Some thoughts…

January 26, 2009 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)37 Comments

… on our first week of chicken keeping:

:: I had no idea they poohed SO much!

:: I knew I was going to enjoy having them around but I wasn't prepared for how maternal I feel towards my girls!

:: My bedtime reading this week has been Starting with Chickens by Katie Thear and Keeping Chickens by Rebecca Hillman at Sallygardens.

:: Chickens get a bad press when it comes to brain power. They're actually more intelligent than you might think – they worked the ladder out very quickly and you should see them clustered around the back door waiting for Amy to get home from school and give them their handful of corn!

:: Chickens are lovely, but seriously – how much poo?!!!!

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Footnote: Thanks to all of you who have emailed about knitted animals. I am slowly getting back into my groove and hope to have some ready to list on etsy soon – will send more details shortly.

here come the girls!

January 20, 2009 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)52 Comments

We now have our Mrs Chickens.

There's Butterscotch & Toffee the Bovan Goldlines (reddish brown ones) and Chick-Chick who is a Black Star.

They are settling in well and are already such characters. Chick Chick is the noisiest and seems to have declared herself top chook – she was the first to venture out of the house to explore. Butterscotch and Toffee are a little quieter and a little more reticent.

We're all getting to know each other although they're already very friendly. My first task is to train them to climb the ladder – there was much panic and sqwaking at dusk yesterday when they didn't seem to know what to do! Hopefully they'll get the hang of climbing the wooden hill to bedfordshire soon!

garden stuff

Chilly & damp outside…

January 14, 2009 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)41 Comments

…but that's OK because in my daydream it's summer and I'm in Canada – Winlaw, British Columbia to be precise. The sun is shining, there's a warm, fragrant breeze and I'm wandering through some of the most stunning gardens imaginable – all courtesy of this gorgeous book that Diane so kindly sent me a while back.

Images reprinted from The Garden That You Are by Katherine Gordon, by kind permission of the publisher
Sono Nis Press.

It's a wonderful book full of beautiful photography, gardening tips, ideas, recipes and most of all fascinating insights into a group of very creative, culturally diverse gardeners and their special gardens in the Slocan valley. I've been really enjoying the inspiration this book has brought!

I've wanted to grow more of our own food for a while now. We live in a modest suburban house with an average back garden but quite a lot of it is covered in patio area. As it's essential that we keep the main bit of the garden for the children to play in I'm having to think about making the most of a small amount of space and so I'm turning to raised beds and planters for our fledgling veggie garden. I've got my seeds and potatoes on order but it's too cold to plant anything yet, so it's a great time to snuggle up with the books and start planning everything out.