chicks...

A few weeks ago the school hatched out 9 chicks in the classroom which had the children mesmerised - once one was found running around in the school hall it was time for them to move on and Nigel, Bell and Fluffy have been living in our back garden ever since.  They've eaten the lettuces, radish leaves, heather plant and lots of strawberry leaves, they spend their whole day peering into the quail house (and probably laughing as they free range it) and they do a poo every 10 paces (usually on the sand-pit lid).

The chicks have also now entered their teenage years...
They don't look quite as sweet with their stubby feathers mingled with chick fluff, not yet sleek grown up hens...

Just one egg would make up for all their teenage chaos, but they know we love them anyway!

amazing things

often the smallest things, or the tiniest details are the most amazing and easily overlooked...here are some of the things that caused the most excitement here this weekend...

an unlucky dragonfly...

 now preserved in our newly established 'dead insect museum'...

it was found here, at Bristol University Botanic Gardens, well worth a visit if you are in the area...

a teeny, tiny quails egg ( and they are fairly small to begin with) - shall we fry/poach or boil it????

and 'Cabbagy' the butterfly has at last emerged in our bathroom, having been spotted ooching down the window late last summer, making his/her tiny cocoon just above the toothbrushes and then sitting out the winter...

...of course, I haven't done any cleaning for the past six months in order to preserve the perfect habitat and when released Cabbagy flew right over the top of our house and off in exactly the right  direction for our allotment...



I didn't take all of these photos - I was not present when the floating dragonfly was discovered...some were taken by Sam who is currently advertising me, what a happy coincidence!

favourite pictures

Have you ever seen the images that Edward Bawden created for the London Underground?  They are fantastic and we have a few prints of them around the house.  This is my favourite...

but there are lovely ones for London's Parks and Gardens as well - what a great advertising campaign.

In holiday news we are mostly eating!  It's nearly 10.30 in the morning, so breakfast is a distant memory for some and a feast of bagels and quails eggs is now being demolished.  Only a couple of hours 'til lunch when another vast spread will be needed...I expect we can fit snacks in around all these meals too.