldswick. They quickly hopped back over the dry stone wall as we approached them. Which explained the mystery of how so many stones had fallen off and out of the wall.

I'm not entirely sure what breed they are but suspect that they're rough fell sheep.



I don't think you can find them in New Zealand and they'd probably get too warm in Auckland anyway. I probably wouldn't be able to find a Lancashire lonk either. We'll have to go with some kind of colonial breed instead when we finally get around to stocking the paddock with our own beasts.

Destitute Digger

A destitute digger, just begging for J to restore it. What a shame we couldn't ship it all the way home from Lancashire. MAF would have fifty fits!

Strange seeds

Another set of strange seeds which I found on top of the hen-house after a tropical storm had blown through. I couldn't even work out which tree it had come from.

Bromeliad

This is my baby bromeliad which Jacqui at Aloe Aloe Gardens kindly gave to me when we stayed with her in Kaitaia. It's a neoregelia hybrid apparently.

I planted the neoregelia in mulch and topped it up with sheep pellets (much to J's dismay) and then surrounded it with big stones recycled from J's father's garden to protect it from scratching hens.

Jacqui also gave me a smaller alcantrea imperialis rubria which I'll photograph when it's looking a bit more impressive.

Mont Bretia

I know that these count as weeds in NZ but they do brighten up the borders beautifully. I'll just have to make sure that they don't spread to the bush.

Not pea pods

So what are they? These seed pods are on a smallish tree which has cherry-like blossom in spring. Any ideas?

Green grapefruit

Looking forward to July when these beauties are ripe and orange and I can catch fresh fruit for breakfast every morning.

Bread Bag

I recently purchased a new all-singing, all-dancing sewing machine. After repairing the edges of my old bath towels, I set about making a bread bag for my home-baked loaves out of a rather lovely tea towel and some ribbon from the Japanese $3 shop.

Here is the finished article:



Next stop? Covers for my yoga bolsters, complete with buttonholes...

Happy Valentine's Day

Now here's an idea for a home-made cake for a Valentine without a sweet tooth...

Helensville: Retro Heaven

Helensville turned out to be full of retro articles and antiques when we visited recently. This is the display in the Ginger Crunch Cafe in the old railway waiting room...

And here's a pile of suitcases which we found on a street corner outside another secondhand store which might have looked more appropriate at the railway station....

And back at the railway station, we enjoyed the display of artefacts including this electric train table tablet system.

We might have to pop back when our renovations are finished to pick up a few pieces for the house. Not from the railway museum though, obviously.

No Ordinary Junkshop

This is where I found the Green Foods book - an extraordinary junk shop in Helensville...



The proprietor even threw in a free poetry recital:

There once was a rabbit, who had the bad habit

Of twitching the end of his nose.

His sisters and brothers, and various others, said

'Look at the way he goes!'

But one little bunny said, 'Isn't it funny!'

And practised it down in the dell.

Said the others, 'If he can, I'm positive we can'

And did it remarkably well.

Now, all the world over, where rabbits eat clover

And burrow and scratch with their toes,

You'll find every rabbit has got the bad habit

Of twitching the end of his nose.

Green Foods for Rabbits & Cavies

Here is the best book from my stack of recent purchases - Green Foods for Rabbits & Cavies. First published in 1955, this book was still in print until a few years ago.



I'm expecting it to provide lots of ideas to help me keep up a varied diet for our two monsters.

Bags of Books

I seem to be well on the way to opening my very own lending library after going mad in some second hand bookshops a few weekends ago. Here's my latest selection of cookery, interior design and animal husbandry books.

As sure as eggs is eggs

Or not, in our case. There hasn't been much certainty on the egg front round our place recently.

Some days we get three perfect eggs. But with two broody bantams at the moment, those days are very rare.



And then we got this strange, shell-less egg a few weeks ago. The grey chicken laid it and then promptly laid the other, more normal but slightly gritty egg next to it.



The hens get enough oyster grit and peck around the garden too so they shouldn't have any problems producing eggshells. And the hen seems fine. Apparently, it just happens sometimes. Luckily there haven't been any more since.

The chicks learn new tricks...

Here are the chicks getting the hang of their new swinging food dispenser and the self-filling trough...

The Chicks: An Update

The chicks now look like little chickens (which is what they are, of course) rather than little balls of fluff. I'm sure that for two of them, the next step after growing will be crowing.

What do you think? I'm fairly confident that the one pictured at the bottom left and the one in the larger picture are both roosters... Still, one out of three ain't bad.

Chicken Citadel

Just catching up on my blogging after a brief hiatus... Here's the new chicken enclave with the chicks' run which will house the two roosters once they're fully grown. We'd like to free range them full time but, unless they're significantly quieter and more gentle than the last two, that just would not be wise.

We've now rigged up automatic watering systems for both coops and will get a chookateria for the chicks once they're big enough to lift the lid and reach inside. We'll get a metal one this time though so it stays a bit cleaner...