We lost one. :(

With every animal rearing endeavour, there are good parts and bad parts.

When I candled the eggs last, ( i know, its an extra check to the ones i said i was going to do) it was pretty obvious that one of them definitely wasnt developing. The eggs shone the light through bright and clear, when by now, there should be a large dark patch and movement within the egg. I removed it from the incubator, because i didnt want to risk it going rotten and exploding (Yes, it is possible!) and contaminating all my other eggs. So egg number 5, to you we say goodbye :(

Another of the eggs looks like it is delayed, compared to the others, but as it had changed from the previous check, i left it in. Sometimes they can be a bit behind and still hatch ok.


So i reckon we are looking at 3 or 4 chicks, some will probably be boys, so i will need to hatch another clutch this year to keep my flock going.

Chilly Chillies!

Well, heatless at least.

I know, it is march (already!!), and i am a bit late getting my chillis started. I dont usually grow chillis, because the family are a bit averse to spicy hot food. I include myself in that, because athough i love the spicy flavours, i really dont like feeling like my mouth (and then my bottom!) is on fire. Call me weird.

I do love the flavour of a good chilli though. So i looked around, and i found these heatless varieties from www.southdevonchillifarm.co.uk

They even came with a handy set of instructions.

I planted them up as per their instructions, and popped them in my new heated propagator, which I bought from ALDI for £12.99  last week.  It will live on the windowledge of my conservatory, tucked behind my wall unit so that the kids dont mess with it.

So hopefully this summer we will have some nice sweet mild chillis and everyone can stop complaining that their tongue is stinging!!

You may have spotted my plant labels in the above picture. I dont buy plant labels. They always get lost or blown away or kids run off with them to do goodness knows what with (Why do they even want them?). The joys of a young imagnation.

plant labels. Yes. Thats where i was. I make mine out of empty milk bottles. The big 2 litre ones usually, because we go though a mammoth amount of milk.

I just cut them up until i have strips. Nothing fancy to it. It serves two purposes. I am too cheap to buy labels, and fewer milk bottles end up clogging up my recycle bin. Win / win!

I hope you are all having a lovely Wednesday!

What Am I Doing? Why Am I here?

Ok, Please be patient and kind to me. I have never even entertained the thought of bloging before, but my life has changed so dramatically over the past three years that i feel the need to document somewhere the monumental changes that are taking place in not only my life, but my psyche.

I'm not a particularly organised person tho, so please dont be surprised if i completely forget about the existance of this page in favour of much more interesting things to do.

What changes? I hear you ask! (or maybe you didnt, but i am going to tell anyway)

Three years ago i met the love of my life. We started dating, and our relationship progressed, as these things do. I already had my beautiful DD from a previous relatioship and she also got along well with my new man

In May 2007 i fell pregnant with our son Oliver, and this is where i started changing. I had been quite materialistic and dare i say it very selfish.
Oliver has brought out in me a desire to live more simply, and some would say more old fashioned than i had been. He brought out in me the desire to be more "green" and natural in my approach to childcare.

I discovered a lovely group of ladies online who have also been an absolute inspiration to me whilst trying to find my feet in a whole new world of parenting.

In August 2008 My love and I got married. I will endeavour to add pics later for those that are interested. It was the most amazing day of my life.

We hired an old Edwardian theatre and were married on the stage in front of all our friends and family. It was magical!

I went back to university to finish my nursing diploma in Sept 2008, which i have found really hard going. I am having real trouble getting back into it. I love the work, but the workload is a lot more difficult to manage with a larger family.

Which brings me to my next point, our family is growing again! Baby #3 is on its way! The new Jellybean is due on the 15th Sept 2009!

There is soo much i want to do for this bubba! Breastfeed, cloth nappy, babywear, baby led weaning, the list goes on!! am so excited to be doing this again!

I hope you enjoy following this blog and peeking into our lives :)