Well its summer time for sure now! The rains finished (for a while?) the floods are receding, none round our house thank goodness and the weather is really warm (yes I think 18 degrees is really warm lol). Our summer comes in stages we had a few weeks of lovely sun and heat, then 2/3 weeks of rain and cold, now we're in our second bit of summer, it's not too bad if your expecting it, you just enjoy it while its here :)
The hens are all laying now! Today was the first day we got 3 eggs, it didn't take them long once one started. I just love going to see them in the morning, they talk away to me and run over to say hello. Seeing beautiful little eggs waiting in the straw is just so lovely, there's something nostalgic about collecting eggs, something natural that makes me so content. I really love our hens :)
This last month I have been eating really REALLY healthily. We do normally eat very well, I can't help it, I was raised a vegetarian (I eat plenty meat now!) and still eat veggies and salad everyday, snack on nuts and seeds and only drink water and tea. I'm so lucky that it's just habit now. If I start eating too much chocolate and not enough veggies (thats about as unhealthy as we go lol) I can really feel it in my energy levels and thats what was happening so I've been extra good and I feel extra good :) The fresh eggs really help too, I love egg salad and eating anything from your own garden feels so great :)
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| OK that doesn't look so healthy but we needed to go shopping... thats homemade bread at least! |
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| Check out how orange those yolks are!!! |
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| Kitchen hen filling up nicely |
Today the hens were out and I just sat watching them dust bath for ages, they really love it! We also did some pottering around the garden. I tied up the pea plants and started training my plum tree that Al got me for my birthday, (the magic apple tree is doing great too) I decided to train it in a fan shape, one day it'll go on the south facing side of our house :)
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| Hosing away the dung! |
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| loving the dust bathing |
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| its so nice to see them free ranging, I wish we could leave them out all the time... |
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| My birthday plum starting to fan out (note how we potted it at a silly angle lol) |
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| our compost heap :) hens love it btw |
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| silver beet and carrot bed |
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| greenhouse peas doing great |
This perfect rose came from our garden, Al picked it and gave it to me a few days ago and it's just opened and got more beautiful each day :) I love his little thoughtful surprises like this, every time I look at it I smile and think about how lucky I am to be married to him :)
So all in all it's a lovely summer for us here in County Antrim and we're enjoying it very much :)
It all looks and sounds so idyllic! The egg salad looks amazing, beautiful yellow colour yolk that the girls are producing. Just wish we had some summer here!
ReplyDeletethat egg salad was amazing :) i hope you get some sun soon dan
DeleteWe love our hens. We have had them for about a year now and we couldn't be happier!! I biggest problem now is trying to figure out what to do will the the eggs!!
ReplyDeleteyour hens looks lovely but I'd definitely try and sell some, its hard to keep up with 6 hens!
DeleteHi Astra,
ReplyDeleteGreat to find another Irish based blog, I can never seem to find many. Your description of the Irish summer is spot on. And you do get used to it. I'm off for a good look around your lovely blog. I'm your newest follower! :o)
Hi Thrift bee, thanks for following and I'm glad you found me too coz i love your blog and likewise love it when I find other local-ish blogs :)
DeleteI could waste hours watching our hens we had them. Glad to see yours have settled in and are laying. Oh, and I think we have inherited your Irish weather over here for this summer. Enjoy the weekend x
ReplyDeletehaha i know and its back to rain here too, didn't stop us though, we're just back from a walk at our local forest park :)
DeleteI see we are in neighbouring Counties. Love your blog
ReplyDelete