Her life in pinnys or is it aprons?

Hello again
A couple of weeks ago YGD who is nearly 12, came to stay and as is usual, wanted to bake. Out came the pinnys. She put on  the latest one she has been wearing, which was originally made for her older cousin. This one is made of pale green cotton twill, very hard wearing and meant to double up as his carpentry pinny. As he is now nearly 25 and 6' 3" he hasn't worn it in years! When YGD put it on, she only just managed to pull it over her head and it it came half way up her thighs. Time to get out the pinny I had made for her to give her later in the year. Putting GS's green pinny back I realised that it was joining a collection of no-longer-big-enough pinnys belonging to YGD. Why did I keep them? because we often have children visiting and they like to "do things". Here are the ones I found in the drawer... her life in pinnys.

While telling Good Friend  about the pinnys, as I knew he would be interested, being a collector of many things (including tea cosies and fans) I realised that we speak a different language. He calls them aprons, while I call them pinnys or pinafores. Mmmm is this a class thing or a district thing, a bit of both, a bit U and non-U ? So what do you call them? and what is the pinafore in HMS Pinafore? Neither GF nor I knew the answer.
Off to feed the 9 lambs that joined us last week. Pictures to follow.
Welcome to Marlene Snijders and Liane Peddlesden on the side bar and Ani K. Hill on Bloglovin. For some reason I can only see the blogs you follow and not if you have a blog.
Gillx

"Teach me before you die"

 Hello All
Welcome to Steve on the follower bar and Bloglovin
We are still waiting fro our poddy lambs. EGD who lives with us has asked if we can keep a couple of the girls and put them to the ram next year. "I want learn how to lamb and you can teach me before you die!" she said cheerfully Now I know that 71 isn't young, but really! On reflection I AM passing on all sorts of things to EGD while she lives with us. Her partner (who is a tree surgeon and gardener) is always asking questions and showing a keen interest in all that we do too. Hope for the future eh?!

The hens are finally in the orchard, the goathouse has being cleaned in preparation for the lambs arriving.(There are two hens with their chicks ensconced in there, but in a couple of weeks time we will put them in a separate run within the orchard to gradually introduce them to the rest of the girls.) So "Hurrah"! I thought, I can finally plant out some of the veggie plants that are waiting in the cold frame and greenhouse. I couldn't  wait to get the cabbages, broad beans and peas in. I stood back admired my handiwork and retired for a well earned scotch and to watch a film that EGD and her fella had bought.
 Has anyone seen " I Daniel Blake"?  EGD and I shed a tear on a couple of occasions and felt upset and frustrated in turns. I have accompanied many people to the job centre over the years and my experience has been mostly positive with regard to the people that work there, even though the system that they work within can be flawed. I did shout at the screen a couple of time (like I do) and though I can't say that I actually enjoyed the film, it was definitely worth watching.

Anyway back to the garden... the next morning I went out to see to the hens and admire the veg plot to find that we had been visited by ...rabbits! I was seriously p***d off and wished that I still smoked!
So all plans that David had for the weekend were shelved while he firmed up the fencing to the orchard that is between the paddock and the veg garden, as on inspection the little fluffy creatures had gnawed through the paddock fencing to hoppity skippity through the orchard and into the self service salad bar.
Yesterday I replanted with some plants that I had put aside for a community allotment group that has been set up. Is that really selfish of me ?
We saw two of "our" swallows this weekend. They swooped and dived overhead, happy to see each other after their long journey. David had only swept the goathouse walls and beams the day before, so we are only just ready for them.
All for now
love Gillx

Update on our Cockerel

Morning Fellow Bloggers!
Thought I would update you on HughTwo. Here he is looking good. You can just see his aluminium splint?

 Here he is looking for all the world as though he is king of the Roost, which indeed he is. We are delighted with his progress and though he is still limping quite badly his foot, which was turning, in is now straighter than it was. He is such a gentle boy (though extremely randy!) and never shows any aggression to animals or humans. If the girls squabble he runs up to them and stands between them. I think he must have gone on a course about diffusing difficult situations! He is (supposed to be) a Lavender Orpington.We are fond of Orpington cockerels because of their natures. HughTwo is so named because he is so like our Buff Orpington Cockerel Hugh, who was an absolute sweetie.

 We have decided to leave the splint on for at least another fortnight. Fingers crossed he will have no lasting problems.
The sun is shining today and I am off to do a spot more posting for the Civic Society and the Canal Society.
I mentioned the blossom yesterday, here is a picture of one of the front garden damsons.

 I have just found this picture of Hugh the buff Orpington. Here he is sitting with one of his many wives. This shows his gentle nature. Can you see the baby between them? We have no idea why it is that colour unless Hugh was cuckolded by ?!

All for now
Gillx

I make a stupid mistake

Hello All
Welcome Zuria Amber on Bloglovin, good to see you here.
It's been a busy couple of weeks, mostly with the Civic Society, a seperate pressure group that I am secretary to and the gardens (of course)
Last Sunday most of the family came round for tea, plus a woman (and her husband) who sees our house as her second home and arrives with her scissors to cut anybody's hair that needs it. (line up everyone)   Youngest daughter with her son and daughter  set to to clean the goat house floor, which was covered in over three months worth of chicken s*** as we have been deep littering them .The chickens should really be back in their house in the orchard, but when David set about deep cleansing and fumigating this he found that a couple of shelves and a couple of laying boxes needed replacing. While this is being sorted the hens are still living in the goat house and free-ranging over the vegetable plots that I am desperate to start planting up. We are probably only a couple of weeks from getting our orphan lambs so the goat house also now needs a deep clean. We will need to be careful how we do this as four hens have hunkered down on eggs in various spots in the goat house and we expect chicks from this weekend and over the next two weeks. It looks like we might have a perfect Easter picture with chicks and lambs if all works out to plan (yeah right).
When the dream team had finished mucking out they leant the front of the old goat byres against the end byre. As I needed to access this to pick some eggs I moved one of the byre fronts against the water tap and then forgot it. An hour later ED found our beautiful cockerel Hugh-two, under the (very heavy) byre door. When she extracted him from this he clearly couldn't walk and on investigation it seemed he had broken his leg at his "elbow". I felt dreadful, what a stupid mistake to make.What to do? David cut a piece of angled aluminium, bent it into the shape of Hugh-two's elbow while YD duct taped it to his leg. We then put him into a large rabbit hutch to rest overnight. I hardly slept worrying about what I would find in the morning as it was possible that the splint wouldn't work and/or that he also had internal injuries.
The next morning I opened the rabbit hutch and Hugh-two flew past me squawking loudly. He limped over to the nearest hen and proceeded to do what cockerels are paid for!! Grant you he fell over afterwards, but his pecker was definitely up! We are watching him carefully and so far he is eating well, managing to dust bath rather inelegantly, limping all over his kingdom and bonking for England!
This weekend we are off for the first weekends' sea fishing of the year. So we are Cornwall bound on friday afternoon, while YD and EGD take over, wondering what catastrophes will happen while we are away. A good friend of mine is coming with us this time and she and I  hope to hit the charity shops etc while David is at sea, while taking the opportunity for a good gossip, which we seem to have little time for recently.
Will close for now as I have to post some newsletters and flyers and I'm already a day later than I promised.
Back soon with more bits and pieces of random stuff
Love Gillx
PS Isn't the blossom spectacular this year?