Snow and Samhain

Today is Samhain Eve - the day before the Celtic New Year. Of course it's also Halloween, so today we've been celebrating the Celtic and Christian festivals in our own way. Karl and Ella carved a pumpkin together last night - it's an owl's face.

This evening, Ella and Nan got dressed up and went reverse trick or treating. We gave treats out to our neighbours - chocolate brownies and toffee apples. All the people we visited very generously and considerately respected Ella's food limitations and she came home with a bag full of fruit, marshmallows and dairy free chococolate. Harry, Connie and Ed came over to show us their halloween outfits too.

We have been feeling the change in the weather this week - snow on Tuesday and bitter winds yesterday and today. Ella was delighted with the snow and went around the garden collecting it in a bucket to put in the freezer.

Uncle Steve, Auntie Caroline and Melissa came to visit on Wednesday, along with Caroline's sister and her little boy, Christopher. They all enjoyed meeting the chickens, collecting apples and zooming about on Ella's trunki.

Nanna is recovering from her knee operation and Ella is looking forward to her visiting so we can put her to bed and read stories to her.

This week I've been making christmas presents and cards. Ella has been desperate to help, but the thought of her with a tube of glitter has prevented me from involving her so far !

Tom is still struggling with an upset tummy and a cold, but he's still in good form. He's developed a new dance to "dingle dangle scarecrow" in which he looks like a startled chicken about to take off. I think he may achieve independent flight one of these days.

The hens are settling in well.. Their favourite food appears to be toast and marmite.

Each morning we play "chicken bingo" which basically involves guessing which chicken will be first down the ladder when the door is opened. They took a few days to master the ladder, but Clarabel still waits until last then launches herself down on top of the other chickens with lots of flapping and fussing. She has earned herself the name Clarabel Clatterbucket as a result.
They are placid, gentle little creatures and we are enjoying watching their funny little characters developing. We look forward to posting the first egg picture soon too.

Autumn weather..

Autumn arrived with a vengence today, after a week of beautiful, mild, sunshine-filled days.

Here are Ella and Tom in the garden trying out their new car seats.

Today has been drizzly, grey and miserable. Still, we've been getting into the swing of Autumn by continuing to collect bits and pieces for our nature table.

Ella's friend Eddie celebrated his 4th birthday on Monday, so Ella and Tom went for birthday tea with Connie and Ed.

We have all been suffering with colds and sickness bugs lately, so we haven't been too far. However, at the weekend, we went to Banbury to pick up some chicken feed, so we're all ready for the arrival of the hen house tomorrow. If we have good weather on Friday, we'll go and collect the hens. Ella is very excited...

We found a great playground on the way to Banbury, with a huge wooden fort which has a zip wire attached. We went there while Karl was cuddling chickens on his chicken-keeping course. We met up with my friend Non and her children. Here's Tom with Non's Ella and their neighbour - they seem to be eyeing up Tom's apple, with a view to taking a cheeky bite.

Ella, Tom and I visited our friends Vicki and Chris recently too. Ella and I take part in an on-going study into hormones and stress, and recently we visited the research team at Cambridge University.

We had a lovely day with Vicki and Chris and their children Matilda and Jemima, followed by a morning in Cambridge watching the punters on the river. Woody and Wendy came with us, and here they are with Ella outside Kings College.

Nanna came out of hospital yesterday, after a knee op, so we hope she recovers quickly.