10 posts tagged “out and about”

Hi everyone. Today I visited the Royal Show with my Family. It was fantastic although I dind't really mind much. I did become a member of the Poultry CLub of Great Britain though! Well here you go... I met up with Clare, Rosie and Tamsin at the Omlet stand, I seemed to impress my Mum regards the cube. There were plenty of georgeous pigs. That's my little cousin and brother giving a Oxford Sandy and Black some fuss. The next 2 pictures are of a rather delightful Kune Kune piglet. Next are some pictures of hlemids??? Well this is me with an Alpaca. The Alpaca judging ring A georgeous Llama Just for Lesley, some bees. There were hundreds of them, it is impressive how they did a real demonstration. I bought some honey in aid of the Bee Keepers Association. We did take a picinic, but ended up in a tent where we had our dinner cooked by a celebrity chef in front of our eyes for free!!!! The chef was Rachel Green. You may notice her from Kill it, Cook it, Eat it. She cooked us chilli taccos and Pork in mustard and apple sauce. We watched her doing it, for about half an hour, and during the cooking she brought the farmer on who explained about his free-range Gloucester Old Spots. It was delicious! A fantastic day for all!

 

 

 

 

A great holiday!

I will try to fit an allomtent update in this weekend!

 

Lots of love

Martin x x

On Firday evening we traveled down from our in Warwickshire to a lovely cottage on a working farm in the beautiful Wiltshire countryside!

The surroundings were amazing and the cottage looked very good also.

We've crammed so much into this weekend, so for my benefit and my readers benefit, the weekends adventures will be unraveled over the next few days in managable chunks.

So today (Sunday) I'll tell you a little about our accomadation.

 

We stayed in an old cottage called "The Old Dairy" you could probably guess what it used to be! :D

It was mostly open plan and it only had one floor.

 

How nice is the letter box, it's actually a box!

The cottage itself is very pretty and well presented, it is next to the old bull pen, which has now also been made into a cottage.

 

The garden was really pretty, but there were a few weeds amongst the shrubs and bushes that I really wanted to pull out :D

 

The large, spacious, open-plan living room and kitchen was a great place for chilling out! :D

 

 

One of the great things about the cottage was that it brought the family close together. I had forgotten how great a game of Opperation actually was!

 

Well that was Part 1 - I hope it was managable, however I can guarantee tomorrows segment will be a little longer...

 

Thanks for coming by,

Martin

Today I went to the Domestic Fowl Trust in Honeybourne with my family. I had a great day, we went with our grandparents and cousins also. I had a great day, holding chicks, hens and cockerels. Stroking pigs and goats, picking up a lamb etc. It has been a great day. The bonus is that my little cousins have gone away really enthusiastic about chickens. They were really amazed by feathers and eggs. I naughtily climbed over the fence into the Poland Enclosure, to pick up some of the beautifully coloured feathers for my cousins to hold. Being experienced with hen keeping I also opened some of the small coops to pick up eggs and tell them about them, putting them back in the end of course. There were some really nice birds and I am quite unsure how I didn't come back with 2 or 3 more hens. However I have been promised by the family that I can have another chicken later in the year! :D

The first bit of the Domestic Fowl Trust is a museum about chickens! Lol. It's quite interesting though, What's the most amount of yolks ever found in one egg? 9!

Then it moves onto the outdoors, and to the side of you is the hatchery. It was full of day old chicks!

 

It does say "DO NOT PICK UP THE CHICKS OR DUCKLINGS" but it was quite a low sign and I've seen them being handled before, so I naughtily (I've been very naughty, lol) picked up a chick at a time to show by my cousins. It's been a really educational visit for them with my vast amount of knowledge.

 

The photo above is my youngest cousin (3) stroking what I presume to be a Cream Legbar chick. I didn't want to let her hold it incase it figited and she dropped it on it's head. So she gave it a stroke whilst it was in the safety of my hand.

 

That photo, is my oldest cousin (well out of the ones I was with today) with another chook, but I couldn't identify it.

 

Above from Left to Right: A male Rhea. A goat with HUGE horns and Gertie the pig.

 

This is a picture of Sean and Amy making a new friend in the shape of a Goat! Lol. I fed it also, it licked the corn right off your hand. It was hillarious, it was probably the frendliest animal there! :D I wish I had room...

We then went for a spot of lunch, Amy was not hungry so had a play on the playground.

 

Picnic

 

Farmer Giles.. I mean Amy!

 

My cousins insisted that I take a picture of this peacock, he was a very lucky hen. There was a ratio of 1:30(approximatelt) male:female.

 

Here are some thumbnails of my brother and cousins with 2 young sheep and a kid goat.

Well that wrapped up our day at the Domestic Fowl Trust, it kept us entertained for severall hours. All 3 of them are now enthusiastic about my feathered friends. I also gave them a bantam egg each to take home as a treat.

 

I wrote both their names and the names of the chickens who laid them onto the egg, and they will have them for breakfast at their house.

Well I've had a great day, and I plan to do a garden update ASAP. I bought a few more strawberry plants and they are ALL now with straw under them as flowers and small green fruits are starting to appear.

 

Since Friday 6th April, I've had....

 

34 EGGS!

 

Thankyou very much for dropping by,

Martin

On Tuesday, I went to the RAF Museum in Cosford. I went with my grandad, who used to be a medic in the RAF and my grandma, uncle and brother.

They recently opened a multi-million state of the art hanger, full of huge planes, many suspended from the ceiling. It looked spectacular.

We tried to visit a month or so ago, but there was a bomb scare and it was all closed off. We've had bad luck going here. Trying to visit on numerous occassions, bomb scares, illness etc. had preventted us from visiting sooner.

 

 

This is the family photo, and currently my desktop background. :D

 

The picture above is my Grandad and brother next to a displat of The Hendon Air Days. My Grandad was there, so it was definately a great opportunity for a photo.

 

2 quick, short posts to keep on top of most of the happenings. I've been really busy with maths coursework, so please bare with me. If I get chance there will be a garden update tomorrow.

 

Thanks,

Martin

Big family = Lots of chocholate and presents.

 

We went to the garden centre...

 

... and came home with Leroy the carp for our pond. :D

 

Went on a walk with the family and dogs.

 

The bantams free-ranged for the first time with us.

I am so tired, I was up before 6am to go to Jimmy's Farm!

It was a mini Omlet get together. The main reason we was there was to promote the Battery Hen Welfare Trust (www.bhwt.org.uk) I got a sticker and one of those things you see on princesses, or prom queens (not a tiara) it normally says something like "Prom Queen 2006" well mine said "Battery Hen Welfare Trust" :D

I went around the farm with my family as last time I got caught up with my Omlet Buddies, and didn't spend much time with them.

We arrived at Jimmy's at about 9o'clock, and went straight into the farm shop. Last time we came (Christmas 06) by 10o'clock the que was out of the door and there wasn't much stuff left. So we went straight into the shop. We bought 2kg of Classic Essex Pig Sausage. 1.5kg of Farmhouse style sausages. 0.5kg of Pork and Apricot Sausages. 0.5KG OF Gluten Free sauasages. 0.5kg of Beer sausages. Not all of these sausages were for us, they were also for people who we'd told how lovely all Jimmy's sausages were. We also bought 2 Carrot Cakes, Vegetable Pasty (for sean) and 2 pork joints for easter dinner (my grandma had one of them and we had the other!) My Grandma Alcester, also bought me the Jimmy's Farm T-shirt. Total cost of all this: £107.90 LOL!

We had so much shopping already, that Mum and Dad took it back to the car.

This gave Sean and I the opportunity to take some photos. Jimmy had displayed lots of the newborns by the car park for the public to see.

 

Essex Pigs - they're lovely.

 

This black Highland cow also had a calf- which was suckling at the time of photo taken. They were both lovely!

 

In the background is the old barn and in the foreground is a little monkey!

After the market browse and more money leaving our pockets, we decided to visit the Nature Trail. We also went on the nature trail last Christmas, it was muddy, messy, slippy, flooded etc. So it would be interesting to see how it is in different seasons. Well only one word can describe the nature trail - beautiful! Bluebelles galore, wild garlic! Fantastic. It's a real haven. Below will be several pictures of the trail....

 

 

 

Georgeous aren't they!

Well after spending a good amount of time at Jimmy's we decided to seperate. Mum, Dad and Sean went into Ipswich shopping, whilst I stayed at the farm to socialise with my friends from the forum.

I arrived at the BHWT stall and I was stopped several times "Are you Martin?" Which was quite funny! I hadn't got a clue who these people were at first! Lol

Well the BHWT stall really has moved up in the world.

Below is a picture of the stall in December...

 

.... and here is the stall as it was today...

 

How good does it look! It's superb!

 

At that point I decided to hand Buffie my donation. £31 - It should pay for a crate which can be used to save 12 hens at each new rescue. Money well spent.

 

That's me with Jayne Cox (Hidden Egg Detective) and Sarah (Sussex Co-ordinator)!

Jimmy Doherty is a patron of the BHWT so he was only more than happy to pose for a photo! :D

 

Notice that I am taller than him! :D LOL.

So a really good day, one of the best highlights was seeing Dolly again. He was letting people stroke the sheep and I got to hold one, so Sean and I petted it. It was so cute, I wanted to take him home! :D

 

 

The top one - Left to right - Dolly - Martin - Jason the sheep - Sean

So overall a memorable day, was great so see various people and meet lots of others.

I almost came home with more bantams, Jimmy was selling off surplus Point Of Lay bantams for £3.50!!!!

Whilst at Jimmy's I was constantly noting ideas etc. The garden was never too far out of mind. I even bought some pumpkin plants which are now in the greenhouse. They were £1 for 3. I have some Pumpkin seeds but they shall be planted when I actually move up to the lottie.

 

As I wasn't here during the day to do any gardening, I was outside at 9pm in the dark, stocking up the compost heap with teabags, cardboard and fluff. I gave it a good mix, and stir up. Then I got the bantams out for a stroke, whilst they were tired and docile. It's the first time I've properly handlem them, I had to catch poach and scramble the other day because they escaped whilst we was moving the run! They are so cuddly, a ball of soft feathers. A complete cushion if you like! :D Lol.

We had another 3 egg day, 2 eggs from the big girls and Poach laid again! Good Girls. Will just go and fill in the sheet now :D LOL

Well tomorrow is Easter and I think Breakfast will be exciting Poach's eggs and of course Jimmy's sausages.

 

Thanks for dropping by,

Chat soon,

Martin x 

 

It's not been the warmest, but it's been very nice here to day. Sun was shining and blue skies up until about 3o'clock.

Been around at Grandma and Grandad's most of the day making sure that Grandad is getting all his sugar!

 

Whilst I was there I had the opportunity to check on my seeds. I've had loads of Germinations since yesterday.

6 x Iceberg ;Lettuce

7 x Brocolli

1 x Garden Pea

4 x Cauliflower

 

 

You can see some greenery in the pots above, they are all Iceberg Lettuces. With Courgettes and Brocolli to the right and French Beans, Garden Pea and Dwarf Beans to the left! There are obviously far too many seeds in that one Lettuce pot so tomorrow I shall probably try to seperate them out a bit and also give all the pots a sprinkle of water.

Also today I noticed that the plum tree in the orchard (1 tree in my back garden! LOL!) has come into full blossom and it looks beautiful. It wasn't until last year that I noticed we could eat from this tree! Every time I clean the chooks out I put some of the waste around the bottom of the tree and then put the woodchips on top. Gives it that extra boost. I hope to be making some plum jam this summer when the fruits are bearing.

 

You can see the tree there up against the wall and just behind the eglu. It's not too far for the manure to travel.

The next photo is of the blossom of that very plum tree. I am so proud of it, to be honest I don't think it would be out of place in Gardeners World Magazine!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Can you see all of those lovely plums I am going to have! Yum Yum!

Whilst giving the dry area of garden, in which the Plum Tree is located, I also noticed how well my Strawberry Plants were coming on. So it looks like I shall have a bumper crop of strawberries! I have 4 large pots, in which about 15-20 Strawberry plants are embedded! I left them with no water or protection over the winter, and to my amazement they have survived the frost and snow to come on! I only had 3 plants last year so they've multiplied by at least 5! I think that all 3 plants cost me £2.50 when I bought them as plug plants last year at a garden centre. I never knew Strawberry Plants were so hardy! I've also been told that every plant will give a better harvest than the year before. So I'm expecting a high yield! Let's just say I'm very excited.

I'd thought I'd include a picture of one of my flourishing plants for you to see!

 

I am having a good day on the veg front!

 

I had one egg today, for the first time in about 10 days, all the other days prior to today I have had 2 egg days. Of course, I shall be looking forward to 5 egg days when Scramble, Poach and Hardboiled arrive! Lol, I am very excited about that!

I've been trying to prove to my brother, Sean, that we do infact live in the country side. He does not believe me!

 If you lived 100 yards from a beef farmer, and a huge field. Woulf you say you lived in the countryside? 

If there was a free-range egg farm just down the lane, only a 2 minute walk away, would you say you lived in the countryside?

If there was nothing but farmland inbetween your town and the next, would you say you lived in the countryside?

If you lived a few moments away from a natural spring and only 150 yards away from one of the biggest rivers in the county, would you say you lived in the country?

None of these points have entered Sean's mind. So today I took him on a walk.

This country lane is not far from my house (2 minutes) it's not big enough really for a single car to get through. Does this look like the countryside?

 

Do these views look like the countryside?

The top one is the views through the bushes. Although it was foggy, you can still just about see the Town Church, St.Nicholas in the background.

 

The bottom one was taken when we were near to a field full of sheep. I stood on the metal fence, so that I was high up and was able to get a good view.

 

 

 

 

My Grandparents live a 2 minute walk away from me and I took this picture just after we popped into see them. The little lambs were struggling back up the bank after grazing next to the river as Mummy sheep had a well deserved drink of water!

 

These sheep were owned by a completly different farmer, not too far away either. Just down another country lane. LOL! These two were tucking into a sort of cereal based feed and water. I think there shack is ever so attractive and is a real feature, so I made sure that was in the picture too! I really liked these sheep, they had bald necks and huge fleeces, that were really frizzy. I wish I could have took them home, but hey, they're only down the road! Does this still not look like the countryside?

 

Now this is the most beautiful place in Alcester. It's georgeous. It looks especially good during the spring. Look at the daffodils, rapids current, willow tree, sheep in the field, you can't see it in the photo but there is also an original roman bridge in the background. Is this not the countryside?

 

Well what can I say. Sean has had to admit defeat, If I did not go no more than 1 mile from my house at any time and show him all these sites, what else could he want? I'm so greatful to be living in such a lovely place and not in a city where the nearest field, just doesn't exist.

 

The only downside to the current state of the countryside is of course pollution. There is so much fowl litter around, and it really does have an effect of the local wildlife. The first of the next 2 pictures is of a stream next to the allotments site. There were 2 ducks in this stream, 20 coke bottles, 40 carrier bags, a metal pole, empty crips and cigarette packets, a crate etc. The poor ducks have had their home spoilt by the inconsiderate people who can't be bothered to put anything in the bin. The second picture is of the bin.

 

 

Ok, I do admit that is the dog poo bin! I wouldn't put general rubbish in a dog bin. But dog poo is also a problem in the countryside, aswell as the sort of vandalism that the picture tells of also. Somebody has obviosuly lit a fire in the dog bin and it's melted down to the ground and is just a solid piece of metal!

 People allow their dogs to fowl, in the belief "It's ok, it's the country. Nobody is going to step in it." or "It'll just decompose." It won't pick it up, put it in the bin!

We can always be sure that the countryside will be a lovely place.

I hope you have enjoyed this post! It's taken me 90 minutes to compose, but it's worth it. It shall be a great reference for me.

I'm going to finish with 2 pictures. My Grandad's greenhouse, which is full of all my pots and seeds, and the last one is the gate to the Allotment site in my town, where hopefully all these lovely plants will eventually end up!

 

 

Thanks for coming here for a read! I really appreciate it!

 

Thanks again,

Martin

Today I was up early to go to Redditch with my family. The only reason I went was because I needed to buy my Mum's birthday and Mothers Day card. We got to the King Fisher centre far too early and only Next was open! So we trudged round there before I had a needed sit down in Costa, with a latte and cheese and ham toastie! So I got up again and trudged off to WHSmith's where I bought a copy of First News, this is the newspaper that naughtily included picture of the new "eglu cube" before the launch date! I quite like it, it would suit 10 hens according to the article but looking at the picture from the size of the run I think 10 would perhaps be too many, I can't wait to see one in the flesh. I would love to upgrade to an "eglu cube" this year if I get my allotment. I have plans and I'll let you know how I get on with them!

For those of you who haven't yet seen it, it looks just like this...

 

I don't think that photo does it any justice, it looks much better from the front...

 

Sorry for the poor picture quality, but unfortunately the image in the paper was quite small so it took a bit of work to scan in the image and then enlarge the little thumbnails on the original image!

I wouldn't know what to do with in excess of 60 eggs a week, and with maybe 3 chickens in the mk2 then that could easily become 78 eggs! Then if I had 5 or 6 or 7 few bantams.... It might be closer to 100 eggs a week. Yes I shall dream on!

After the visit to WHSmiths we finally visited M&S where I was really impressed with their Easter selection. Most of their eggs were made from Organic chocholate and they were really cute. I am going to buy some of the really cute egg cups that have a small Organic chocholate egg in them!

Well after all that, we then went to Sainsbury's where I bought some Reggae Reggae Sauce for a friend who doesn't too reguarly visit Sainsbury's.

 

After that, my back (still not completly better) is awful. It really does hurt, mum is thinking of getting me another Doctor's appointment. We thought we had one tomorrow but it is only to go and pick up the Doctor's note, so that we can claim back the money from the Disney trip.

 

Anyway, I'll stop nattering away and leave you in peace!
Thanks for reading and come back soon!

Martin x

I am still struggling a bit with my bad back but today I went to Banbury to visit my Grandma. I also stopped off at Clare T's house so that I could drop off a card for her daughter Rosie who's birthday it is tomorrow.

I went inside to natter with Clare, whilst my family waited patiently outside. I also got chance to meet Betty the Barnie for the first time. She is such a wonderful chicken. She has some really nice shades of green, purple and blue amongst her lush brown feathers. I also picked up my Jute bag from which Clare collected from Tesco. It only cost 97p so I am going to take a gamble and try to remove the ladybird pattern and then personalise it myself. I will let you know how it goes with that.

After I had been to Clare's I went off to my Grandma's where we had dinner of Pizza and wedges. It was really nice to see her because the last few time we had scheduled to visit I was unfortunately not available!

Another day has passed and I have 2 posts in 1 day on this new server. I'm already finding it more useful than blogspot.

 

If you stay tuned into my blog, I'll include pictures, audio and hopefully video to make it more interesting and digestable.

 

Thanks again for visiting,

Martin