Catch up .......

Thanks for all your lovely comments about my 'Creative' post, I am glad you liked all of our creations :-)  Now I apologise in advance as this is rather a photo heavy post as I wanted to do a catch up with what we have been up to for the last few weeks :-)

The weather has been glorious here for weeks now, in fact I don't think I have ever wished for rain so much :-o  We have had around a month and a half of no rain here so our gardens and farmers fields really could do with some now.  This has however meant we have had loads of fun outside :-)

Above and below are photos of the Marina which we are lucky enough to have in our village, this is the one place where my kiddies never argue so we spent quite a lot of time down there  ......

We went to Scotsdales (a large garden centre) in the holiday too, I know how to treat my kids lol, mind you they love it there :-)  Middle Sweetpea couldn't help but give the bronzed chap a kiss, you can't take her anywhere!  Little Sweetpea wasn't so sure about him and kept chatting about the 'man with no eyes' all the way home.

The kiddies have been playing in a den they have created in the field bank.  They have since made a little picket fence along the bottom of it and they spend a few hours together making a flag for it.

Much fun was had with the amazing amount of dandelions that popped up this year.   Little Sweetpeas hair even seemed to be trying to get in on the dandelion act :-)

They spent ages picking and blowing them.  I had to refrain from pulling up in the car near roundabouts as I had a real urge to photograph the hundreds of dandelions surrounding them - I didn't think the general public would like a view of my backside up in the air taking photos of them :-)  Luckily we found a field full of them !

We popped to my grandparents (the sweetpeas great-grandparents).  I couldn't help but take photos of my Nan Glynn an Grandad Pete's fab gnome filled garden .....

And we all just love their retro caravan ... in fact my hubby and I have lived in this caravan for a few months in my parents yard when we were buying our second house so it really is like home for me.   I think all my Aunties (my granparents daughters) have lived in it too at some point

Later in the holiday we had more fun down the marina, this time with lots of extra kiddies.  Eldest Sweetpea is at that age when he wants to go out on his own with mates so I have been having to let him go.  He will be off to College in September so I know the time is right but it doesn't make it any easier.

One way round it was the Marina, this did mean I ended up with a few more kiddies (9 one day) but at least I could keep an eye on them all and know they were safe.  We did have a scare with one of my Nephews who came to ours to stay as he nearly drowned, luckily Middle Sweetpea saw him, his big brother was sent to fetch him back and Eldest Sweetpea pulled him to the bank.  Scary stuff and that showed them why I was being boring and telling them all to stay in sight and not jump off the bridge etc!  I was just about to jump in myself but then realised Little Sweetpea would follow me if I did so it would have caused more issues, all was safe and well in the end - phew.

Little Sweetpea has loved it down the Marina too, it is so relaxing there.

Another thing she has loved is dancing, she insists I pop music on for her to have a quick boogy.  Goodness knows where she gets her moves ....

For the Royal Wedding of William and Kate (now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge just down the road from us :-)) we went to Swaffham Prior street party.  I haven't been to one of these since I was about 3, it was great fun.

A whole road was shut off and everyone came out to celebrate ....

Even the phone box got in on the act :-)

And my Dad here is chatting to a mate who is trying to look serious even though Dad was wearing a funny hat :-)

Then I saw this gorgeous Camper Van there, oh how I want one.  One day, one day you will be mine ....

Then on May Day we did our annual pilgrimage to Reach Fair where we met my parents (Mr Sweetpea had to work yet again - in fact both of us worked most of the bank holidays :-().  We had a lovely time but it was a bit nippy,  tea and scones soon sorted that out, they were being served in the little local church and we ate them whilst sitting on the church pews.

Eldest Sweetpea managed to win a goldfish whilst Middle Sweetpea got in a mood as she didn't :-(  We went out and bought a friend for this little fella the next day to cheer her up.  After winning him Eldest Sweetpea wasn't sure it was a good idea to win him as he was upset for all the fish left behind.  Dart & Spark (the fish) seem happy in their new home.

A gold star for anyone still reading and who hasn't dropped off :-) x

Cute, cute and more cuteness!

 Thanks for all your lovely comments on my last blog post, I do hope we get some proper sleep here soon :-)  Harmony and Rosie, I am afraid our African Grey hasn't returned home, thanks very much for asking. x

This week has been a rather cheery week in the Sweetpea household which has mainly been due to the arrival of some gorgeous new arrivals.  Last Friday night we all went to bed excited knowing that some of the chicks were trying to hatch from their eggs :-)  When we awoke little Sweetpea ran into our bedroom exclaiming that two Sarah's (the name she picked for her chick) had hatched and that they were playing hide and seek!

Little and Eldest Sweetpea watching the chicks hatch (middle Sweetpea was at Nanny's house)

Chick hatching and another chick flashing her little cute bot bot (the big fluff ball in the image) :-)

When they have just hatched they look rather sorry for themselves until the warm air in the incubator fluffs them up a bit and their energy returns.  They can take up to 24 hours to hatch.
 

This is Sarah playing hide and seek :-)  They were then popped into a brooder with a heat lamp, some fresh water and some chick crumbs to build them up.

The Sweetpeas kept watching them all day and middle Sweetpea was so excited when she returned home from Nanny's house.

At just a few days old they are growing little wing feathers and start to lose their little egg tooth on the end of their beak, they use this to chip their way out of the egg (you can just see this little ones egg tooth as the white dot on the tip of her/his beak).

They have been enjoying lots of cuddles and have melted our hearts - they are such cuties!  We had 9 hatch from 14 eggs,  I am not sure 1 little chick will make it as we had to help it hatch and it isn't growing, it just wants cuddling all the time poor dot.

I will leave you with one of our cute little chicks modelling for you :-) xxx

Sad week in the Sweetpea Household

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my last blog post and well wishes for Skibby.  Sadly I had to call my Dad over to put poor Skibby to sleep last night.  His breathing became very laboured and he was sick and wailed a few times so was obviously really scared :-(   It was a hard telephone call to make but I really couldn't see him die slowly in front of me, it just wasn't fair.  Dad came over and agreed that he was leaving us but it could have taken hours if not days for him to pass away.   I felt sorry for my Dad, it must be hard to have to put your childrens pets to sleep, I remember begging him to do something for our last pet Ernie when in my heart I knew it was too late - poor Dad had to tell me gently that nothing could be done.  Mum was fantastic taking the children out of the way until they could come back and give Skibby another kiss goodbye.  Poor Mr Sweetpea was at work so didn't get to say goodbye :-(

It is strange without him in the house, although he didn't really do much more than sit on a chair snoozing his presence is missed :-(  It was also really weird not hearing him meow constantly when Mr Sweetpea got home from work today as he used to ask him for dinner as soon as he walked in from work.  The dogs Charlie and Ted miss him too, they used to be great mates.

Middle Sweetpea was particularly upset and little Sweetpea wanted me to make her a magic wand so she could make him better.  He is now laying next to our dog Ernie in the garden and he has a little letter with him written from middle Sweetpea so he has company.

We also lost our lovely brown chicken shown above yesterday too.  That is so strange as she had a lovely day in the garden a few days back so really can't understand why she suddenly died :-(

Well I am off for a nice big glass of wine now, what a week!

xxx

Recycle your roses, chickens, Skibby and sewing - random post warning

Firstly thanks for all your good wishes for Skibby.  He is still with us and has had an antibiotic injection, is on antibiotic tablets and also has local antibiotics which we have to pop in his eye.  He has a abscess on his eye (probably scratched it on a twig in the garden) and if it doesn't heal and goes through the eye he will have to be put to sleep as that could lead to meningitis :-(   His breathing is a bit laboured today so I am hoping that won't get worse - he is too cute to leave us even if he is an old man.

Roses

Mr Sweetpea bought me some roses a couple of weeks back and now they are coming to the end of their life it reminded me that many others may have roses that may be thrown out soon.  Instead of throwing them away why not recycle them?  Last year we went to a wedding in June and instead of buying confetti I got some rose petals off our roses and dried them, I put them in a cute little paper bag and they worked wonderfully as confetti (if you buy that sort of confetti in shops it costs a fortune!).  Not only did it look lovely but it bio-degrads after a little while so is a great eco style option.

You could also dry the petals and pop some rose oil on them for a lovely potpouri.

Chickens
 
We have had a very rare couple of lovely sunny days here in Cambridgeshire.  Oh how I love to hang my washing out on the line and potter around the garden.  This week I was joined by our chickens, they absolutely love the sunshine and sit basking in it.  They also had great fun having mud baths together, Mr Chicken was making sure the girls joined in :-)  Ironically they do this to clean themselves and get rid of any mites that might be on them.

I flung the doors open to let the fresh air in but I did have to keep an eye out for unwanted guests arriving (although they are great company they do tend to poo on the carpet!) :-)

The two old ladies of the group weren't so interested in going out, they were enjoying some peace and quite indoors.

Even the African Greys were loving the sunshine and wolf-whistling the day away.  My husband bought these when he was in his teens and thought they were a pair (both male and female of this species look nearly identical).  We sent a blood sample off for DNA testing some years back now as they do a mating ritual but have never settled down together, it came back that they are both males :-)  They love each other so much however that they have stayed with us as a pair.

 

Sewing

I have managed to get a couple more sets of hairclips made recently which I really enjoyed doing.  They seem to be very Spring like - Spring is in the air yey!  I have popped them in my bloggy shop :-)
 

 

Middle Sweetpea has been creating with her felt and sewing kit that we bought her for Christmas, I just love the bright colours she used :-)  The frog is a little pin-cushion, so sweet!

I hope you are all having a lovely week.

xxx

Random acts of kindness and poor Skibby

Thanks for all your great comments on my last post, I hope I will master Crochet at some point.  If anyone has any good links where it has a list of both UK and American Crochet terms it would be much appreciated :-)

I have had some lovely gifts given to me recently just because someone wanted to be nice or due to a lucky giveaway win in bloggyland.  Due to this I decided I wanted to re balance my karma by making some random gifts for people :-)  I have done the PIF that was happening in bloggy land but wanted to do something more local too so I made some friends some yummy cookies just because they are lovely people.

If you fancy doing a similar thing or making yourself some cookies here is the recipe:

Mega Chip Cookies taken from the 1 dough, 50 Cookies book by Love Food.

8oz/225 g soft butter
5 oz/140g caster sugar
1 egg yolk (free range of course :-) beaten
2 tsp vanilla extract
8 oz/225 g plain flour
2 oz/55g cocoa powder
Milk choc or dark choc chips (or chunks as I used) - I popped a generous amount in.
White choc chips (or chunks as I used) - I popped a generous amount in.
Pinch of Salt

Preheat oven to 190deg C/375 deg F/Gas Mark 5
Put butter and sugar in bowl and mix together with wooden spoon.
Beat egg yolk and vanilla extract - stir into mixture.

(loving my new bowl that middle Sweetpea bought me.  I used to have a lovely retro one handed down through the family but she accidently broke it :-(  She then saw this one and bought it for me because its looks the same - how sweet)

Sift both flour, cocoa powder and salt into the bowl (it looks like a mountain!) and slowly stir into the mixture.  Before completely combined add the choc chips and then mix until thoroughly combined (I found it easier doing that bit by hand).

Line two baking trays with baking paper and then roll the cookie dough into balls and pop on the tray with a good space between them.  Pop in oven for 12 - 15 mins - take out and leave to cool before moving off the tray.

Then  try and give some away, that is the hard bit :-)  In fact the Sweetpeas couldn't understand why I was giving them all away but I did make them another batch the very next day so they didn't miss out :-)

When they were cooled I wrapped them in baking paper and then tissue paper with some string and lace to tie them up.  I love the way the looked, I was inspired by the lovely wrapping that Emma Bear Forever  used on the giveaway prize she sent me.

Just before giving these away I suddenly felt a bit shy about doing it and worried my mates might think I was more bonkers than they do already :-)  I overcame that feeling and really enjoyed doing this, I made a point of telling the recipients that they were gifts to  re-balance my karma so they don't feel they have to do anything in return.  I wish you all lived closer so I could just randomly give you some cookies!  If you are a 'live' friend reading this and suddenly find/get given some random cookies you know why :-)

I will definitely be doing this sort of thing again soon, not only is it nice for the person receiving them but it makes you feel great too - try it yourself and see what I mean. 

Poor Skibby/Biddy (as known my the little Sweetpeas)

Our poor old cat Skibby isn't too well.  His eye has suddenly really swollen up, he has had glaucoma in it for a while which can be painful but it suddenly flared up yesterday.   I have called Dad (who is a vet) today and we are taking him over this afternoon.   I am hoping he won't need putting down as he is 18 years old now so too old for an operation to take the eye out :-(  I really don't want to make that decision and know that Dad won't even suggest it unless he feels it is in Skibby's best interest. 
 

Hasta luego
ScentedSweetpeas 
xxx