This and that...

Before people start emailing me to ask if I'm still alive - yes, I am (and so is Ken). I just haven't had much time to spend on the computer in the last week or so, except for paying bills online and checking emails. I've been flat out finishing a cross stitch picture for a friend's 50th birthday (it's on my other blog if you want to see it), and this week I've been doing my Christmas cards. I like to get them out on or soon after December 1st. I'm in the middle of stitching a couple for some special friends too, so that takes time.

I've been having friends here now that summer has started - Helen and another friend came over last week for lunch and we sat in the kitchen all afternoon and gossipped!
Next week five of my blogger mates are coming here for lunch. We were going to go out to eat, but I suggested it would be more relaxing, quieter (not having to compete with other groups of celebrating women), and cheaper (we all supply one plate of food) to have it here, and they all agreed. Miss Eagle rescued this wooden clothes horse from a kerbside waste collection, repainted it white and pink, and gave it to me, to use for displaying my linens. So I have it in the kitchen and change the cloth and doilies over each week.



Our chooks are all well, and are laying eggs again - two a day, which is nice. The chickens are growing fast, and the baby budgies are all out of their nest and flying around the aviary like little mad things. It amazes me how fast they learn to fly - almost instantly! Not like humans learning to walk!! Bob asked me if we sell them. Not unless somebody asks if they can buy one. We don't deliberately breed them to sell, but if a friend wants one for a pet, we are happy to sell them one. They all go in one aviary together once they're out of the nest and able to feed themselves. Budgies live in big flocks in the wild, so they all get on well in the aviary where they can fly around without bumping into each other.

Here are some photos of the hens that I took a week ago. Two of these are sisters, and the one with the bit of brown on her chest is a Belgian D'uccles hen, which we bought from a breeder.

The Little Red Hens as I call them, are my favourites. Here is one of the pair that reared the two chicks, seen here behind her.

This black hen was the replacement for the rooster we had to get rid of. He was black, so the breeder gave us a black hen instead.


Finally, nothing to do with chooks, but I was pleased with this little display of red flowers on our patio a few weeks ago: a red geranium, red gerbera, and the gorgeous red cactus, the name of which I can never remember, but I know Jeanette will tell me!