Springtime variations

Snowdrops in the garden, snow on the hilltops, and daffodils everywhere - it must be Spring.

A little bit of Spring sunshine

Chicks and eggs

 Birds' nests

It must be nearly Easter?

Tonight Auntie Anne and Auntie Gillian thought that we could be creative in other ways and after their very successful Forage course today at Mossley's Museum at the Mill they brought along some eggs for us to decorate and make an Easter Tree. 

Work in progress was intricate and involved.  We had been warned to come prepared 'to get messy' but we didn't know what that meant.  Everyone took turns at decorating their own egg.  The kind ladies had already 'blown' some eggs for us but provided extra for demo purposes.  Paints and paintbrushes were extricated from Auntie Annes's roof space and brought to life again by ladies in the older generation rather than the young tots who used to enjoy afternoon art play.

Some snap shots for you ...

And the very special Ta-Dah moment when our completed tree was placed in the Foyer of Saint Patrick's Church for everyone to enjoy ....

Could we say that we are now branching out into other crafts?
We also welcomed Leigh tonight and Guru Patricia came back to pay a surprise visit and make sure everyone was doing OK.

And then there were two .....

Hookery in the chookery is safe.

A few weeks back I had to announce that hookery was having to do without some chooks due to the presence and voracious appetite of Mr Fox.

Well, towards the end of last week a new chicken adopted us!  She sat outside our chicken run and looked longingly at our chicken.  They clucked quite cheerily at each other from across the wire .....

No-one knows where she has come from and after 3 or 4 days roaming around my garden .....

.... she finally ventured into the (specially left open) chicken run.

She moved into the coop on Sunday afternoon for a look-see and must have liked it because on Monday she had moved in lock, stock and feathers and had laid her first egg for us.  It was white.  None of our other chickens laid white eggs so this is mighty unusual for us and you see white eggs so infrequently in the shops these days.

Perhaps it will become hookery without the chookery?

It is with deep regret that I post this message to you ....  Unfortunately this morning while we were out, Monsieur Renard came into our garden, dug his way into the chicken run and kidnapped not one, but two, of our chickens seen here only a few weeks ago.  The third chicken has been attacked and has lost a few feathers but is, for the most part, OK.