Pumpkins
are great fun and added great character to our bonfire party. I always insist on happy, smiley, pumpkin faces! The hens like pumpkin seeds.
Tag Archives: happy
Samhain – All Hallows Eve – Carve pumpkins into Jack’o’Lanterns
Samhain – All Hallows Eve – Carve pumpkins into Jack’o’Lanterns
31st October was once New Year’s Eve in Celtic Ireland. The Druids believed that the mystic veil separating the dead from the living opened and spirits roamed the earth. We celebrate with a bonfire and Wittenham Cider and pumpkins carved into Jack-o’Lanterns – so called because they are named after the phenomenon of strange light flickering over the Irish peat bogs creating Will’o’the’Wisps
Broody hens
Some of the hens are still laying eggs – but two of them have gone broody. Mrs Brown is really good-natured and lets me move her anywhere but Honey is very bad-tempered and pecks me when I go near her. I have moved them to a rabbit cage so the other hens don’t bother them. Once the chicks are all hatched and big enough to hop about I move them to a bigger pen but with a shallow water bowl. Baby ducklings can also drown if they can’t get out of a water bowl.
When there are young chicks about I always put a brick in the big water bowl so little ones can get out. Dane was helping me just after Christmas last year. We had a chick that hatched on Christmas Day so we called him Jesus (he later turned out to be a girl!). Dane asked me why there was a brick in the water bowl and I answered: “It’s so Jesus doesn’t drown.” Dane replied: “I thought Jesus could walk on water!”
(L to R) Snowflake, Doris and Dillon
Autumn sweet peas?
Can’t believe my sweet peas have survived into Mid-October – I was a bit late planting them out 
in the Spring but this Autumn has been very gentle on the flowers. I pick a few sweet peas each day and add them to a vase on the kitchen windowsill so they smell lovely when I’m preparing vegetables for dinner.
Nasturtiums in October
Nasturtiums in October – until the first frosts – then “… they’re gone willy-nilly, umbrellas and all”
The rabbits love nasturtiums and it’s a real treat for them to still be eating them so late in the year. I give them just a few leaves a day – too much can cause tummy upsets – and they love the growing tips best – they must be the most tender leaves and shoots.
Hello world!
“Today is the first day of the rest of your life, be careful how you use it.”
When I’ve had really bad days – and everyone gets them sometimes – there’s always something that you can enjoy for just a moment – the scent of a wild rose, the wings of a butterfly, the liquid notes of a blackbird singing at the top of the tallest tree – and that’s what life is all about – those moments. Treasure them and remember them when you need strength to get you through.
Each day is special and my blog is intended to help everyone find a special moment in every day, celebrate high days and holidays with simple things – lighting a candle on Candlemas day, making a Yule log on 1st December and watching the stars on Midsummer night.
Today, 24th June is Midsummer, let’s share a little Moominsummer Madness:
Moominvalley is flooded by a wave caused by a nearby volcano. While escaping the flood the Moomin family and their friends find a building floating past, and take up residence there. They believe it is a deserted house until they realise someone else lives there, Emma, who explains that it is not a house but a theatre. The Moomins start to understand about the scenery, props, and costumes they have found. The theatre drifts aground and Moomintroll and the Snork Maiden decide to go and sleep in a tree. When they wake next morning the theatre has floated away again and they are alone.
Meanwhile, Little My accidentally falls overboard, and by some strange coincidence is rescued by Moomintroll’s adventurous friend Snufkin who is setting off to seek revenge on a grumpy Park Keeper. He tears down all the “Do not walk on the grass” notices, fills the lawns with electric Hattifatteners and sets free twenty-four small woodies who immediately adopt him as their father. The coincidences continue as Moonmintroll and the Snork Maiden meet Emma’s deceased husband’s niece, the Fillyjonk, and all three get arrested burning the signs that Snufkin tore up.
Meanwhile in the theatre, Emma helps Moominpappa write a play and the family decide to stage it. The woodies find a playbill for the play and cajole Snufkin into taking them to the theatre. The Hemulen who has arrested Fillyjonk, Moomintroll, and the Snork Maiden also finds a playbill and leaves his cousin to guard the prisoners while he heads off to see the play. The cousin is persuaded of their innocence and lets them out to go to the play too, where everyone is reunited and ends up on stage, the play itself collapsing into a big reunion party. When the floods recede everyone gets to go home.
The author, Tove Jansson, found her treasured moments in writing the Moomin stories. Her life was quite difficult at times and Moomintroll and Snufkin, and all the other incredible characters she created, helped her through.