All Change in Chicken Land

It's been all change here in chicken world, the second clutch of chick were moved out of the upstairs brooder into the smallest chook house yesterday afternoon, giving them there first taste of the wild Orkney outdoors.

To hand over the keys to their new abode, the previous residents needed to be upgraded to their new digs, the large movable chook shed, giving us the perfect time to start introducing them to the oldest birds. 

For the next week or so their shed and run are inside the chicken land run, giving everyone a chance to get used to one another, then the fun of integration for the birds we are keeping begins

And at only 9 weeks old, and can barely believe how huge they have already grown!!

Art as a Form of Therapy

 Therapy can come in many forms,

and for me that therapy comes from working with my hands.

Sometimes I work with fibre, spinning a piece of art from a heap of fleece which at a glance looks like nothing, feeling the texture slip through my fingers as the repetitive treadling and spinning of the wheel lulls you in a form of meditation.

At other times the therapy takes the form of crocheting, taking a beautiful hank of yarn and turning it into an item which can then be seen in all it's beauty, no longer the ball or hank stashed away in a cupboard.

A cake baked a therapy twice over, the creating and the eating.

 My current therapy choice is working with wires and stone, crystals and shells, keeping both my hands and my mind busy whilst we nurse our Poppy cat back to health.

Just over a week ago we thought her card was up and she spent several days in the vets, trying to get enough fluids in her as her kidneys are in a bad way. But she seems to have pulled on a reserve 10th life and is steadily making progress.

So I raise my cup of tea in a toast to vets, the many lives of cats,

and Art as a form of therapy.

Meet the Hatchlings

I've been a bit under the radar recently as a blogger and indeed in real life too. 

My health hasn't been at it's best, plus hospital visits, helping mum to move off the island and general life stuff has meant my writing muse had upped and gone on holiday.

The only exception has been my introduction and subsequent addiction to Instagram where you can find me under @madmadammel, I have also added a widget to my sidebar.

But during the past few weeks one of the exciting developments here at home has been out first brood of baby chicks hatching in the incubator.

The plan this year is to raise our breeding stock, this our first hatchlings include Large Lavender Auracana, Cream Legbar, Welsummer, and the pale yellow one above is one of our own mixed breeds most likely a Rhode Island Red.

At over 4 weeks old now the hatchlings are huge, around the size of pigeons, they will be out in the big wide world before you know it, ready to be joined by a soon to be hatched second brood of chicks.

A Year of Great Change

The past few years have felt as though we are constantly creating change in our life and lifestyle, purchasing the smallholding, moving 600 miles away, moving to an island, renovations on the cottage, getting married, in some ways it has felt a bit of a whirl and has certainly flown by.

This year appears to be heralding yet more big changes for us with the first being the final phase of the renovation. Last week we finally submitted planning permission for the conversion of the barns, but after having no kitchen for over five years I find myself wanting to hold back on actually getting started.

It feels too big and overwhelming a project, scary unknown territory and the unknown element of not knowing how much the job is going to cost due to doing the work ourselves.

It is easy to fall into the trap of putting up with how things are even if they are not perfect, and then holding back, resisting jumping into the scary unknown.

But change is inevitable, we cannot stagnate or we risk going through the motions in our lives.

So we pause.......  breathe...... and then we jump.

Imbolc Activities - Creating New Candles from Old

The other day on the blog I mentioned that the season of Imbolc, or Candlemas would begin in a few days, and I thought yesterday to make a brief video of one of the activities I would be doing as part of my preparations.

So if you would like to see a rare video of me chatting about candles feel free to click on the video below :)