My latest bad joke– um, I mean homage to Plot 52

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 19 June 2012 in growing | 1 comment

Everyone already follows Plot 52, right? Fantastically sweet and funny allotment/growing illustrations – definitely one of my favourite blogs.

I thought of Plot 52 while watching three bees going about their buzzy business on my raspberry bushes the other day — clearly they weren’t just any old bees, they were …

Raspbees :)

(Greg’s pictures and jokes are *much* better, I promise ;) )

Arabihen nights aka why my play script has muddy footprints on it

Posted by louisa on Thursday 1 March 2012 in chickens | 1 comment

Lime the chicken has dramatic aspirations.

“Why there no role for chicken in play? I could even play duck or turkey, I has range.”

“Well, if not starring role, how about backstage? I helps with the page markers.”

“Mmm, neon is my favourite flavour.”

(In related news, today has been a lovely day and I sat out in the garden to do some non-computer work & have a cup of tea. It wasn’t quite warm enough really but it was still very nice. Hurrah for spring-like days!)

More fruit bushes-to-be – jostaberry

Posted by louisa on Wednesday 16 March 2011 in growing | 4 comments

A while ago, I said I was done planting fruit bushes for the year, then about a week later I remembered I had some honeyberry bushes on order but once they were planted up, that was it re: fruit bushes for the year. Oh, and there was also the then on order, now planted out cherry tree – definitely nothing else. Definitely, definitely, definitely.

The magnificently wonderful John B popped around last night, bringing with him some of his damson wine (which my John has declared amazing), a jar of his homemade “John’s Spicy Sausage Sauce” (which we shall use to spice up our sausages ASAP) and some jostaberry canes.

I hadn’t heard of jostaberries before John mentioned them to us a while ago – they’re a cross between gooseberries and blackcurrants. Early on, they have the taste & transparency of gooseberries but they darken to end up like big blackcurrants. They also have rather big spikes on them.

He pruned his bushes at the weekend and I won’t be able to plant the cuttings until tomorrow so they might need a bit of TLC – or might just flat out not regrow – but it’s worth a shot.

I plonked them in a tub of water when they arrived and we decided it looked like the worst, most painful, most relationship-ending bouquet of flowers ever — unhappy Valentine’s day. Hopefully though, they’ll eventually make us berry happy indeed.

Another new shelter for the chickens

Posted by louisa on Monday 22 November 2010 in chickens, wood stuff | 1 comment

We made another shelter for the chickens yesterday. My mum calls them “smoking shelters” and I guess the principle is the same – although if I find out our little girls are smoking in there*, there will be hell to pay ;)

My original idea of duplicating the first shelter just using bigger pallets didn’t work out. Cut in half horizontally, the full size pallets wouldn’t be quite tall enough for our girls; cut in half vertically, it would be way too high. Instead we used one of the smaller size pallets and the crate that our greenhouse glass was delivered in for the sides and found some misc wood (an old table top? a gate?) for the roof. It’s not completely water tight at the moment, but I’ll fix that soon. As you can see, it’s already poop worthy.

The existing structure of the crate thing provides extra stability and also the sides of it should help protect the feeder from at least some horizontal rain. I might move the feeder and completely encase the crate bit actually – it might make an al fresco nest box for when they want to lay somewhere different.

I’m not as happy with this one as I was the first one – I have a feeling this is turning into a bit of a Goldilocks thing – the last one was a bit too small for the bigger birds, this one is probably a bit too tall, the next one should be just right though!

(Oh and in some more chicken related news, I think we’ve got our first rats down there – when John went down to check the girls were all in bed last night (they were), he heard a noise and when he turned the light on, the feeder was swaying all by itself. We’ve also found a little hole that could be a tunnel. It’s not a surprise really, given the run/coop is near a waterway and there is always spare food in the feeder. We put a lot of work into fox proofing the run but I guess we need to work on rat proofing it as well now.)

* More bad chicken puns. Top five cigarette brands that chickens would smoke: Clucky Strike, Beakson & Hendges, John Layer Specials, Reggal, Silk Cluck. (sorry.)

Where chickens go shopping for clothes

Posted by louisa on Monday 15 November 2010 in chickens | 0 comments

From an IM chat with my friend Katherine…

1. New Cluck
2. Debenhens
3. Clucci
4. Henley’s
5. Hennes (old school name for H&M)
6. Cropshop
7. John Flewis
8. Marks and Hencers

And for their underwear:

1. Bwarkissimo (for big breasted birds)
2. La Henza

(I’m sorry.)

(Mrs Mauve can’t even look at me any more.)