Wild garlic.....

.....is yummy......

.....and starting to push its way up......

...... through the woodland leaf litter.

There's some early Dandelion leaves too, but they where too close tot he path for me to bother picking.... erm... dog pee?

This shelter was made by some village kids YEARS ago! he boys used to call it the Bears house. At one time it had a chair, a heater (obviously not working :P) and even a TOILET!!  

The pups enjoy the wood walks, even if they do have to wait for me sometimes when I'm foraging. 

The castle at the far end of the woods.... up for sale if anyone has a spare 4 million?

Merle!

A fungi I found growing at the base of a tree.....

No idea what it is....

Will update when I find out :)

What did you guys do this morning? 

Reasons I will never have a "nice" house....

Little blossom was on the receiving end of a young and enthusiastic Gatsby.

Now she LIKES boys and Fluffy legs is MASSIVE but when he wants chicken sexy time he's very gentle and all goes well.

This morning though, when I went to feed them, I found Gatsby jumping up and down on Blossom in a most cavalier manner and when he finally hopped off her she didn't move.

Blossom is usually a skitty hen, small and fast and hard to catch but she just stayed crouched on the ground as I went over and picked her up.

My first worry was that he might have hurt her back, maybe even broken it, so I took her into the house to have a proper look at her.

Luckily she seem's, so far anyway to be ok.

After a few minutes on the kitchen floor she started to straighten up and even pecked at a little food.

Even so, she's staying in the house till tomorrow so I can keep an eye on her. 

The main worry being that if he was very rough he could have broken an egg inside her, which, sadly, if he has we'll find out pretty quickly.         

                               

This is why I'm never going to have that show home kitchen.

Apart from the dogs and cat, its often been a chicken infirmary  hell, I've even had the little pony in here many years ago! 

                             

... Also, Tesco boxes FTW....

*Hits head against wall*

The two youngest boys got in trouble yesterday and as usual I find myself wishing I could home school.
Don't get me wrong, If they're naughty they SHOULD get punished, but it seems more and more that the teachers at this school are only happy with girls.
It often feels like the boys (and its not just my boys) are punished for being...well... boys.
They get banned from playing football because of ONE child (hardly fair), movement isn't encouraged, bullying by a couple of the older "good" girls seems to be overlooked.

Dear god..... I don't want to be one of those "I know they're no angels, but...." mothers, but their school experience isn't so great for them.
Even my eldest backed them up.
He's a people pleaser, so never said anything while he was at that school, but now readily agrees and gives his own anecdotes about unfairness.

Its not this school.... its all of them.

The youngest two have no enthusiasm for school now, although they both have inquiring minds at home they just don't see the point of bothering at school.

My youngest especially has a hard time, and his anxiety manifests itself at home.... He's much calmer during the holidays for example.

If I had the oppotunity to be more mobile and DO things I'd seriously consider homeschool.
I'm just scared that if I did take them out of school there'd be nothing for them to do after a while.

Sucks that the public transport here is so rubbish and expensive...

Rant over :/              

Officially spring!!

Morning routines make me happy. 

The chickens really are enjoying their new pen, lets face it, the lay out if far more interesting than the other one so it really is an incentive to make the other pen more enriching over the next few weeks. 

..... Although I need to do something about this. Won't be long before Gatsby works out that a good flap of his wings will propel him from the top of that roof and over the wire! 

Wing clipping is on the agenda for the weekend :/

The other chicken pen is starting to green up again though so fingers crossed the grass isn't beyond repair!

Things are staring to grow again: This rhubarb looks healthy enough.  

Tiny heather flowers beginning to bloom.

A real permaculture mix in here of small bulbs, strawberry plants and dandelion. 

.... and some tiny lettuce seeds sprouting in a hanging basket.

Just as busy inside.

Here I have basil and spring cabbage, and in the bottles a carrot experiment!  

....and cherry tomato and pepper plants, all ready to go in the greenhouse.

How are your spring plans  coming along?