Choosing my reaction

It's been an interesting couple of weeks and I am a little stressed.       Rarely have I more  needed to listen to my own advice about  letting things go.

I'm mostly stressed about things outside my control which are affecting me daily. I can't talk about a couple of the things,  as it is about other people and they are not my stories to share.

One o fthe things I can  share is about Wash,  who has been very unwell (we thought he was going to die)

Wash, our ginger boy, is improving.  He's still refusing to leave the living room,  but he's now spending most of his time on the rug rather than hiding away.   We took the big crate down today, and put up a small one, just for the litter tray (we don't want Izzy thinking the litter tray is for everyone to use,  and we don't want Wash thinking having a litter tray in the living room is  the new normal).  He looks happier in himself and, if we didn't know, we could easily believe that all was well.

The living room is a bit of a mess, and that won't change until Wash is properly back to normal.   The kitchen is a disaster, mainly of my own making.     I've tried to clear it to do some sewing,  but events overtook me and I didn't.  And then, after months of banning myself,  I  had fabric buying diarrhoea.   The fabric was in various stages of  waiting to be pre-washed,  waiting for the airer,  on the airer,  folded waiting to be put away.  Plus there were several batches of fabric on the table waiting to be cut and used.

I'd chosen this time to order a whole load of new Weck jars.  Some of these were to accomodate the home preserved tomato juice,   a load were for spices (in an attempt to sort out the spice drawers)  and so on.    Then, while waiting for them to arrive,  I decided to change th spice drawers completely anyway  and now the new jars I've ordered won't quite fit. 

I sold the old drawers.  In looking for the new fitting,  I also ended up buying some second hand full extension drawers for my larder,  so now the top of the larder has been emptied into the kitchen while I work out where I want them to go.

My sewing templates, which used to live on the back of the kitchen door, had to be moved so that we could close the door to keep Wash secure.   Everything is piled on to the front of the door to the hall,  or on the bed in the guest room.

The hall is awash with stuff waiting to go to the charity shop, or waiting for the people who've requested or bought it to come and collect.

On Thursday, I made a decision.    I'm going to get all this cleared by midnight on September 30th.  On October 1st, I'm going to sew something. Anything. I don't care what. I've got a list as long as my arm.

I've been making headway,  repeating my mantra "every thing you can remove will make a difference", and I've been chip chip chipping away.

DH is out today, and I wanted to use the opportunity to stitch out something for his birthday.  His birthday isn't for ages,  but the design is very complex, and has a 2 hour stitchout,  not counting me faffing around and thread changes.

Thirty minutes into the stitch out,  the machine decided to object.   It took me 20 minutes of faffing about, trying to resolve it.    In the end, I had to start again from scratch.

I was  feeling......frustrated .  I just looked out of the window and did some slow breaths for a while.  "I never did mind about the little things" I thought.  And then I thought it again, with a bit more conviction.

And now I'm not frustrated.  If it doesn't stitch, well,  I can try again another time,  or not do it.  I need to focus on my clearing deadline,  and anything else is a bonus.

And I can hear that the machine has stopped again.   Oh well,  good excuse to take some wet washing upstairs.

Hello Boys!

I went to see the Boys, for the first time in a couple of weeks, yesterday.  They are splendidly handsome chaps.

BigBoy continues to be the Cockerel in the group,   calling th others when he finds a trest,  picking and dropping food for them.

He and Long John Silver are the only ones that were crowing.  Bertie Junior is getting his cockerel colouring,  and the Barnies feathering is gorgeous.

European country cake

Miss Tween phoned on Monday.  I was unable to take the call,  and when I did get to look at my phone to call her back, I was a little worried.  I had many many missed calls from her.

She had to make a cake for her homework, and she couldn't do it at home because her parents kitchen was part way through being refitted.  It needed to be complex and complicated, like something form Bake Off.  It had to be a European cake.

I asked for clarification . Were we looking for a national cake of some country or other  or did it have to have a country theme (like colours, flag, you know the sort of thing).    It turned out that she wasn't really sure.

So, yes, of course she could come over on Wednesday after school and make a cake,  and I would see if I could come up with any ideas.

I guessed that people would already be making flag coloured sponges,  or icing cakes with flags, or whatever.     I wracked and wracked my brains.  DH and I chatted about it.  And then, out of nowhere, inspiration struck.

We were going to do Switzerland.

I desperately tried to find a suitable cake tin online, but there wasn't anything that could get here before Wednesday (and my local shops didn't have them).   In the depths of my cupboard I found a terrine pan,  so I had a go at making a base cake.

I had already looked up cake carvingon Youtube, so I knew that I needed a rigid serrated knife,  and I needed a firmer sponge.  One lovely lady suggested Madeira cake,  so I found a suitable recipe., and made the cake,

When it came out of the oven, as I expected, it hadn't risen enough. I calculated the volume of the tin, and the volume of the cake and compared them. The cake was 80% of the tin, so I needed to increase the ingredients by 25% *(Ha, maths, you can't get me.  I nearly only increased it by 20%,, but I' used to trixks like that!   T o my immense delight,  the second cake filled the tin exactly and was square!

I had a play with the first version, and realised that my initial idea (or cutting it along the diagonal length into 2 triangles) was unlikely to work,  Instead,  I had a play with carving, and achieved something...respectable.

I gave Miss Tween the ingredients list for the icing (Nutella and Philadelphia), but I already had the rest of the ingredients in my cupboard.

Wednesday came,  and we set to work as soon as she arrived.   Madeira cakes take a while to make because they aren't "all in one" cakes.    It took some time to get the base mix made,  and Miss Tween had to do it all herself.  It then took 45 minutes for the cake to cook, and then it had to cool.

We made the icing while the cake was cooking.  I wasn't sure that one batch was enough,  so Miss Tween had to run to the shop to get some more unsalted butter.   After we'd made the second batch  I had a minor heart attack when I notcied the foil lid of the Philadelphia tub.   How could we have missed that?!  What a waste of butter and icing sugar.   Disaster!

But then I realised that the foil lid is only an advert for a different flavour in their range.  What idiot thought that was good marketing?!

While we were waiting,  I got her to practise carving on my cake from the day before.  I showed he how to support the cake while slicing,  how too take a small bit off at a time,  how to clean the crumbs off (and why).

Then it was on to the real cake.

I made a template for her, showed her what to do woth the first one. She then took over and it took forever as she was, naturally, nervous about it.

 I cocked up slightly, I thought I'd made the gaps (in the template) big enough to get a small icing palette knife in, but I didn't.  It made the whole thing even more challenging that it needed to be.

We brushed away the crumbs, and then started on the icing.

 I showed her how to do the covering, and explained why we were decanting the icing , a bit at a time, into a separate bowl. [in case she got crumbs on her icing knife and transferred them to the icing bowl]

She started with the in-between bits,  then did the insde triangle sides,  then the outsides, then the top As time went on, she got better and more confident at it.  We stopped for dinner.

 Immediately after dinner,  she did the ends and the base,  re-covering the sides as well.  I got her to use a cranked palette knife for this.  She was insistent that she could do it with a flat one (she was understandably tired).   In a moment of slight exasperation on my part (I was also, understandably, tired),  I got her to try and do one side with the flat blade,  and I did the other side with a cranked blade.      She then swapped to the cranked blade without complaint.

And here we have it.

Switzerland in cake form.

UPDATE:  It was a success. All slices were quickly sold.

Although it's just occurred to me people might have been epecting a Toblerone flavoured cake.

Oh well.

Three flocks.

We're continuing to give bothe the Oldies and the LIttlees the full run of the garden for most of the day.   For a part of the day, I put netting up to keep them in the others' run.  This gives the Littlees an opportunity to explore the Oldies area without getting molested.

Mostly, things are quiet.    They are mainly going round in 3 flocks.  The Gang of 5 Littlees,  who beetle around in an arrowhead-shaped flock;  The pair of OldestOldees, Poppy and Gloria,, who are both 8 uears old and  moulting and really can't be doing with anyone;  and the 3 Younger Oldees, Fleur, Poppy and Fay. 

The three groups move around the garden, mostly avoiding each other.  Fleur continues to be a problem, attacking the Littlees at every opportunity.    

I expect we'll have more skirmishes when we try to put them all together permanently.  ANother few weeks before we get to that point though.

Trying, again.

Wash isn't right.   He's not himself.  He's spending all his time hidden away.   We're giving him some space, but we are concerned.

The sewing table is no less cluttered than it was last time I wrote. No real excuse,  just stuff.

I went to Pilates today, 3rd Friday in a row.  I will add the Monday classes back in to my routine soon.


My brother (DB) phoned me today, from hospital asking for a lift home so he could be discharged.   He'd been admitted on Tuesday, and was being discharged today.  He hadn't been able to let anybody know because his mobile phone, with all our contact info on, was dead.

He'd been unwell at the weekend. He mentioned it to his good friend and dancing teacher on Monday,  and the friend was concerned and said he should go to get ot checked out in case it was something serious.  At work the next day,  a colleague said the same thing.  Fortunately DB listened, and went to his GP, who called an ambulance.

I contacted his friend to let him know that all was now well, and he was very relieved.  He'd been trying to get in touch with DB aince Monday to check on him.

I could pretend that I would have done some sewing if only I hadn't been busy with DB.  But that would be a pretence.  

Something else would have occurred to prevent me, I'm pretty sure of that.

Gold Sta

MIss Tween's previous schookl were rubbish at marking her holiday homework, so she always did it knowing that they probably wouldn't even bother to look at it,

Her new school gave this year's intake holiday homework to do, even though the intake hadn't actually started at school.  I mentioned some of it in earlier posts.    Miss Tween wasn't happy about it, but got into it a bit as she did more and more tasks, and as her booklet came together.  

By the end, she was working really really hard at maing it look good, and shesqueeed in extra task after extra task.

The school use the homework to get a feel for child.  It helps them understand how motivated they are,  and what some of their strengths and weaknesses might be.    We didn't correct any of Miss Tween's work, because we wanted the school to get a true picture of her abilities and needs.

Since starting at the school she's had 'normal' homework, and tests in some classes,  which is still focussed on the school finding out what the intake already know.     She's been frustrated that there are lots of areas that she doesn't know anything about. She's very cross with her old school.    We've said not to worry about the actual scores she's getting,  just to use it to know where she needs to work extra hard.

We hadn't heard anything about the mammoth summer homework until she She messaged me last night.
 
"You know the homework.. I got gold, the highest mark"

We're so pleased...She really deserved it.  She worked so  hard.

Trying

After my last blog entry, I felt motivated enough to attempt to clear the sewing table.  I felt seure that clearing the table would free my mind, and I'd be motovated to sew,

Nearly.  Not quite.

I moved a whole load of stuff off (mainly crboard templates, and some random patterns which I squished up and stuck in an A1 hangaplan.   I couldn't put them away, as putting them away required a heavy duty hook to be drilled into the wall in the upstaurs bedroom.   Still, I got them off the table. And I moved the clean washing,  and some other random bits.

Then I had breakfast, and DH tried his home grown, home pressed, home pasteutised tomato juice for the first time... and declared it good.  Even better than the pre pasteurised pressing.  This is fab news, as it means  we'll get real valie from the tomatoes,  and my 500ml Weck flasks will come in handy at last.

We had to work out where we were going to store many such bottles, and it was going to require a bit of a reorg.    This morning, poor old Wash had to go to the Vet for x-rays/   When we got back, I did some chicken stuff (including trying to feed all of them corn kernels,  which worked reasonablywell as Fleur was no where to be seen.

DH had to go out this afternoon, so I got on with the reorganising,  rying to take my mind of Washy.   It took a looooong time,  it was like one of those puzzles with sliding pieces.   I put some saved bottles into the recycling,  I revamped my "glass jar" storage, moved stuff in the utility room, blah blah blah.   Anyway, it's all done now, and it all looks very organised.    I give it a week.


It's a good job I had cleared the sewing table, because it's right underneath the jars, and it was covered in stuff under review today.    Most of the stuff has gone now, but there are a couple of items I've posted locally to see if anyone wants them before they go in this week's recycling.

The Weck jars have just finished being spruced up in the dishwasher, and are ready for juice tomorrow.



We collected Wash this evening, and he's back in the big crate for tonight.   From tomorrow he doesn't need to be crated, but he's not allowed outside for a few days until his insulin levels stabilise.

I'm trying Feisty Tapas (Maria Bravo) pressure cooked meatloaf for dinner tonight.  I didnt have a loaf tin that fits inside the pressure cooker.  Or, more accurately,  the one loaf tin I had that would have fitted was too good to do it to.   I had an insert  thing from my old Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker, so I've tried using that instead.  Who says meatloaf has to be loaf shaped?!

 

Changing Rooms

For the last couple of days we;ve been letting both sets of Girls out, with the complete run of the back garden.

It's mostly been OK;  Gloria and Poppy re both in heavy moult, so are keeping out of the way a bit;  Fleur is being a bit of a b*tch. 

The Big Girls like to get to the Pampas (which is in the LIttlees area),  or in to the Littlees run to eat the treats in their hanging feeder.  So, I took the opportunity to shut the Littlees in to the Big Girls run so theycould have a good look round.   I've done it for a couple of days now, and the Littlees are quite happy in there.

They are still in no way ready to stand up to the Big Girls though, so integration is a long way off.

The Big Girls run has been partially divided, and I've started to move stuff around.  I'll keep it at this "one day at a time" pace for now.

I've been leaving the Littlees coop door open at night for the last few nights so they can get up at the same time as the Big Girls (whose coop door is on a timer).   However,  I don't sleep well when I've done this, and have to get up at least once in the night  (3 times last night) because I can hear a noise and I'm afraid it's a fox.   I'm going to have to shut the coop door at night for a while, I need to catch up on my sleep.

...

My cutting table is full of stuff, and it is amusing that this is always a good barometer (canary in the coalmine!) for what is happening in my life generally.   A clear table means I have a clear head, I'm on form, amd I can tackle anythinh.  I'm also likely to be doing something creative.

A table cluttered with sewing stuff usually means I'm trying to sew something, but I'm stuck for whatever reason.  Maybe I can't find the right pattern, or the right fabric,  or I don't want to sew the pattern I've chosen, or I'm stuck on how to do something.

A table cluttered with different stuff usually means that I'm having a bit of a tough time, and I just can't get motivated (or I've got too much else on) to clear it.  That's where I am right now, although I'm hoping that writing this down will give me the kick I need to go and attempt to clear it.

I've been unable to set my mind to anything creative (apart from idly investigating a different craft to try,  because another set of carp  equipment and supplies is exactly what I need [sarcastic voice],  and it's much easier to spend a few hours looking at this and that than it is to actually do some clearing up. ).  I'd found a half day course, but it's about 4 hours away, and not 4 hours in a direction of any use for anything else. 

 

I found some fabric I know my DGGwill like,  so I've bought some.  I broke my self-imposed fabric ban to do so, but I've bought barely any fabric all year so I don't feel too badly about it. .  I messaged her to ask her if she would like it. I didn't mention I'd bought it because I didn't want her to feel obliged to say yes.   She was very happy about it.  And, on the plus side,  I accidentally inspired her to make a top.  She cut round one she already had to make a pattern, and whipped something up.  She's much more creative and adventurous than me.   I'm happy to know that she's still sewing. 

I made yoghurt last night, but the milk was a little too warm when I put the starter yoghurt in, so the end product wasn't as thick as usual.  I strained it today, so it's a little thicker, but it isn't the usual greek-style thickness.  

I used the whey to make a batch of sultana scones and a batch of cheese scones.   The cheese ones are great, I haven't tested the sultana ones yet.

DH has made tomato juice (for drinking) a couple of times now, nd the second time he got the balance of salt just right.   We decided to take the plunge and try pasteurising some.    He was using salad tomates (rather than roma type) for this as we have quite a lot of them.  He made 4 litres of jiuce last night.    We decided to follow the US processing guidelines, and add lemon juice or ctric acid to each bottle.   Unsure what impact it would have, we did 4 bottles with lemon juice and 4 bottles with citric acid.    I'm interested to see what the taste difference is, and I really hope this works as it is alwayse rewarding to preserve something DH has grown.

Last night I made a pressure cooker Pork Butter Curry, using the Butter Chicken  recipe from Urvashe Pitre's Indian Instant Pot cook book.   It was really good,  we both really liked it. In fact we both liked it a bit too much.  I normally use about 500g of pork, which gives us 2 portions to eat, and 2  portions to freeze.  There was only 1 portion left to freeze.  I'll be making it again soon.

I also got my hibernating water kefir out of the fridge and I'm attempting to revive it.  I bought a jar with a strainer on it, which (in theory) should make it a little less faffy.  I'd bought a half sized jar for my milk kefir the other day, and that seems OK.   If I can't keep it going, I'll put it back into hibernation.

....

Wash continues to be on cage rest. He's not improving, so he's booked in to have his shoulder x-rayed in a couple of days.  It's a little stressful.

Other family stuff, not my stories to tell,  are ongoing.

 

 

Let's try that together now

This morning was an unexpectedly gorgeous  morning.   I decided to try opening everything up so that both flocks could go anywhere in the garden.

The LIttlees were full of glee and ran, as a flock, to their old ranging area (our "lawn").   Sasha arrived soon after, intent on getting to the bird feeder area, and the little ones ran off, as a flock, somewhere else. 

They decided to try and explore the Big Girls area..At first it was OK


They passed a shell shocked Gloria, who only managed a "WTF??" peck.    Poppy, who has dropped loads of feathers in a moult over the last couple of days and is presumably feeling a bit vulnerable, kept out of the way.




 Fleur was around the other side of the garden, and hadn't yet realised what was going on.  Fleur continues to go nuts when she sees the Littlees,  hurling herself at the netting in an attempt to peck them.

It was OK.  The odd squawk as someone got in the way of someone else,  but actually both groups were so happy to be allowed somewhere else that their paths didn't cross too often.

Then Fleur arrived.

Four of the Littless fled.  She managed to get  Summer, on her own, in the covered run.   Fleur didn't attack,  she was pacing up and down keeping Summer cornered.  Summer was panicking and shrieking.   I went in and stood between them so Summer could escape.

The LIttlees had all returned to the safety of Pampas in their normal area.

I'm washing floors downstairs at the moment (when I'm not typing),  so I'll leave the areas open for now.

Good neighbours

Our lovely neighbour popped round the other day to tell us that she was thinking of moving.  I cried.

We moved the Littlees from our back lawn, so that it would be less off-putting for potential purchasers.  They are still in the back gardem, but their run now adjoins the older girls run.  I mentioned this the other day, so I won't go through it again here.

DH and I walked to Pilates this morning.  (I'm trying to restart now that my health is improving).  By the time we walked back an hour and ten minutes later,  a For Sale board had gone up.

I decided we should do something about our front garden, again so that we didn't affect the kerb appeal for her.      We raked out the front bed, and piled four bags of bark chips on it.  It instantly looked better.

I also spent some time hoeing the weeds out of the driveway paving,  and sweeping up the plant debris that had got everywhere.   It was very hot,  I was already cream crackered after Pilates,  and 30 mins in I'd had enough.

I'm not aiming for perfection,  nor even "neat and tidy",  I'm just aiming for "not too embarrassing".

There's more to do, but that's a job for tomorrow.

CBA

I feel like I'm always thinking/feeling/saying this.... I've been struggling with a severe case of CBA (Can't Be A*sed).

I've been bobbing along, neither drowning or sinking,  but just not quite able to overcome it.   Every time I get a puff of wind in my sails, it feels like something happens to make the wind dissipate.  Not enough to push me into a real funk,  but enough to keep chipping away.

It would be too tedious to write about those happenings,  and some of them are not my news or my story to tell anyway.

I'd been trying to motivate myself to do some sewing, but I'm here writing this blog post instead.

So, while I'm here, let me update you on the Girls and Boys.

At home, we decided to move the Littlees run to be right next to the Big Girls run.  We'd planned to do that at some point, but decided to do it sooner because we wanted to move the Girls away from our next door neighbours fence.    She is quite happy for them to be where they were, but she'll be having visitors soon,  and I know some people are really funny about that sort of thing.   We told her what we were doing,   and she emphasised that the chicks being where they were (and she appreciated why we were doing it).

Blondie

Sylvia

The Girls also have adjoining external runs, and space where they aren't adjoining.    Fleur, our cuckoo Marans,  has been outraged by the move of the Littlees,  and spent a lot of time patrolling the fence line and hurling herself at the Littlees whenever they got within striking distance;   Gloria and Poppy, our Oldies, are in full moult and are keeping their distance. Gloria has really slowed down over the last few months,  and I think she is on her way to losing her place as Top Chook;     Sasha, the Appenzeller,   complains loudly, most of the time;    Fay hops in and out of the Littlees' run,  and makes a point of puffing herself up whenever their paths cross.

Astrid and Summer

The  Littlees will be 15 weeks old this weekend.  The Leghorns are pretty much fullly grown, size wise abd are bigger than Fay (although they don't realise it).   Their wattles are starting to develop into adult wattles,  but they have a long way to go.  Their combs are also tiny for Leghorns.   They continue to be skittish, and I'm losing the enthusiasm of trying to tame them.   They aren't going to be like Lily or Lotti.

Sunshine, one of the Gold Partridge Leghorns, is the shyest of all, and I wonder if she's at the bottom of the pecking order.  Or at the top, and therefore not interested in being friends with me.

Sylvia, the Silver Laced Barnevelder,  is Barney shaped, but still small.  Barneys are slower growing, so it's not surprising.

I'd really really like to have chicks from the Leghorns, crossed with a Cream Legbar boy (to produce blue egg layers).  .  I know it's likely to be 2021 before that happens,  but part of me is hoping that we might be able to do it next year.

I don't have any recent photos of the boys.  They are all still getting on OK, and I'm hoping that they can have a longer lifespan than previous hatches.   It depends on their behaviour as they develop.   Currently BigBoy (Gold partridge leghorn) is top cock,  and treats the boys like his little flock.   The Barney boys are soft docile things (at the moment).    Long John (the silver duckwing leghorn) is developing quickly,  and Bertie Junior (Vorwerk dad, welsh black x Mum) uis looking more and more like a Jack the Lad every day.

I am already wondering if we might be able to keep 2 of the Barnevelder boys.  It seems possible right now,  but these things can change in the blink of an eye.

In Bertie Senior's flock,   most are moulting.   We've got some very senior Girls in the flock,  a lot of them from the same hatch,  so at some point I expect we'll lose a few in one go.   We don't cull the girls just because they stop laying,  we want them to have a long and happy retirement.

Bertie, who has had his card marked for repeated bad behaviour,  has had a short stay of execution.    We've decided to keep him until we take the boys to be culled,  and he'll be culled at the same time... unless he has another incident, in which case he'll go straight away.

End of the holidays

Yesterday was our last day looking after Miss Tween.  She starts secondary school today.

A large part of her time with us was spent in enabling her to do her homework.  She worked really  really  hard, and produced a booklet to detail what activities (from the assigned list) she had completed.  Each activity had to have photographic evidence, and be signed and dated by an adult.

I think she detailed documented 20 activities, and I really hope they read her work.  Her best friend's booklet content was atually written by her mother,  just copied by the girl concerned. 

One of the activities was to research and write about 5 different types of tree.    One of thetypes I suggested was Monkey Puzzle,  and we got help from our local village to find out where there were MP trees of various ages.

We took a photo of her standing beside each tree so we could get an idea of scale.

They ranged from about 8 years old to about 175 years old.

 

St Jude's Church

WIndsor Great Park, 25m, rare as it has babies!

 We were impressed by the tree at St Jude's church... and the we found the one at Windsor Great Park!

The oldest, tallest, tree that we found was in Windsor Great Park, near China Island.

I think we were responsible for about 15 of the 20 activities in her book.