From Rocky to Rockette...

Its been a surprising few days on the homestead. We've learnt some very important things...

1. No matter how many books on poultry you read your hens will always surprise you.
2. No matter how many books on poultry you read your children will always surprise you.

I haven't seen much of the chickens over winter. I go to work in the dark and come home in the dark and BH sees to them in between. But I do remember that before the winter set in we had four fluffy young hens, a mixture of Buff Orpington Bantam, Wyandotte and Rhode Island Red - pretty little girls all of them - not any more.

As I was clearing up leaves, mini freerangegirl said 'mum, one of our hens is a cockerel' and it certainly did look like one. We called BH up to ask the same, but he insisted that it definitely wasn't as it had never crowed...

...and on that note the little fella stretched out his neck, shook his beautiful plumage and you guessed it...Cockadoodledooed. Not once, not twice but for the rest of the day and pretty constantly too. Needless to say we have a very embarrassed BH in our midst. Looking at him now its pretty obvious but then hindsight is 20:20 as they say...

My poultry princess got to name him and immediately called him 'David Beckham' which I thought was rather apt as he's got Spurs! But he has gone to live on a friends farm where he can cockadoodledo to his hearts content without driving my neighbours nuts. I think its back to chicken school for us - where my daughter is probably giving the lessons!

January is the cruelest month...

I'm finally emerging from the post Christmas malaise that descended upon our rather exhausted household. The decorations are packed away for another year, the cards that never got posted have been guiltily put out of sight and the fridge has been emptied and restocked with things that at least look like they've seen a vitamin!

And at last the snow has gone!

Finally the view is green again!

Like everyone else we were taken by surprise by the amount and the longevity of the snow. We hadn't finished winding up our outdoor jobs and projects for the year so under the snow they've sat - for seven weeks altogether. The last couple of weeks have been all about assessing the snow damage and getting up and running again. So far we've not done badly, the raspberry cage has collapsed, several favourite plants have definitely bitten the dust, but compared to friends with burst pipes we've been lucky so far.

Fortunately for me I have my head gardener to plan the season ahead, even if she does take more tea breaks than she spends digging, she assures me shes thinking very seriously about what to plant this year...

We braved the plot together and after much sighing and oh dearing we've decided upon our gardening resolutions for this year...

mine were - no more big brassicas - we've fed the caterpillar population enough thank you very much! and this year we are going to get better at taking cuttings and collecting seed.

mini freerangers were - she's going to plant her broad bean seed in pots and keep them in the house as last year she lost them all to a hungry vole population and she wants to see more roses - every where!

So after that exhausting brainstorming session we had another cuppa and decided to leave the clearing up for another day!

Happy 2011 everyone, thank you to those of you who kicked me out of my rut and got me back in the garden, I'm definitely back and feeling like freeranging - hang on, is that the thud of a Marshall's seed catalogue I hear on the doormat, Wahay, here we go again!

Our Lapland adventure...

Yes, many of you guessed it... our surprise was a visit to Lapland to meet the big man, Father Christmas himself. We managed to keep it a complete secret from the children until we were queuing at the airport. I don't know how we kept it a secret for so long and it was quite a relief to finally tell them. Thank you everyone who wished us luck getting there... we were delayed at Manchester for quite some time due to ...snow of course! But we did eventually take off and arrive safely in the land of more snow... and boy was it cold!

When we finally arrived at Father Christmas's hideaway it was very dark even though it was only late afternoon. Thankfully we were well wrapped up as it was minus 29 degrees Celsius - no wonder Santa has been working the wool and fur look for so long, if it keeps him warm then stick with it I say!

This was the home of one of his helpers...

These guys didn't seem bothered by the cold, they were just building up there strength for Friday night!

We stopped for a refuel and warm up before heading to see you know who...

 Bionic and Freerangenan got thawed out...

 this Freeranger didn't stop smiling all day, it took her brother a while longer...I think he's had enough snow for now!

Even the Elves and Helpers had there outfits hanging up to warm up!

But finally we made it...we really met him...

he read our letters and amazed the kids when he knew their names. I confess that I am right next to the littlest Freeranger in this picture and according to my family looked as though I might leap on his knee at any second!

He did promise he would come on see us very soon as long as we left him a mince pie and some thing to warm him up - I'm not surprised he gets through all those drinks on Christmas eve, he needs something to see him through another year in the snow!

We eventually got back to Yorkshire, driving through more snow, with very tired children, grandparents and grown ups - to find even more snow ( I think we brought it back on the plane!), so its only fitting that this is our Dec of the day...

because after all, home is where the heart is...

Surprise, surprise!!!

This is what surprise looks like...










and you'd look like that too if you'd just realised your mum hadn't got you up at the crack of dawn to go shopping... But you were in fact going to meet someone very special..




As long as this takes off...



fingers crossed we'll be in Lapland for breakfast. Keep you posted...Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The waiting game...

I want to tell you, I'm dying to tell you. But right now I'm in Manchester watching the snow fall wondering if I'll have anything to tell you... Fingers crossed and keeping you posted...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Goodbye Prada...

I planned to write a Christmas deco blog tonight getting ready for our weekend surprise, but real life got in the way today, as is its want. Our crazy old cat had to be put down today and were all still taking it in really.  We got Prada when we bought our first house, she was the kitten that ran up the tree, the girly cat that stayed on my knee purring contentedly during my pregnancies and the family cat that my children wrapped in bandages and tried to sneak into bed with them. She was also the crazy old lady cat who snored so loudly under our bed that I thought it was BH, the hair shedding machine and the culprit who left unpleasant parcels on the landing!

Prada Cat had got very frail recently but nothing suggested that she was terminal when I left the house for work. Today my was busiest day of the busiest week of the year, the day of my big meeting and to get a phone call from BH 30 minutes before going in to the meeting telling me that shed been taken to the vet and it wasn't good...well I certainly wasn't expecting it.
The vet offered to keep her going until I could get there but my meeting ran from 1 till 5, so I said that I would rather she didn't suffer, but pulling myself together to lead our review meeting was something I'd rather not repeat. The meeting ran, it all went very well, all the hard work has been worth it, but all I could feel was sad. Poor Pradacat...her blanket is still on the box at the bottom of the stairs, i don't think I can move it yet. Poor BH had to bring her home and bury her in the rain before the snow set in and the ground got too hard.

Animals huh? Who'd have them....


As for our Christmas Surprise - no baby Jesuses are to be appearing soon but I can tell you it involves some serious thermal underwear...no thats it, no more clues!

The yuletide moose...

Decoration of the day...

Today's decoration is a Festive shout out to our friends on the other side of the pond! Mr Moose was carried back from Wolfboro, New Hampshire where good friends of ours live and where great holidays have been had. Although we've only been there in the sunny months Ive seen the photos of their seasonal snow drop and I always feel a little pathetic moaning about the snow we have when I see how much they get! Their beautiful house is only a stones throw from the woods, where they assure me Moose are to be found. I haven't seen one yet, but I keep hoping!

Not long to go now, tonight I'm busy preparing for Saturdays surprise - you wont believe it!

Sticky finger festive fudge...

I've been frantically wrapping parcels of Festive Fudge to send back to Leeds with my sister. We used the Recipe from Nigella Express, which is a kind of cheats fudge. Basically its a tin on condensed milk, 350g of chocolate, 30g of butter, a pinch of salt and whatever you choose to flavour them with. Nigella uses pistachios but we were feeling a bit more festive tipped some whisky and maraschino cherries into the mix...how I love a maraschino cherry! You heat, stir and then tip into a foil lined to tray to refrigerate. They never quite set and are best kept in the freezer when they ready. They stay pretty gooey then and can be eaten straight from the deep freeze. I wanted to photograph some of the ones I saved for us, but found they didn't last long enough to get the camera out. The sticky finger marks around the kitchen were the only evidence to be found!

Decoration of the day... in the spirit of all things scarlet, i love these cranberry glass decorations, they totally transport me back to being a little girl and looking up at the lights in the tree glistening through the baubles!

Not long now till the 17th...oooh I cant wait!

The first angel...

My decoration of the day...

the first decoration BH and I ever bought, before we had a Christmas tree! I think when we first bought her she was hung on a twig in our first flat together. Most of our furniture at the time was improvised by covering BHs tool boxes in throws and sheets, so Christmas trees were not the highest priority...2 houses, 2 children, 2 dogs a cat and several chickens later - shes still with us and still looking as surprised as ever!

I cant believe its only 6 sleeps until the 17th  - when I can reveal our christmas secret...i'm absoloutely bursting to tell you!!!

Saving a seat...

The cold snap has left BH at a loose end of late. To take his mind of the building work waiting to be done and to give him a brief respite from swaddling condensing pipes to stop them freezing I asked if he could have a go at reupholstering the chairs we use in our kitchen. I acquired them many years ago and I've been loathe to part with them despite only having three and the fabric being worn out.

This is how they appeared when I went to work...

 and this is what I found when I got home...

A perfect fit, and it means I get to keep them for many more years! What BH doesn't realise is that now he's revealed this hidden talent I'm already compiling a list of future upholstering projects!

Decoration of the day

At last, a calorie free pudding!!!



Going snowhere...

 Why is it that even when it comes at the same time every year, the shops are full of it, the songs are on the radio, I still wake up in a panic and think ' i cant believe its almost Christmas!' Our readiness for festivities has definitely been put out of sync by the weather. Everything has been on hold for the past week, apart from igloo building that is...

 
We can make igloos that you can go in and come out of, but we draw the line at lids on top! Oh well, its nice to have a room with a view!

At some point we must thaw out and start wrapping some presents!

We did put the tree up this weekend and at last we started to feel the festive fuzziness, I'm going to post a favourite decoration everyday to keep my yuletide spirit topped up! Right now I think I'm most pleased with my Christmas kitchen, whether that's because we decorated the dresser or just because we decluttered it I'm not sure...but either way the end result makes me feel like digging out the cranberries!

Whats are your favourite decorations, Id love to know...is it the hand painted crystal Faberge set or the cotton wool covered toilet roll holder carried back lovingly from nursery school ( I know which mine is, it gets unfluffier every year but he's coming out for many to come!)

p.s. Ive got a secret I'm dying to share about a coming blog - I'm sworn to secrecy until the 17th but I don't know if I'll make it that long!