The chickens have taken over my life so much I have devoted a new blog to them. It is now up and running and filling up with all sorts of silly chickenalia which I don’t want to bore you all with here. Also, I actually did want to share this new project with my mum and couldn’t bring myself to explain to her that I have been blogging for years here but she wasn’t invited - much easier to start fresh!

I have jumped ship - technically - though. I’m not using RapidWeaver for it, have gone for Expression Engine which allows me to be update a. from anywhere and b. quickly. The whole slow uploading thing with RW was holding me back and somehow I was lucky enough to have everything installed for me and to receive on-going tutorials which is helping with the transistion to a new system.

Have to say though, I like it so much it is unlikely I will go back to RW for anything new from now on. . . The end of an era! Of course, I wouldn’t be able to do what I CAN do now without all the things I learned from RW so I will always think fondly of it.

Let me know what you think of the new blog. Marvel at how wonderful the chooks are. Leave a comment.

(Am now going to click the upload button, wait for the upload to go through and then hope I don’t notice any spelling mistakes or errors to edit later. . . oh how I love my new blog and how simple it all is!)

Tags: General

We got home on Saturday afternoon. We were away for a week - did you not notice? Did you miss me as much as I missed you?

We had a great time - more details will have to follow later as I am far too tired to start updating now but I know a couple of people will be waiting to hear news of Nanna so this is just a quickie to keep you going.

Nanna has had her plaster casts taken off her wrists this afternoon, has had more scans over the past couple of days and has been told she is nearly ready to be downgraded to our more local hospital. This is good news, especially for Papa who is driving twice a day to the big hospital in Belfast and that starts to take its toll on on even the youngest of people. It is also better to have her in her own home town - even for her own *head*.

While we were away we had a call from Lesley saying that Nanna had had a very bad night - I think it was Saturday last week. She had had a heart attack and was now smitten with pneumonia and had been wheeked away off to the high dependancy ward. That actually was a good thing - she had one-to-one care there and was put on to a higher dose of antibiotics etc and got much better much quicker there. We were almost sorry when she was well enough to leave that ward a couple of days later.

They now reckon there is a possibility that she had some level of heart attack that made her fall down the stairs in the first place. That kinda fits doesn’t it?

Some of you will remember the events of this time last year - it is a the anniversary of Denis’ death today, although he had his *attack* on the 17th and most of us think of that date as when he actually left us. Nanna seemed aware of the date tonight when we were there but thankfully she didn’t seem as upset about it as we have been fearing for the last few months. Funny old world huh?

In other news: the shed is built and painted and ready for kitting out for TEH CHICKENZ YAY!!! Can you WAIT? OMG I CAN’T!!!!

Tags: Holidays

A quick update on the Nanna front for everyone who has been kind enough to continue to ask.

She is now sitting up, looking a lot less swollen, although still mighty bruised with new bruises appearing! She is fully aware of where she is and knows everyone paraded in front of her. She remembers dates and names and places. We have been every day, I was there with Jessica yesterday afternoon and Iain went last night with David and we all managed to go together this evening.

There is still a little bit of grogginess / slight confusion there though. Yesterday she kept telling me with total indignation that no one had offered her any food all day. Not one person had even so much as offered her a cup of tea. I sympathised with her a couple of times and on the fourth time of telling happened to glance above her bed at the NIL ORALLY sign. I told her they were under instruction NOT to feed her, pointed at the sign and then described it to her as she couldn’t turn round to see it. She huffed a little at this and then scolded again that THAT was no reason why they couldn’t have offered her SOMETHING!

About 5 minutes later the complaining started again as if she had never said it before and I tried a different tack with her. Was she actually HUNGRY? “No,” she said “But they could have offered me something to eat all the same.”

This evening I was in at the same time as Lesley and listened while they discussed Lesley’s children’s visit this afternoon. Then Nanna argued with us that the kids had been in last night and today is Monday rather then Wednesday. . . We gently reassured her that it was Wednesday then she announced it is Louise’s birthday on Friday. Lesley and I shook our heads in dismay - Louise’s birthday is in October. maybe she wasn’t as well as we thought. A couple of minutes later Lesley realised that Nanna had been talking about another Louise and her birthday IS on Friday! She’s not as green as she is cabbage looking!


Finally I am finishing the multi-part Reader Interactive Task set last week, this is the hardest part to sit down to. If this had been the first on the list I may never have progressed past GO! Something that someone else likes about me. . . . It is almost unfair to ask a person to define this. In our culture it isn’t often that you tell people what you like about them, it is more likely you will nit-pick about what you don’t like. So this isn’t something that is always obvious or expressed unless you are in some kind of personal developement training *flashes back to David Brent type seminars I used to have to attend*.

I did a wee bit of a survey and out of the limited response I received it would seem that my writing / presence on the internet is what other people like about me. David said that WHEN I am in a good mood I have a good sense of humour although I wonder when was the last time he saw it shining through. Jessica finally came up with “cuddles” after 20 minutes of thinking time. Apparently I give much better cuddles than Daddy - he just puts his arm around her but I give her proper cuddles. You could be remembered for worse things I suppose

Jacqui came up with the most personal thing - that I can soothe ruffled feathers when I put my mind to it - but I kinda think that there is a great likelihood that I ruffled them in the first place

So we are left with my blog and what I choose for you to read about me and my family and my life. I don’t know if this is a good thing for people to like as it isn’t really real but perhaps it is getting too late in the night for me to analyse any further!

Please forgive the screen grab rather than a photo of this one - I was stumped!

So there you are, that is my Reader Interactive Task complete and despite moans about the level of difficulty to this one I have throughly enjoyed this jump-start back to the blogging world. I would very much welcome more Tasks if anyone should like to send any my way.

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

Tags: Memes, General

Iain has returned from visiting the hospital with good news. Nanna is now sitting up and although appearing a little confused earlier in the day she is now able to hold conversations, opening her eyes a little at a time, fully aware of what is going on and thankfully totally forgetful of all the horribleness of the past couple of days. She has no recollection of the fall either which is probably for the best. It is unlikely she will rib Papa about leaving her lying in the hall all night now!

Big sigh of relief and girding of the loins now for the return home and us doing a care-tag-team over the next few weeks.

Thank you to everyone who has offered support and sent their best wishes - all gratefully received I can assure you.

The Thing I Would Like

This is the one thing I have been excited about for the past while and which I have been dying to tell you.

The idea kinda all kicked off when we started to get the garden under control again and we dedicated one part of the garden to, what we laughingly refer to as The Allotment. You now know that I have brocolli, carrots, pumpkins and strawberries in that part with more carrots and brussel sprouts in seed there now too but there was still one small area of garden which was not going to be actively used and that bothered me.

A couple of Saturdays ago I delivered Jessica out to a friend’s house for a play date, literally in the back of beyond and in the 3 minutes I was there realised that I would love to have a less “building site” or developement” type garden. You know the type: a cul-de-sac of houses, backing on to another cul-de-sac of houses with a rectangular garden, times two, between neighbours. Jessica’s friend has low level walls built of stones and a lawn here and a smaller lawn over there and all very natural looking and some kind of peace about the landscaping. Yea, I know, I wouldn’t have the energy for theupkeep of such a place but dude - it would be fun trying huh?

I came back from that visit a little unsettled but still not knowing what I could put in the empty space. Then I received an excited phone call from my Uncle David - aren’t all phone calls from Uncle David excited? He had just ordered a weird thing called an Eglu and urged me to look up the web site that sells them and to look at the wonderfulness of the whole thing . .. This is a chicken run with attitude and he planned on getting 4 chickens to go in it too.

I caught his bug and started to think along the lines of *anything is possible* for a while, planning the garden around MY Eglu until reality took hold and I realised that there was no way I was going to be able to afford a new one and second hand Eglus are umm like umm hen’s teeth in this part of the world and although there are plenty in England through eBay they are all listed as Pick Up Only due to the sheer weight and size of them. Then I had a shift in thinking about a run and we headed off to B&Q to buy a shed which we will kit out as a coop and then build a run round that too.

So far we have the base in. We were supposed to have the whole shed built and in place last Sunday but the rain started and forgot to stop. At one point Iain insisted in continuing on with the laying of the blocks and I was determined not to leave him to it so Bailey and I sat under a large golf umbrella on a patio chair and encouraged him on to lay the blocks faster. When the rain got too heavy he joined us under the umbrella much to Bailey’s delight and got his face licked dry for his efforts. Iain - not Bailey.

We stood in the rain trying to work out the shed plans but as the paper got wetter our determination got damper and we gave up. We will finish it another day.

Since deciding to get chickens in the garden I have learned loads and done much research and know new technical words. I have been thinking ahead and am so obsessed with the idea have actually gone to the window at night to make sure *the girls* have been put to bed for the night and have on more than one occasion asked the kids if anyone has let the chickens out yet in the morning. I hate buying eggs now - preferring to wait for the FREE ones when they start arriving and am getting such a kick out of the whole *eating free food from my own garden* malarkey.

I even went to the fishing tackle shop last week and bought a pint of maggots for them, got home and THEN realised WE. DON’T. HAVE. CHICKENS.YET!

Today we ordered the wire for the run and I even ordered some special food which will create less-stinky poo which is better for the garden. I have even ordered 2 new compost bins from the council! And yes, I have names shortlisted. This may surprise you when you remember that neither of my children were named for three weeks after they were born!

It has been fun! I joined the Omlet forum and have found the people there to be really nice and full of advice. I have no doubt that they will keep me right when the chickens finally arrive. That may not be for a while though - can’t have them arriving before the run is ready - can’t have the foxes having Chicken Tonight!

I am thinking that the final part of my Reader Interactive Task will be tomorrow now - am too tired to add much more this evening. I have had a couple of sweet replies to my plea for things that you like about me so thanks for those

You like my Thing I Would Like? Would you like regular updates? You want photos? This is a good thing to want - yes? You are jealous - yes?

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

Tags: Chickens, Memes, General

It seems strange to be blogging about trivial things while we are waiting for news from the hospital - but I may as well keep my mind active. Have been sitting here all day staring at one screen or another and need to do something!

Iain was at the hospital this afternoon - Nanna was moved to the Belfast one last night - and Aunty Lesley, Papa and Iain all went down this afternoon to visit and talk to doctors. There is nothing good to report. She is no better and if anything, slightly worse, or so Iain reckons anyway.

UPDATE: We all went down to the hospital this evening to support Papa. Things aren’t any better and at one point looked very dismal indeed. I don’t really want to go in to all the details just now. At the end of the visit the doctor came and reassured us that they aren’t too worried about her and are happy that she is stable - so we have to go with that in the meantime. I’ll keep you posted.

Anyway. The Thing I Dislike. It has been hard to narrow it down to one thing as you can probably imagine. I have been known to rant a tad in the past. The other evening as we were driving through the village on the way home I spotted something that made me cross and decided that was the one thing that has annoyed me enough to speak up about it.

The Eleventh Night Bonfire.

*begins rant*

Many of my readers will not be familiar with the phenonemon that is The Eleventh Night or even The Twelfth which takes place here every year. This is not me being either political OR religious - this is me giving off about the absolute waste of wood and tyres and the environmental cost to the the world through wanton destruction usually at the hands of youngsters.

It used to be that wee lads would knock on the doors asking for any old wood that you no longer needed - now a days it looks like a haulage yard at these sites with literally thousands of reusable pallets being stacked layer upon layer in the name of a good bonfire.

Being a good Freecycle user I ITCHED to approach the village site to rummage through the wood there to see if there was anything I could use in the garden but there are usually 2 or 3 wee lads hanging about the place making sure that no one lights the fire early. (This first photo is the local bonfire. No people at it when we passed it but they left their armchair behind!)

There are loads of fence panels, scaffold planks and just general usable and shouldn’t-be-burned-in-a-bonfire items there. Thankfully our site doesn’t seem to have any tyres on display but I know for a fact that the youngsters have relieved local builders and haulage firms of their pallets in the past.

I hate to see the waste. I dislike the waste. I dislike the mess before and after. The same people who build the bonfire don’t seem to be on hand to tidy up afterwards.

This second photo is of ONE of the TWO sites in ONE estate in Lisburn. I can’t even begin to count the pallets there - the bonfire is circular and has many layers of pallets - and this is just one fire - the other is sever hundred yards away! WT?

I really do believe there ought to be a size restriction to these things and for there to be a proper licence to have one with named volunteers to help tidy up. Wikipedia correctly says that:

Eleventh night

The night before the Twelfth sees enormous bonfires lit in working class Protestant districts. These are alternately seen as friendly community get-togethers or occasions for drunkenness and violence, depending on time, place and personal viewpoint. A recent criticism of the bonfires is that much of what is burnt (especially tires) causes serious environmental pollution. In the past the fires were lit on intersections but damage to nearby houses and to the street itself meant that most areas now have an area of waste ground set aside for the purpose.

That’s it. Was that good enough as The Dislike item? I know what I am going to tell you for the next one but am still drawing a blank on the Something Someone Likes About Me one - so far it has come down to “A couple of people like that I am blogging again” - that hardly seems to sum ME up - can no one do any better than that?

Please?

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

Tags: Family, Memes, General, Nanna, Hospital

Ok Ok - don’t faint. I didn’t mean to be away that long. I didn’t mean to be away AT ALL but several things have tripped me up every time I came to share with you. The same old story about RapidWeaver being on the work iMac and not the portable Powerbook is usually enough to keep any stories firmly in my head rather than here as most of my creative thinking happens at night when I am farrrr away from work.

Anyway. The reason I am back is I have been accepted as a participant in Jenny’s Interactive Reader Task and I only have until the end of the year to complete it so thought I should get a move on. It has already taken me most of the day to get this far with technology conspiring against me until just before I had to leave work. RapidWeaver is NOW on the Powerbook and going to stay here so expect regular updates from now on.

THE TASK:

My task is to post a photograph to represent each of the following:

Something I like
Something I dislike
Something I would like
and
Something that someone else likes about me.

I can tell you loads of things I like. I can tell you even more things I dislike. I have one thing I WOULD LIKE to tell you about but am kinda stumped on finding something that someone else could possibly like about me at the moment. I am afraid that, due to a complete lack of energy and general feeling of unwellness I am not socially active and haven’t been for some time - possibly for as long as 6-8 months really. I don’t regard myself as much of a friend now and am constantly aware that I am keeping most people at arms length, prefering my own company and that of my family at home to being online or *gallavanting* as my Mother-in-Law used to accuse me of. It is a long time since she has had cause to say that word to me.

So, my task for YOU is - tell me something that you like about me. You can leave a comment or email me privately. Think carefully about this. I may ask for details or examples to back up your absurd claim and, if chosen, you may be asked to participate in any marketing or advertising I decide to embark on in the future.

Don’t all rush at once.

SOMETHING I LIKE:

My garden is my passion at the moment. One morning in February I woke up with a yearning to tackle what used to be my garden. Iain and I cleared the rubbish and the stored items out of the greenhouse and I was so shocked to find how many seed trays and old seeds, gardening implements, equipment and POTS - LOADS of pots - I had stored in the greenhouse or strewn around the garden. Up until a couple of years ago I was quite the gardener and planted loads in the medium-sized back garden we have.

Looking at it all now I have a great foundation for taking the garden a little further for myself. I have strawberries, raspberries, two apple trees, the greenhouse, loads of lavender (my favourite! and most of this was grown from seed!), potatoes, sweet pea, peas, honeysuckle, tomatoes (not one of us EATS tomatoes!) peppers, cucumbers, pumpkins, carrots, broccoli, two compost bins, a wormery, a water butt, a water feature, a Belfast sink (used to have goldfish in it!) a fecking palm tree . . . you get the picture. We couldn’t exactly start living The Good Life just yet but it gives me a great kick to be in the greenhouse from the moment I come home until the moment I go to bed. I love sowing seeds and getting creative.

Oh. You wanted a picture?! What about this one of the half pound of raspberries Jessica and I picked the other night and made in to a smoothie along with the strawberries we picked? It was very nice but had more seeds in it than shop bought ones - almost too many. . .

If I had more energy I would join one of these groups. I think these are a great idea and think it is correct for The People to claim back the areas stolen from The Commoners which are now orphaned and not being looked after by the owners. If you leave something to go wild then you can’t complain when others start to take control of it.

Keep tuned for the next installment. That’s all I have time for this evening!

Sorry, Jenny, I completely failed on the whole *briefly explain each one* idea but this way you get FOUR lots of entertainment.

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

Tags: General, Memes, Personal

I have just realised that my Technorati details are dreadfully out of date and I really need to update them. To do this - I need to post this post. . . .

Technorati Profile

Thanks.

Move along now. . .

Tags: General