Pumpkins Galore!

Me and Tanya finally picked the Pumpkins today,
I was watching Jamie at Home programme the other night and he was making roasted Pumpkin with Salt,Black pepper,and olive oil,roasted in the oven for approx 45 mins,the Pumpkin wedges are now in the oven roasting for tea and Tanya has just informed me that they smell delicious! (I have no sense of smell ya see). The other 3 Pumpkins arnt quite ripe yet so they are sitting on the windowsil in the kitchen for a while yet. We have never had roasted pumpkins before so I will update you of the taste later...





Mmm Delicious!

If you click on the link SQUASHBLOG it will take you to Matrons SQUASHBLOG where my Pumpkin is featured...Cool Eh?

A HUGE Egg ...Update

The Hens have been laying really well this week and we collected an egg yesterday weighing in.. at are you ready?... 80g It's a huge egg the biggest so far, When we first got the Hens they were laying 55g and 62g eggs I thought they were big. So I am going to have the Egg for my dinner on toast today,
Thankyou to whoever laid that one.

UPDATE: The HUGE egg was a double yolker! and very tasty

Another Update..The last Egg we collected Nov 07 was a huge 83g! that was a double yolker too...




Some photos of my Hens....



This is Molly

Be careful next time your in the park!

Funny snippets of people,ducks,geese,pelicans and other birds

jack 'O Lanterns,

The Pumkins are turning Orange now,very slowly albeit but they should be ready for Halloween. I don't think we did too bad for our first attempt. I watched the Programme Jamie at home last night and he was cooking Pumpkins and Squash so I picked up a couple of good recipes i will be trying them out when the Pumpkins are ready. Next year I am going to grow some unusual Squash see how I go with them.

This weekend Paul is going to repair my Greenhouse because someone thought it would be funny to throw stones at it and smash it to bits leaving me with 7 broken panes of glass each going to cost £4.50 per pain DAMN KIDS! If I get hold of them they will have more Pains! than that.
Also to report is my brilliant Hens laid 7 Eggs between them yesterday which is great and now selling them at £1.50 per dozen just enough to pay for thier bag of feed,they are now earning thier keep. The ducks are doing really well,they even put themselves to bed at night now,all Paul needs to do is walk down the allotment and slide the door on the cabin for them,awww we love them ducks and hopefully in a few weeks we will have duck eggs too.

More Soon....

Live Fast Die Young - the life of a meat chicken

Chicken out! campaign

Sign up for the chicken Out! Campaign ....

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (River Cottage) is fronting the chicken out! Campaign to change the way Broiler chickens are housed and treated prior to being slaughtered for cheap supermarket chicken.

Do you know about the life your fresh supermarket chickens lead before they reach your table?

Rearing conditions for most chickens in the UK are unacceptably intensive, as farmers are put under pressure to produce poultry as quickly and cheaply as possible.

The Farmers don't care if the chickens can stand or not,after all who see's their legs and feet when they are packaged up at £1.99 on the shelf at the supermarket...!


Birds commonly develop severe injuries associated with unnaturally fast weight gain and restricted movement, and many die prematurely: 45 million factory-farmed birds are thrown away each year before they even reach slaughter-weight.


Please visit the website www.chickenout.tv to join the campaign,it only takes a minute to put your name down,


STILL NOT CONVINCED? Click here

Meet Dafid,Taffy,Lola and Delia....

We went to pick 4, 8 weeks old ducks up from Southport yesterday,kindly given to us by my brothers friends relatives,lovely people who love chickens and ducks just like us,when we arrived at the house I thought the ducks would be tiny only being 8 weeks old but no they are huge,and gorgeous,they had a good car journey home and we got the food and water ready for them,we let them out of the boxes and showed them to thier new house and the pond.

They just stood there for a while looking a bit confused then waddled around a while,it was late afternoon when we got them home so it was nearly time for them to be put into the hutch,unfortunatly they do have to locked up overnight at the allotment because the fox is on the prowl but they didn't seem to mind and it is for thier own safety. So we got up to the allotment really early this morning only to find someone had smashed my greenhouse to bits,stones and bits of tiles everywhere! we left at approx 7pm lastnight so whoever it was must have seen us leave and if I find out who it was whoe b' tide them (as my mum says).

Anyway Paul let the ducks and the chickens out at approx 8am this morning and the ducks came waddling out to the food and water,I didnt bother them for a couple of hours because I wanted them to get used to where they live now,and all 4 of them sat in the sunshine not fazed by anything much. Then I thought it was time to show them the pond so Tanya walked slowly behined them until they reached the pond and in they went and they loved it,splashing around and ducking under for ages,so I took some photos of the ducks,we have named them welsh names as they are a welsh breed,so here goes.... the 2 black and white ones (male we think) are now called Dafid and Taffy the girls are called Delia (the white one) and Lola the multi colored one, So Dafid Taffy Delia and Lola are all tucked up in their new house and here are some photos...

Thankyou Hilal and Michelle for giving us the Ducks...

Click on the photos for larger pictures.













I just couldn't resist telling you my duck joke here goes...

A duck walks into a shop and says "have you got any raisins?" the shop keeper says "no sorry we dont sell rasins" the duck says "ok" and waddles out.
The next day the duck comes back to the shop and asks "have you got any rasins"? the shop keeper says "no we don't sell rasins I told you yesterday" the Duck says "ok" and waddles out.
Then next day the Duck goes back to the shop and asks "have you got any rasins"? and the shop keeper say "NO we dont have any bloody raisins!" "and if you keep coming in this shop and asking for raisins I'm gunna NAIL your bloody beak to the counter ok!?"
so the duck replies "ok".
SO the next day the Duck returns and asks "have you got any nails"? the shop keeper says "NO WE DONT SELL NAILS"! and the duck replies "have you got any rasins"?

Funny eh?


More updates soon....B-J x

From Head Gardener to Under Gardener just like that...

First of all I must appolagise for the absence of my updates,there is a very good reason for it,no,there is honest.

Last Sunday I was pottering around the allotment it was about 3:30pm not a drop of rain insite,lovely day so I thought I would make scrambled egg on toast (the hens are laying really well now and we had quite a few that day).
So I set everything up in my little shed,got the kettle on,put the grill on whisked a load of eggs,I was really looking forward to it, we were hungry,so the first lot of toast was ready so I stepped outside the shed to go and get the plate and SNAP! I stepped into a sunken bit of the ground my foot went sideways and what I can only describe as.. if you were to twist some bubble wrap in your hand (ya know the cracking sound?) I went flying down the allotment toast in the air and landed on the hard,cold, wet ground,I knew straight away I had broken my ankle I could feel it burning and swelling instantly,I laid on the floor shouting Paul.
I have broken this same ankle about 15 years ago and all the memories came flooding back I can tell you. The next thing was to get up from the ground which by this time I was getting wetter and I was full of mud I hurt my arm too,so once up I was sat there and Paul pulled my sock and shoe off,it had swelled quite alot by this time,so as I was coming round I realised I was at the bottom of the Allotment and the Landrover is at the very top! how on earth can I get to the top? Paul got the digging fork from the shed and him at one side and the fork at the otherside I managed to hobble up to the top and go to Hospital. The Hospital (Accrington Victoria)was packed, Sunday afternoon full of kids I was in agony by this time and the waiting time said 1 and a half hours! Why when ya go to Hospital there always seems to be someone seen before you who doesnt seem to have much wrong with them? why is that? and then with the boredom of just sitting there and waiting ya start to think..Wonder what they did? and I'm more hurt than them,why can't I go in first. So it was our turn and the triage nurse called us in,she started to press my ankle really hard and I mean really hard,so with tears in my eyes she sent me straight to X-Ray,luckily I was the only one waiting for one so I went straight in,the verdict... not good. I have broken the bone that sticks out at the bottom of the ankle and I was sent straight to the plaster room.

I sooo know whats coming next,I have been here sooo many times,one nurse pulling down on my foot to get it into a 90 degree angle while the other nurse wraps strips of plaster of paris around until it sets! OUCH! I have an oppoitment to have the cast changed to a lighter and more managable fibre glass one on the 8th of October and I can't wait for that. So here I am sat here with a huge pot on my ankle thinking of all the things I have to do on my allotment and can't do any of them! so far this year ive broken my finger,my big toe and now my ankle,this is what happens when ya have Osteoporosis! and I never did get my scrambled egg on toast. Iv'e now been demoted to under gardener whilst Tanya has been promoted to head gardener and Paul takes over the allotment and chicken duties. Damn I want that title back! :-)


Can you see the FIBULA on the left,the bottom of this is broken.



Updates as an when I am afraid ... cheer me up send me a message.
B-J x