Blodau

This is how I know it is finally spring -- lots of flowers!

These are Spanish Bluebells, which are pretty, but bad, according to Martha, "Despite their name, Spanish Bluebells can be found throughout Europe. British gardeners regard them warily, however, because the plants endanger native English Bluebells through interbreeding." So maybe I should take them out?


Thanks to Janet for identifying these as cowslips. Apparently the pink ones are a naturally occurring hybrid.

UPDATE: Apparently, they are not cowslips -- rather they are lungwort. Thanks to David & Angela for putting me straight... :)


The cherry trees are in blossom now as well. Last year, we had cherries, and I stood in the field and ate about three -- they were delicious -- and then I planned to pick the rest of them the following day. When I went out the next day with my ladder they were all gone -- the birds had them. So this year, as soon as they are ready, they are mine!


The miracle Clematis is flowering now...


And taking over the house!




And the blueberry plants that Greg's parents bought us last year are flowering, so hopefully this means we will have some blueberries! Yummy!

Mae fy ieir wedi mynd!

So the big news today is this: I was working in the yard and this car pulls up and the couple in it get out and they are looking for somebody I don't know to buy Black Rock hens from! Well, I couldn't give them directions unfortunately, but the thing about these hens we took in -- we now have WAY too many eggs, the hen house is getting a bit cramped, and I don't plan to breed from them -- so I thought, they want to buy them, why not sell them? So I did, and my hens are now off to a new life in Gwynfe. It does look oddly empty looking up the field now, but I think we will all be happier for it...

In other news: We have finally finished building the greenhouse! Yay! Now we just need to sort out the drainage around it so the water goes somewhere convenient when it rains. My favourite bit of the greenhouse is the automatic vents -- they automatically open and close the windows to maintain the temperature inside!


We finished planting the apple trees -- or, the ones we're going to plant this year that is -- there will be more in future!


And I have continued to cook lots of things involving eggs! Cauliflower Cheese Pie (this is REALLY yummy -- I am going to have some leftovers of it as soon as I finish this post):


And egg fried rice (also very yummy and easy to make!):



My father has commented that my photos have got boring recently so will try to take more interesting photos in future...

Heddiw yw fy mhenblwydd!

Heddiw yw fy mhenblwydd -- dw i'n tri deg pedwar oed -- and Greg's parents gave me an electric mixer:


The chickens, as you could probably have guessed, gave me some eggs:


So I thought, "What can I do with a mixer and some eggs?"


Souffle!


In other news, I planted another apple tree:


The chives are flowering:


And who says cats don't like water?! :)

New hens (and other things)

Right, we'll start with the other things first... We have been building a greenhouse:






We've actually got rather further than this -- all the glass is in now -- but it is raining today, so I'm not too motivated to go outside to take a picture of the glass now -- but more photos of it in a more completed state will follow by early next week...

We planted some rhubarb -- one of these plants we found growing in the back garden here, and we've transplanted it to give it more space -- and the other four are from Greg's parents' garden, from a rhubarb plant that originally belonged to Greg's GRANDPARENTS -- so this is HISTORIC rhubarb!


Three of the apple trees we bought some time ago are now in the ground and I hope to get the other three in by the end of the week.


And, the photos you've all been waiting for -- the new hens! A friend of a friend of mine was concerned about bird flu and decided that she wanted to get rid of her hens so rather than having them slaughtered unnecessarily, I brought them here and we are now averaging something like 10 eggs a day! Please buy some!!! :) They are Black Rock x Leghorns and are MUCH smaller then the Light Sussex hens... I apologise for the sheer number of photos here -- I have edited, believe me!




















And of course there are the eggs -- the eggs from the new hens are much darker than the eggs from the old hens...

Hen vs Cockerel

Before our hen died the other week, we used to call her "sex-change chicken" because her comb had grown much larger and her body had got larger and she had started to act a bit more male -- no crowing yet though -- but we just thought we were being silly -- I had no idea it could actually happen!

Hen Autopsy Update

Sorry -- meant to post this ages ago but have been busy -- we have had the autopsy report back from the lab now -- the hen died of an ovarian tumour most likely caused by lymphoid leukosis. So the upshot of this all is that there's nothing we could have done to help her, and it's not contagious, so we don't have to worry about the other hens getting it. You can all stop panicking now -- it wasn't bird flu... :)

WWOOF

We are now officially a WWOOF host farm -- if you would like to come spend some time here and help us do things, join WWOOF.

Egg Prices

Have heard varying opinions recently about what is a fair price for me to be charging for eggs -- I've put a poll in my sidebar, so if you could please tell me what you would be willing to pay, it would be a great help. Many thanks...

Bird Flu Humour

Thanks to Janet for this one:

Wyau

Which one of these eggs is not like the others?


We had a particularly odd egg last night -- I went out to put the chickens to bed and one of the hens came out into the run and when she turned around it looked like she had an egg stuck to her bottom. I thought this was odd as I've seen them lay eggs before and pretty much they just fall straight out. So I bent down to have a closer look and then it fell out -- and it was two soft-shelled eggs sort of connected together with a little tube -- like Siamese eggs or something! One half broke when it fell which is the bit that looks rather like a deflated balloon here:


But both halves had yolks in, so it was two fully formed eggs somehow stuck together! Poor hen!


One of the other students in my Welsh class has ducks and we traded half a dozen of my hen eggs for his duck eggs -- they are delicious but VERY rich -- I wouldn't want to eat them every day!



I also made mayonnaise today -- with hen eggs -- and British rapeseed oil -- what a lovely colour -- so much better than Miracle Whip! Yummy!

Mae fy iar tost wedi maru...

On Sunday morning, I went out to let the chickens out, and found that the hen that has been poorly recently was dead. The other chickens were a bit disturbed but they seem to have forgotten about it now. As this was the third chicken that has been ill (the first one we killed, and the second one we cured with antibiotics) we decided to pay for a post-mortem to be done in the hopes that we can find out what is going on here to prevent it happening with any more of the chickens. I should have a preliminary report back from the vet by Wednesday.



In other news, we are finally buying a trailer -- so we can move sheep, muck, and other large things... I put down a deposit yesterday and we should have the trailer in 4-6 weeks time.



I baked some lovely bread with seeds in from flour that Dorothy gave us -- not quite sure why as I did it the same way I always do, but it was particularly good!



And last night the toilet broke, so first thing this morning I am off to the builders' yard to buy a new syphon so I can flush again! :)

Catching up again...

It is supposed to be spring, but I don't think anybody has remembered to tell the weather! The daffodils have started to come out only to be bashed about by the horrendous gales and storms we have been having. At the entrance to the big field, there is a stream that runs under the gate -- yesterday morning when I was crossing the stream (normally less than an inch deep) the water came over the tops of my boots!

It's been a while since I posted any gratuitous egg photos, so here's one in case you were missing your fix. It never fails to amaze me the endless variety of sizes and colours of egg we get from seemingly identical hens!

In other news, we bought some fruit stocks the other week -- these are black currant, gooseberry, raspberry, and strawberry. We have planted out the strawberries already, but need to wait for a few good dry days before we can do the rest as it is just too wet to dig right now.

And this last photo has got nothing to do with anything really -- I found it on the internet while looking for something else -- and it really made me realise how much my life has changed over the last few years. For those of you who don't know, this is the building I lived in when I lived in New York! Apologies to the unknown photographer who I have stolen this from.