A duckling hatches

Posted on April 17, 2015 | Leave a comment

We’re hatching a clutch of duck eggs for a friend at the allotments. When we last checked, 8 out of the original 11 were still viable. The first surprise came yesterday afternoon, when the three-day hatching phase commenced. A couple of eggs had already started to pip, 48 hours earlier than we would have expected. You can see the first little chips in the shells as the ducklings start to hatch.

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New caravan. Bailey Unicorn Madrid III first impressions.

Posted on March 11, 2015 | Leave a comment

Last October, at the Caravan Show, we were tempted by the latest and glossiest caravan from Bailey. We’d not long had our Bailey Unicorn Madrid, but the new Series III version was just perfect for our style of touring, so we indulged (there’s no other word for it) in a new van.

We picked it up from the very excellent Chipping Sodbury Caravans, whom I can’t praise too highly. Very good people to deal with. We stayed locally at Little Wood Caravan Park, which is delightful. Friendly, helpful owners, and a beautifully kept site and facilities.

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Philips Airfryer. Not a huge success.

Posted on February 23, 2015 | Leave a comment

Most of the gadgets in my batterie de cuisine are pretty successful. The Vitamix and Magimix that we’ve had for years live on the worktop and get exercised frequently. More recent acquisitions like the Assistent, the JO Home Cooker, and the Sansaire sous vide machine are all kept within easy reach. So perhaps I can be forgiven the occasional failure.

Step forward the Philips Airfryer. This machine promises to dry-fry all sorts of things, from potato chips (obviously) to aubergine slices, steaks, and even to bake cakes. One the box there’s a mouth-watering picture of beautiful home-cooked fries emerging from the cooking drawer.

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We went to the Caravan Show

Posted on February 18, 2015 | Leave a comment

We shall be picking up our new caravan in a few weeks, so we didn’t go along to shop for yet another one, but we did fancy a little look at what the whole show had to offer.

We happened to start in the hall that housed the tents and awnings. So-called “air beam” frames, made of rubber tubes that you pump up are becoming the order of the day rather than metal or fibre frames that you slot together. Some of these tents can also serve as an awning.

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Bread Maker Panasonic 2502

Posted on January 22, 2015 | 2 comments

Although we love our sourdough bread, we’re not too proud to use a bread making machine as well. Sometimes in the autumn the freezers are too full of fruit or veg to store even half a dozen loaves. Sometimes it’s nice just to make a plain white or wheatmeal loaf for sandwiches.

Anyhow, our old breadmaker was showing signs of age, and loaves weren’t always proving properly. Probably just a fault with the thermostat, but it was a cheapo model, and almost certainly not economic to repair.

I had an Amazon voucher from Nectar points, so it went towards a Panasonic 2502 machine.

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Happy Chickens, and a Happy New Year!

Posted on December 31, 2014 | Leave a comment

The weather’s on the turn, although we got a spectacular show of hoar frost again at the allotment.

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Further integration – and a bantam egg!

Posted on December 30, 2014 | Leave a comment

We took down bowls of warm mash (porridge, cornmeal, and sweetcorn kernels) yesterday evening, since it promised to be a freezing night.

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The new Wyandotte clustered round the bowl with the others, so she seemed to have established herself as part of the flock.
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Frosty start for the new bantams

Posted on December 29, 2014 | 3 comments

We went down to the allotment nice and early, because the drinkers clearly weren’t going to thaw without intervention. Much antifreeze was needed simply to unlock the gate!

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The new bantams were fine, although they still form a little group of three, and haven’t fully integrated. But, thank goodness, there was no sign of bullying.
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A few bantams more

Posted on December 28, 2014 | Leave a comment

We saw a post on the Practical Poultry Forum which told a sad story. A predator had wiped out a flock of bantams, leaving only three survivors. The young lady who kept them wanted to find a new home for them. They sounded lovely, so today we picked them up and introduced them to our existing flock.

So we have another Wyandotte, a silver pencilled one this time. She’s being given the once-over by our senior hens, the chocolate Wyandotte and the white Silkie:

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Christmas Ice Cream Making

Posted on December 21, 2014 | Leave a comment

One of the things that we’ve established as a little tradition is to make ice cream at Christmas as gifts for our friends.  There’s not much coming off the allotment, so instead we can dig out some fruit from the freezers.  And although we have to supplement eggs from our own flock with commercial eggs, it harks back to the prolific days of summer and autumn.

The Gelatiera churning raspberry ice cream

The Gelatiera churning raspberry ice cream

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