~*~ Marvellous Mother Nature ~*~

In a post last week,I mentioned I had a broody hen sitting on 6 eggs.Nothing had happened and I was getting impatient,so I decided to have a look,literally.
6 o'clock found me sitting in the dark in the understairs cupboard,(they can't do you for it ),with my candling lamp !!!
Candling,involves shining a light into the egg from the side and you can see what's going on inside.
of the 6, 2 had not developed for some reason but I could see 4 little chicks moving in the others.I even heard a little "cheep" from inside one.-fabulous
Last year when I used my new incubator for the first time,I "candled" the eggs every week to check development.The children and I loved it, it was facinating to see these little lives develop,in fact the above broody hen was one of those first babies.Once you start to hear them inside the shell,"pipping" isnt a long way off.I'll keep you informed.

The photo shows the proud ,expectant father,a very fine buff cochin.

~*~ Soaked to the Skin ~*~

First of all, Happy Birthday for tomorrow Dawn!!! See you Friday.
I had a bloke from the insurance company around this morning to look at the damage from the flood.


After he left, I went into Hexham shopping and got caught in the most torrential rain, I was literally soaked to the skin, I couldnt risk sheltering till it went off cos I was afraid the house would be flooded again!

The trip out was worth it though as I found a brilliant book, I had seen it on the Prints Charming website (Australian) but hadnt got around to sending away for it and there it was in my local Waterstones. I had just been grumbling to one of the girls about the amount of stock they had allocated to crafts and then found this little gem!! Its about craft bloggers their inspiration,projects and workspaces. What do the rest of you think ?>>

Verity is in a spin, 'The Slaley Show' schedule arrived this morning and she wants to enter just about everything; The prettiest hen ,photography, baking etc, etc. I apparently am entering numerous patchwork and knitting classes, watch this space. We had a bit of a tragedy in the hen dept. at the weekend, one of the bantam chicks strayed into the cattle sheds and fell into a water trough and drowned. Then there was 6.......
Verity and I then rearranged all the hen accomodation and put all the bantams out of harm's way