sunny sunday

beautiful day here today so planning to take dogs out onto the marshes this afternoon.

Up early due to clocks changing so thought i'd get ahead and have made our evening meal-leek and cashew nut bake with the first leeks from the allotment,homemade bread and salad.Have also made a big batch of dog food using the recipe from the down to earth blog.our dogs literally inhale this they love it so much,and there are no nasties in it.

Right off to hang the washing out.

weekend prep

The plan for the weekend is to take young son(13 now!!)off to the Severn valley railway this weekend to see the Tornado,which apparently is a new build steam train,or so i gather,I'm sure train mad son will correct me(in lots of detail),so today is catch up in advance,notably a good clean of the chicken coop whilst it's dry outside.there's new bark chippings to go down and everything needs a good scrub,plus plenty of fresh straw so they can snuggle up as the nights get colder.

We have 6 hens now as someone needed to re home her 3 ex batts quickly and i had the space.once a new pecking order was established they settled in fine.It's fantastic to always have plenty of eggs now.

Will also sort out packed lunches for tomorrow and tonight and tomorrows evening meals,and maybe they'll be time for the huge pile of ironing this afternoon accompanied by radio 4?

tinkers day in the woods

our lovely boy had a great run round Burton woods this afternoon.You can see his big smiley face!

He's doing ok,but slowing down and doesn't always seem to have control of his legs,so i fear we maybe on a downward slide...

The vet said between 6 weeks and 3 months and we are entering week 11,but they said the end maybe very sudden.My heart aches..

Tea?

a group of us take turns to host coffee mornings,we met through our children who are now either at high schoolor uni,and wanted to stay in touch.

It has been an invaluable source of support as we have battled illnesses,children spreading their wings and unfortunatly the deaths of parents and spouses.

All of us love to cook and bake,and share recipes and ideas,we seem to be a junior division of the w.i!

Day at the beach

took some time out yesterday and took the dogs to hoylake beach for a run,not sure how much longer Tinker will manage walks like this as he gets very breathless now.Yesterday however we let him off the lead and he ran and ran with Poppy circling him,she must have run four times as far!Alovely afternoon for the memory bank when he is no longer with us.

Snuggled up in front of the fire when we got back but only after making some spicey apple chutney to allow myself a clear conscience!

Glorious day here today so have stripped all the beds and the sheets are merrily flapping on the line.

really must go now and clear chutney gunge from kitchen!