Well finally....

Yes, finally, I've managed to get my self back on the blogging track!

And my mid-year resolution is to try to post once a week!

Big news in our household is that we finally got chickens!

Yes we have six lovely ladies that were all ex-battery hens.

We registered with the British Hen Welfare Trust

http://www.bhwt.org.uk/

and then just waited to be told when we could pick up our chickens...

We collected them from a place called Foal Farm in Kent, and the rest is history...

Thought I would post up some hen photos..

The 'girls' arriving in their box - all a bit shell shocked!!

Exploring their new fabulous chicken enclosure (built by 'im indoors)

Checking out every corner...

They were all a bit the worst for wear but I'm happy to

say that their feathers are starting to grow back now!



The hens have settled in wonderfully and were already laying the day after they arrived.

We are eggstremely happy!!

Jem x

Photos

Have just looked at the photos I took - they look like there was vaseline on the lens! I obviously didn't want everyone to see how old they really were....

Cake pops

After seeing this fab blog http://www.bakerella.com/  I was inspired to have a go at some cake pops (well I was also being pestered by a 9yr old...)

So I bought the book via Amazon (the cheapest price I could find)  http://tinyurl.com/6fhn2wp and began to get together the ingredients.

I took a short cut with the cake part and bought a pre-made Madeira one and the frosting I got from the supermarket.

The sticks and candy coating were the only things I had to hunt down, but thanks to the wonders of Ebay - success! Lolly sticks http://tinyurl.com/6hoouul and the candy coating http://tinyurl.com/5r7mr3t

I must point out some info about the links - as many of them are very long I use this tool  http://tinyurl.com/ to shrink them down....

Anyway back to the cake pops...

After mixing the cake and frosting together and forming the mixture in the balls - about 1 - 1 1/2 inches diameter, we melted the candy coating

The pink candy melts are VERY pink so I used mainly white ones and mixed a few pink ones in.

Then after chilling the cake balls they are really to dip - the tip from Bakerella is to dip the lolly stick in the candy coating first before putting in into the cake ball (it does stick better). Then dip away! It can get very dribbly so gently shake off any excess. We then sprinkled and left to dry...

I think these Cake pops will be permanent fixture in our household - lots more experimenting to do..!



What's it all about... (Alfie)

Can't believe it - have finally got around to starting a blog!
My posts will be few but varied and probably often rambling (the mind tends to wander off at tangents now and again).
They will more than likely be about ..

• Crafty things
• Chickens
• Growing Veg
• Glass
• Splitting the atom
• Parquet flooring

Well maybe not the last two - but who knows :o)

TTFN