Chick, Chick, Chick, Chick, Chicken, Lay A Little Egg For Me!

OK I think I need to admit something to the group... *stands up and takes a deep breath* "my name is Beth and I am an egg addict, I need help!"

I fear they want their eggs back!

I am desperate to get some chickens of my own but until then I'm going to have to make do with visiting my fabulously feathered friends at the farm.

Geoff the chicken trying to get in the car with us

Valerie the Bantam

We just happened to pop by the farm as I had gone into 'I've only got 4 eggs left in the house and I might run out' panic mode, I'm the same with milk, you just never know, do you? I got out of the car with my collection of pennies to put in the egg post box and as I looked through the box on the wall to hopefully find some bantam eggs poor Mr Lardshow was trying to prevent a steady stream of chickens from getting into the car!

As we herded the chucks out of the way another car approached, trundling down the lane. The chickens went clucking mad! As the people in the car got out, more and more chickens streamed through a gate. They obviously knew the people in the car!

 

Daddy's home and he's got food!

We asked the farm owners how many chickens they had, they have 'about' 200! can you believe that? But they're not all cooped up in a barn, they're roaming free around the farm, in the fields and outhouses. How wonderful is that? Happy chickens = happy eggs = Happy Betsan!

Happy Eggs

 So the question for all of you out there, hopefully reading this is...Do you think it's possible to have a house chicken? Finn and Berry wouldn't mind would they?

Happy Happy Chucks

The Flame!

Well hello there my loverducks, 

No posts for a few days, life has just run away with itself over the weekend, having people to stay is hard work isn't it? Just getting out of bed is hard enough for me most days!

Anyway I'm back and I have exciting news. Firstly my lovely friend Em is coming for tea, the pizza dough is rising by me in bed, the recipe said a warm place, so we're both tucked up under the duvet! Secondly we saw the olympic flame! 

Photos taken by Mr Lardshow

Now I'm not really one for joining in with the crowd and cheering along madly but there seems to be a wonderful feeling falling over the country at the moment. We all, myself included, are feeling a great sense of pride that the Olympics are taking place here in our beautiful land. There's also the knowledge that this may be the only opportunity we will have in our lifetime to see such events. 

Saturday morning and the alarms went off extremely bright and early, thanks to my Mother's amazing navigational skills we travelled in convoy and avoided all the traffic and closed roads and managed to get a nice little pitch next to a roundabout in Streethay. Mr Lardshow's mum and I rested our weary legs from the short walk on the camping chairs we'd taken, we had some funny looks off the local policemen but I think they were a bit fearful of what would happen if they told us to move. So we were ready and waiting, the buzz from the crowd was amazing, there was an incredible sense of anticipation in the air. 

After a while the convoy started to pass by us and eventually a coach with the torch bearers stopped in front of us. Panic set in, were we going to miss the flame? I say panic set in. Several of the crowd started to move to make sure they wouldn't miss anything. I didn't! I'm a professional when it comes to sitting in a chair, you sit in it and let others panic around you, you don't move, ever! Thankfully there was no need to panic because amazingly we had managed to position ourselves in the perfect spot.

We were sitting directly in front of where the torch was going to be passed on. Our torch bearer was a young lad called Jack. He was brilliant! Full of confidence, posing for photos, letting small children come and have their photo taken with him and the torch. 

The look of pride on Jack's face when his torch was lit was just a joy and a privilege to see. I'm so glad we managed to get out and see it. It was well worth it. Who knows maybe one day I'll be able to tell my granchildren that even though I didn't get to compete in the Olympics I did get to see the Olypic torch. 

The torches

Can I urge anyone reading this, who has the opportunity to still see the torch relay to go. It really is a spectatcular sight! Go, you may never get the chance again...

Jack

A big thank you to Mr Lardshow for letting me use his photos from the day, if you'd like to see some more of his amazing pics, please feel free to have a look. Just click on the link below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lardshow/

An Egg-celent Adventure!

Good Morning to you! I say morning, it is, I know, the afternoon. My body clock has gone a bit haywire since I started taking more of my tablets. I've been awake for two hours and I'm exhausted again now. All I manage is a quick potter downstairs and then I flop back into bed. Finn looks at me each time I return, climbs on top of me and gives me that look. The look that means "Why don't you just stay in bed with me?"

Anyway to the adventure. Adventure I hear you say? Yes ADVENTURE! Let me just clarify, an adventure for me is just leaving the house, nothing fancy like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, just putting on outdoor shoes! So last night after tea, we decided to go out for a drive to get me out of the house. We packed the car bag (full of emergency tablets, moisturiser and lipsticks), filled the hot water bottles and away we went. Mr Lardshow wanted to try and work out how to get to a pond filled with trees that he wants to photograph, we couldn't actually work out how to get there but we did end up going down a road filled with hidden farmhouses. As we were trying to find a place to turn round and head back home we noticed a box attached to the wall of one of the farmhouses. We stopped and opened the box that was covered in little chickens. Inside were little egg boxes, full of the most perfect, freshly laid, free range eggs!

It is the simple things in life that give me pleasure and you would not believe the giddiness that buying these eggs has given me. They are just beautiful. I cannot wait to eat them.

So now the big question is what to use them for? I've got my eye on the biggest one for my lunch today. Although it'll probably be afternoon tea by the time I get round to making lunch. Mr Lardshow spent the night trying to persuade me that we should have a fry up for tea tonight, I have taken to responding with 'hmmmm' when he gets these fanciful ideas in his head. 'Hmmmm' means 'Er, I think you'll find my love, the answer to that request is NO!'

I want to bake with them, I can just picture the yellow fluffy sponge that you would get from these little delights...Now if I can just stay awake enough to do it...