Preparing for Spring!

I have been a little slack of late with my blogging due to the fact that I have discovered Twitter, but I am back now! This week I secretly celebrated Winter Solstice, we still have a long way to go with Winter but there is no going back from here...Spring is somewhere out there on the distant horizon. I have given myself the task of preparing for a bumper Spring crop. First I am making a list of all the seeds (heirloom of course) I will need, the next stage is planning some new garden beds. I have one raised bed and originally I thought this would be more than sufficient, but after two seasons it is not nearly enough to feed a family.  Now I am ready to take the plunge and add a further two beds this will give me three in total, plus I do have a small area that is starting to look good for planting watermelons, pumpkins and Potatoes as well as some loganberries along the side fence. I am looking at reclaimed old railway sleepers to make the raised garden beds. I do need to find out whether they have arsenic in them. My current raised garden bed is arsenic free, it is fantastic but it was very expensive and  it is not very wide. Well the weather is very cold and my poor veggies are not looking that good except for the mini cabbages and wongbok cabbages.

The boys have been sick with bad colds and Leo the poor soul his eardrum burst this week, I have had about of asthma and really am longing for the warm weather that brings good health and lots of tasty veggies.
Here's hoping there is only six or so more weeks to go until we see the warm weather of Spring..........

The Manolo's of Chicken Coops!

I am sure these little chickens dress in Prada and wear Manolos!!!



I found this image courtesy of Debra Prinzing she has a beautiful website and some lovely books as well!

More weather for ducks!

Well the rain is here to stay! I long for blue skies and sun, and it seems so far away. My veggies look very sad and waterlogged, and the boys have turned into little wild things that want to escape the four walls that keep them inside! Considering all things wet and rainy we have managed to have an action packed week. Early in the week we went to the zoo and braved the weather, and it wasn't too bad a little drizzle but not enough to stop Leo and Jack having a great time.

Wednesday came and a trip to the hospital was our next adventure, Leo took a tumble and split his forehead open, a general anaesthetic, 6 stitches and 4 hours later and our day was just about over.

Thursday and Friday were a lot smoother apart from the torrential rain I had a great night out on Friday. I went to see the production of "Cats" with my Mum, Sister and Niece. We had a wonderful "girly" time, lots of giggling and laughing.

Now that my darling husband is on board with my idea to get some chickens I am now planning where to house them. We have a very large front garden so I have decided to put them there. As they will be out the front it can't look too shabby, so I saw this iamge on Urban Dirt and thought how pleasing on the eye this chicken coop and picket fence looked. Maybe this is the look we are after, the neighbours could never complain about a messy looking front garden!!