Hestia has a Beautiful New Thing

I am very lucky.  I have some exceptionally creative friends and one of them is the lady who made this for me, Di Sandland.

Hestia and chix pix

I'm very keen on chickens.  After many years of begging, Tartarus eventually acquiesced and he's ok with the idea of having a few fluffy-assed ladies tootling around the garden.

The costs involved in keeping chooks is astronomical to start off with.  I fancied an egglu chicken coop, possibly in a bright and zingy shade....but at over £600 for one with a run, I balked.

Instead I gathered together my courage and contacted The Chicken King who very kindly invited me out to his Chook Empire at a top secret location.

It's not really top secret.  But I likes me a bit of drama.

Sonshine was utterly underwhelmed when I told him how we'd be spending Saturday morning.  But he agreed to come with me anyway.

We packed these:

Ignore the brown spotty arse.  It's our door stop - Spot the Dog.

We drove to the Secret Location and bounced the mini up a rocky trail to the door of the Chicken King, who was waiting in the driveway for me.  I reversed up the driveway.  If nothing about this post impresses you, let ME reversing UP a driveway be what does the trick.

We did not need the wellies.  He took us to his show birds.  Oh. My. God.

Feast your eyes on these.....

I can't tell you how much I adored these buff chooks 

These are the Pencils.  There was some frantic sex took place
directly after the photo was taken.  Sonshine left horrified.

These are not pencils, they have stripes

all these chickens were bigger than spaniels.
In fact, they were bigger than my first car.

Sonshine was too trepidatious to get close to let you see that they
are taller than knee height.

They move quite quickly.  That's my excuse for rubbish pix

He stood and POSED for this, with that leg held up like that.

These are the jobbing hens - look the wee Silkie!

More 'bog standard' non show-bird birds.  Gorgeous.

There is a bright blue bit on this silkie's thing. Wattle. Woggle

See the other one? I've seen Liz Taylor wearing a hat just like that.

all together now - aaaaaaaaaah
chickies with their foster mum

The show cock.  Persil white plumage

I was blown away by the birds.  He's been breeding them since he was 11 and has got the finest collection of Plymouth Rocks in Britain - even breeding back in the blue colour which had died out here.  He has, he assured me, the best cock in Britain. So many jokes, so little time to crack them in.

We decided that I would be better off with Commercial hens.  Although those buff ones at the top are looking VERY gorgeous to me.

I would have a little trio - Gloria (Steinman), Gertrude (Stein) and Germaine (Greer).  Named after prominent feminists because they will be going through life without a cock :-D

What do you think? Should I get a little trio?

Hestia .... and books

I think libraries are fantastic places.  Always have done.  I became a member of my local library before I started school and enjoyed nothing better than finding a quiet place between the towering book shelves to pour over my latest borrowings.

And I'm still like that today.  But now they've got rather plush violet chairs to sit in.

Here's today's haul.

As you can see, the Gaelic moment has passed and I have opted to give Spanish a chance.  Gaelic is too hard to learn on your own and the library set was on cassette.  Which meant hauling an ancient Walkman out of the cupboard.  Sadly SOMEONE had left batteries in it about 20 years ago and I have not been overly keen on trying to prise their leaking bodies from the cavity....so I managed to find a mains adaptor. A rather short mains adaptor, which meant that I was trying to learn Gaelic humphed over like Quasimodo.

I have gone instead for Spanish.  358 million people can't be wrong.

I have opened the box (something that I failed to do in the library).

It has cassettes.  Ah well, at least Quasimodo speaking Spanish is a step in the right geographical direction I suppose....

The book on the left is a biography on one of my favourite artists - Caravaggio.  What a man - a brawling, whore-loving, artistic genius who thought - amongst other things - that the Vatican wouldn't be perturbed about him using the body of a drowned prostitute as the model for his Death of The Virgin.

They were.

And on the right, the Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen.

I haz eclectic tastes, no?!

Anyhoooooo the main thing is I GOT MY GIFT SETIFICATE FOR WINNING THE LIBRARY SERVICE'S MILLS &BOON COMPETITION!!!!!

Now I have TWENTY legit pounds to spend in the bookshop in town!  What will it be?!  What book do I NEED to buy?!

Tell me!

PS - the two envelopes on teh table (green) are birthday cards that should have been posted last month. Perhaps a book on time management?

Hestia.....briefly

I just wanted to pop in to let you know that I heard from Prometheus the other day and he's gone all outdoorsy AND left his wife for Another Woman (well, he did it more than 10 years ago - but it's news to ME!) and I hope we continue to keep in touch.  But that's it.

*sigh*

Hestia...feels ancient

So Sonshine is doing his project on WWII and he shows me a photograph (which I can't replicate here because I can't find it again on the internet) of the staff at the local paper back in the early 1900s.

<-Content yourself with this picture of Queen Victoria.

They are a fine looking bunch of men and women - typesetters, writers, office staff - all arranged around a  formidable looking printing press, the women seated, the men standing.  There are some spectacular moustaches.  Some of them even on the men.

That printing press is, I *think*, still in the building.  There was a closed off area that I never ventured into.  I think that the presses were too big to remove.  And anyway, what would we have done with them? Just board up around them and forget that they're there!

I am unexpectedly overwhelmed by a wave of nostalgia as I look at the earnest faces from so long ago.  I had really enjoyed working there.  I announce:  'I used to work there. Before you were born, of course.'

Sonshine looks over my shoulder at his printed-out homework:  Which one is you then mummy?

*sigh*

And YES, I did make him redo the whole thing because he was looking at WWI and not WW2.  Well, after that comment, I had to punish him with something.

Have a great weekend :-)

Hestia and...the Knave of Hearts

So, the Knave of Hearts, he made some tarts, all on a summer's day*.  The Queen of Hearts, she stole some tarts and will be jogging for an eternity to work them off.....

Well, on 1 May - not QUITE a summer's day. The Littlies all went up to the secondary school to start their familiarisation process for Going Up proper in August.  Sonshine's group got Home Ec and he arrived home with LOTS of little jam biscuits.

I may be expected to hand over my glowing red Kitchenaid as some sort gesture of fealty to his new skills.

No chance.

But he will be compelled to bake on a more regular basis now.

Bang goes Getting Fit For Fifty :-)

Hope you're all having a lovely day and not suffering any of these dreadful floods!