snippets from our Easter hols

April 20, 2015April 30, 2026 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)35 Comments

Hello again! I hope you had a lovely Easter. Over our two week school break we kept busy with wood walks and lots of garden days, especially in the middle of last week when we had a few days of distinctly summery weather – hopefully there will be a lot more of that to come!

The Easter egg that I was most eagerly anticipating did not arrive for Easter but appeared a week and a half later on April 15th…

That was when the first chicken egg was laid, with the second two eggs following the next day. The first two eggs are tiny and I’m not sure which of our girls to congratulate and give extra treats to as both eggs were laid in the early morning. The third egg was larger (though still on the small side compared to a shop bought egg) and was definitely laid by Hattie, as she went into the nest box during the day and after she came out there was a lovely warm speckled egg sat in the straw.

So our girls are ladies now 🙂 They have learnt to scratch in the dirt, to come when I rattle the little jar of corn they get each afternoon, to let me pick them up for inspection and a quick cuddle and they are old hands wings now at bed-time ladder climbing. They do make me smile and I’ve really been enjoying their antics…

The first egg may not have arrived in time for Easter day but I did get a lovely Easter present, The New Kitchen Garden by Mark Diacono. The fact that I bought it for myself (because around here it’s only the children who get visited by the Easter bunny) doesn’t diminish my enjoyment of it – it’s a great book, beautifully laid out and it has all the information I need to make the most of our little veg patch.

I’ve already made a start with nasturtiums, courgette seedlings (which are desperate for bigger pots) and my kuri squash seeds are just about breaking through the surface of their compost. In the garden I’ve planted out kale, broccoli, cabbage and some lettuces too and I’ve direct sown spring onions, beetroot, mangetout peas and dwarf french beans. Fingers crossed we’ve got no more frosts to come.

Around the rest of the garden everything is sprouting and it seems that overnight the plum tree has gone from frothy white with blossom to bright spring green as the first leaves open out.

I love this tiny shoot coming directly out of the gnarly bark – it perfectly illustrates the magic that is all around at Spring-time

Well, I’m off to relish my monday-me-time. Having Toby at home for the last 2 weeks has been quite tiring, so it’s very nice to have a bit of time to myself again with the children going back to school today. I’ll be playing around with the blanket that I started over the Easter break.

Originally I had planned using Solveigs lovely ‘flowers in the snow’ pattern exactly as written but when I started joining the squares I felt the need for a bit more space between the coloured circles.

So I’m adding a round in grey before starting the squaring-off round.

I’m using mostly Rooster Almerino yarn which is beautifully soft. All notes and yarn used etc. over on my ravelry project page if you want more details.

Thanks for stopping by. I’ll be back soon, hopefully with some knitting news of a new pattern 🙂

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PS: This is not a sponsored post – I don’t do those. I only write about things that I like and I buy with my own money.

chicken stuff · garden stuff

Hattie, Hetty and Bluebell

March 10, 2015April 30, 2026 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)56 Comments

Thanks so much for all of the kind comments about the blanket and all the great paint suggestions. I’m looking forward to changing the bedroom colour but I suspect it will take us while to get around to painting – the thought of having nice new grey walls is lovely but the reality of getting them is less lovely. In the meantime I have something else that is lovely and grey in my life. Meet Hattie, Hetty and Bluebell…

Come on girls, turn around and say hello. They are more interested in pecking the fence than having their photo taken, in fact they are more interested in pecking than doing anything else.

I collected them on Monday afternoon and they are slowly getting used to their new home. They’ve been very twitchy and nervous, jumping at every new sound – the lawnmower a few gardens away caused lots of consternation and when a plane went quite low overhead on it’s way to Stanstead airport they went completely to pieces – watching them reminds me of the story of Chicken Licken who thought the sky was falling.

They became a little calmer this afternoon. Earlier I spent a couple of hours outside with them, weeding the veg patch and all the while making warbling happy chicken sounds and cooing at them to get them used to me (the neighbours will now think I’m completely batty). They still need assisting in and out of the hen house, as the ladder clearly terrifies them right now but having had chickens before I know that they’ll be doing it on their own in a few days. It won’t take long before they’ll have settled enough for their individual personalities to emerge – they are already starting to size each other up and work out the pecking order.

They are all hybrid hens bred from Marans crossed with other breeds – Hattie is a Speckled Ranger

Hetty is a Speckled Humbug

and Bluebell is a Bluebell

They came from Handpecked which is a lovely family-run local business with a good range of hens and supplies.

It’s so nice to have chickens in the garden again. They are such fun to watch and having freshly laid poached eggs for lunch is delicious, though it will be a month or so before they begin laying so I’ll have to be patient. In the meantime I am enjoying being a chicken keeper again 🙂

chicken stuff · garden stuff

spring clean up

March 9, 2011May 2, 2026 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)38 Comments

We’ve had 3 back-to-back days of spring sunshine here. It’s lovely how a bit of blue sky over your head and sunshine on your face can make you feel so much more energetic and positive and I’m suddenly feeling the need to get my fingers in the dirt and get the garden ready for veggie growing again.

This will be my third year of growing and so our soil needs a top up with a bit of richly rotted down compost. Luckily the chicken ladies are very helpful in that department. I remember being amazed when we got them at the quanity of poo that they generate but it’s all being put to good use and hopefully my veggies this year will grow big and fat and delicious courtesy of the chicken ladies digestive productivity!

This year I’m rotating the crops in my four beds again with brassicas (broccoli & cabbage), dwarf french beans, carrots & parsnips, garlic & onions. Elsewhere in the garden I’m also growing tomatoes, patty pan squash, courgettes, lettuce, herbs, potatoes, raspberries and strawberies and I have a new little patio apple tree that is only supposed to grow to around 6ft tall.

I’m going to give beetroot a go this year too – prompted by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s delicious sounding recipe for beetroot, goat cheese and redcurrant salad and his slightly less tempting chocolate and beetroot brownies (both from River Cottage Everyday – I’ll let you know how they turn out!). Are you growing anything in your patch this year?