Non-techno gran

My grandmother got a digital picture frame from her daughter, my aunt, perfect idea as she loves her photos of the grandchildren and complains she doesnt have enough space or frames. So my Aunt gets her a very expensive one with a 4GB card so that I can add to it and we can build up more photos, I get it out of the box and set it up and add photos of my kids, put it in a lovely spot and let the slide show begin, we ohh and ahh over photos and when it finally comes round to the start of the slideshow, she says

"Ok, thats was lovely, pack it away for me would you?"

"Pack it away? What for?"

"Well, you cant just have it laying around like that can you? I'll get it out when I want to look at photos!"

Even my Grandad said for gods sake Joyce, its a photo frame, leave it out!

All that money, thought, effort and technology and shes going to put it back in the box and in the cupboard and forget about it because she doesnt understand the technology!

My Christmas

Dumpling threw up in my bed and Lolly thinks she is going to visit the great grandparents in a basque and tight jeans...

Anti-bac gel please

Going to the bathroom when you look after small children tends to be a group affair, (them not me, I cant pee in front of anyone, actually my best friend Linda would disagree but thats another post about friday night...)

Anyway so there we all are in the toilet, me, 3 year old and 18 month old, brothers. 3 year old pees and as he's to busy talking and telling me about Thomas and james and all the other engines, his attention wanders and he piddles a little on the floor, he grabs a handful of baby wipes to clear it up, one wipe drops to the floor and onto the piddle and before I can even reach down the 18 month old has picked it up and cleaned his face with it! Gag, bleaughh, etc etc. Its great that they are both so well trained in being clean but not quite in this instant.

Dumpling in his show

And I said he was shy...

Reasons why Maria should get some chickens

I know she just wants me to talk her into it and if we lived nearer I'd have already installed some in her garden! I dont have as many animals as Catherine at Farmtales but I wish i did!

Ok.....

Chickens are pets that give back, most pets get boring because they dont do much after the first few days but chickens give you eggs!

You never ever get bored of finding eggs in the nest, little perfect ovals of fertility and food!

You know exactly what went into your egg and how the chickens was treated, if you could have smelled my ex-battery hens when they first got here you would have never eaten a non-free range egg again.

If you get a cockerel too you get a ready made alarm clock!

Also having a cockerel means you might get teeny weeny chicks, which are so cute, the mother will rear them, chickens rarely have problems with their young, even if you did rear them its such fun and not complicated.

All your scraps from the kitchen will get used up, some people collect it all days, blitz it in a food mixer and feed it to the chickens, put something warm in like porridge and they will love you for it.

It makes you go out in all weathers and you find that weathers not that bad, my dad says theres no such thing as bad weather just bad clothing. I have a lovely pair of waterproof trousers and my gardening coat, team that with my boots and I look like a lunatic. Ok not the best advert but you can wear your pyjamas underneath, chickens dont mind.

You can keep three chickens in a large rabbit hutch, they like to be together and will snuggle up in the smallest space. Again a rabbit run is great for the in the day time if its not safe to free range, move it around the garden and pick a plastic garden furniture cover from the pound shop for when it rains heavily. You can make a run easily from scrap wood or look on freecycle.

The internet is wealth of information for chickens and people who keeps chickens are good salt of the earth people not like certain pedigree dog forums that I asked one simple question on about my dog...

Chickens have personalities and you quickly distinguish between even very similar looking ones. You become very protective over your 'girls' and proud of the 'boys' who always look amazing. They make lovely noises and its so fun to garden iwth 'friends'.

I'll think of more reasons, chickens are addictive!

Just got back from a bowling party for Dumplings friend, 9.30am start on a sunday? It fun and its a nice age where they are a competitive but at the same time fair about it, making sure each got their go and being genuinely happy for each other when they did well, give it a few years and the backstabbing will begin! The only bad thing was a 'party manager', a ditzy bleached blonde who walked around with a microphone and talked nonsense into the microphone which was then blasted above the music in the bowling alley "Err, yeh the next person to get a strike or spare of whatevers its called gets err something, I've got some sweets in my pocket..." She drivelled on and announced one child to be rubbish at bowling to the entire alley, she thought she was funny, I thought she needed the microphone confiscated?

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I have to go and clean out the hen house in a moment, yuck, gross jog, doesnt take that long but the smell is horrible, my mum keeps asking for the straw and poop for her flowerbeds and compost bin but never comes and picks it up, if you're reading this mum, there are 5 bags from last weekend and about to be a few more!

They are laying maybe 3 a day out of nine chickens that should be laying, its enough to keep us baking but its lovely in the summer when you are just tripping over eggs and the kids come in with handfuls of them!

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Been making lots of Christmas crafts, I'm not into decorating and we dont have a tree, nemo would only pee on it and the kitten would climb it, besides, theres no room for it in this house. I spent all day yesterday cleaning and it vaguely looks normal, shows how bad it was in the first place. An hour was spent at the launderette, Nemo pee-d on my bed, big time. I dont know why, he's not allowed upstairs but he must have snuck past us and pee-d all over the bed. All the covers went in a very hot wash in my machine and the two duvets went to the big machines down the road with extra detergent and the hottest wash it could do, now they are hung all over the house as its damp and freezing outside nothing is going to dry.

Speaking of the weather, its cold for where I live, below freezing is rare, more likely to rain, but its been freezing the chickens water bowls regularly, even in the middle of the day. Dumpling wants, no, needs snow this year. He has owned a sledge for three years and sits to use it, what great photos I could take of him wizzing down a nearby perfect-for-sledging-if-it-ever-snowed-hill!

I've been sending out a few christmas cards, I don't do many and I always make them personal, I hate receiving a boring shop bought card, one of a box of 100 with their names , our names and thats it, I bought the ones you can slip a photo into

Ask me a question

From Marias blog, you get to ask me a question and I'll probably answer it, I'm quite an open person...?

crazy busy, no time to blog but

funny smell in my lounge, cant find the source

distributed over 600 teatowels around the classrooms at school after bagging them up, some teachers didnt give them out at home time so parents rang me at home to find out where they were!

Tripped over the stage for the nativity play when giving out said tea towels and now have one bad knee and one bruised shin, managed not to swear in front of primary school children

already had bad knee from running up wooden steps at side of the house and wooden step breaking, I hit the deck literally and have been limping and wincing ever since

As I came into the playground this morning after taking the dog and chickens out, one immaculately dressed mummy cried out "Oh Jenny, your boots, they're...........muddy!" Funny that considering that's what I bought them for...?

Went Christmas shopping and bought nothing. Dumpling has everything, no decent new toy came out this year it seems, same stuff as last year which between last Christmas, his birthday and having grandparents and great grandparents he has it all! Lolly wants a new graphics tablet as hers broke so thats one off the list.