Those of you who know us know just how busy Christmas week is for us what with a wedding anniversary and 2 family birthdays all squeezed in between Christmas day and New Year’s Day.
This year wasn’t much different.
Christmas Day saw a lazy day, full of surprises and a little cooking. I know cook a pavlova instead of a Christmas cake which I made that morning. I thought it had failed so turned the oven off and left it to itself. But it had other ideas and when I came to clear the oven out for Stuart to cook our meal (evening meal when it was cooler), I pulled a piece from it to nibble. It was lovely, soft and chewy just how we like it. And so it was back on the menu and all I had to do was remember how to make vegan whipped cream from 2 tins of frozen coconut cream.
The table and the Christmas table cloth, freshly made eggnog is mandatory (after all I need to use the egg yolks somehow.)
Stuart’s new placemat alongside his drinks matMy new placemat. I really like the effect a table cloth has on the eggs!Christmas Day evening meal. Included are sprouts cooked in the oven which was a new one on me.The pavlova before cooking.When the cooking time including an extra 2hrs was up, the pavlova was still soft to touch, so we forgot about it until it came to throwing it away when we tried it…So I decorated it in situ.Cream was added afterwards.
Our little bantam from last year’s chicks went broody on us whilst I was an inpatient in rehab. Luckily I was home by the time her chicks hatched and I have been able to watch them and get grow up. As always bantam chicks add a new level of problems because of their size and because of the overnight temperatures we ended up with them in the mudroom until they were old enough to go into the maternity ward (which was in use with a mum that doesn’t share well with other chooks and is also rather feral.)
This bantam is a cross between a Silver Laced and a Pencil Laced Wyandotte. Like all bantams she had that small chook attitude problem. We chose some Old English Game bantams for her to sit on and of the 10 eggs she sat on, 7 hatched. 2 were pullets, the other 5 are all cockerels!
Out for a scratch in the lawn.
Finally, all 7 chicks in one picture.
Before these chicks are 5 weeks old, mum (Cagney) was broody again and is now sitting on eggs again. This time they are standard size eggs because it was the only way we could break up the fights that were going on between her and another broody chook which happened every time the other chook got up and left her eggs for a break, food and water etc. When she’d go back she would find that Cagney would be sitting on her eggs. Ironically now that Judith’s eggs have hatched and she has chicks of her own, some of the chicks have decided that another broody chook (Arya, a very moody, big, black chook we acquired some time ago) is a better place to warm up or have a nap with than with their own mum! Hopefully they will stop this soon because Arya’s chicks are due to hatch in a week’s time.
Mum now has to put up with the 3 remaining chicks sleeping on top of her whilst she is in turn sitting on eggs. The nesting box isn’t really big enough.
