Socks, Earrings and Davy's Little Shadow

My lovely new socks...



My lovely new earrings...




Davy's lovely new friend...

Kittens and Cotton Pics

Kittens looking expectantly at me. Think they think it's tea time. See the towel that Ian strategically placed to let them climb onto the table - and a couple of dogs, under the table hoping that they'll drop a crumb or two...


So signs of sheep growing on the cotton yet. This is the cotton forming (I hope).


The cotton flowers start yellow and then turn pink and then red. Here's a red and yellow flower on the same plant.

Kitten Training, Fiestas and Eggs

Schnukems, our slightly rounded tabby cat feels unable to get onto the fridge to get her food unless Ian is watching. As she quite often fails in her quest to jump on the fridge I think she may feel that Ian presents some sort of safety-net opportunity for her. Ian says he is going to put his foot down and does not want to get into that situation with the kittens - who seem to be pretty quick to learn. They still get fed in my workshop as they are too little to jump on the fridge, however they are convinced that the grown-up cats have food that is much more exciting (even though it is the same). They therefore cry to get put in the fridge, which Ian refuses to do as he doesn't want to get to a Schumkem situation. Instead he takes them into my workshop and puts them on the food table there. I have a horrible feeling that we are developing a situation where the kittens will have trained us that when they cry in the kitchen they cat carried to the workshop and placed on their food table. When I say 'kitten training', I of course mean the kittens training us rather than the other way around.

Noticed that one of our hens had started laying again AND she had gone broody. Silkies are known for their broodiness, however I was surprised that she had gone broody so quickly. We took the eggs away, and she immediately forgot them, but it is something we need to watch. I can't find where they are laying eggs - assuming they both are. I've put their nesting box back in the barn, so that's one place we know not to look for eggs as they steadfastly ignore it.

There was a fiesta at the swimming pool on Saturday night. We went along, and it was rather an unusual band. I'm not sure how to describe the music - at a push I'd say Spanish skiffle. I was expecting a mutiny, however they managed to pasadoble along to it without any problems, just varying the speed as required. Young and old seemed to enjoy it and perhaps it was only us that felt that it would have been nice if they managed to hit at least some of the high notes.

Last week we were busy working on our sites. We dedicated the whole week to adding to the databases. We worked really hard and added over 1700 items to the database which was pretty good going. I really enjoy doing this, Ian appreciates it slightly less. I think this is mainly because I keep finding ideas for things to do. I was particularly taken with a knitting pattern for covering plastic chairs, which Ian is no doubt looking forward to immensely. Next month we'll be spending a week tidying up some of the sites. Freeneedle, for instance, now has links to over 150 bag patterns and projects, which is just too many. We're just starting to see a slight drop off now in revenue, I was expecting the drop to start earlier, perhaps from June, before picking up in September.

I've now 5 children in my class and have had enquiries for September. The children are all in love with Basil and were coming round in the evening to see him. I rather mistakenly thought they were coming to see me, however one day we pretended to be out and we could hear them shouting 'basil, basil we love you' through the door. Poor Basil, he loves standing there while they pet him and when some of the girls started trying to put pony tails into his hair you could tell he was delighted. He was most upset when we started to hide him away to stop them coming round!

It's getting hot again this week. It's also noticeably darker in the morning. We went for a cycle ride at around quarter to seven last week, and it was almost too dark to be out without lights.

Cotton

Our cotton plants are doing quite well and we've got a few flowers. I've been reading up to see what care they need, and I found an article about the introduction of cotton into Europe. Until then the only fibre used for clothes here was wool from sheep. The cotton fibre was bought here, not the plants, and people therefore thought that the plants fruited sheep. Here's a picture from 1300 which shows a cotton plant as they believed it to look.

I think I'll be quite disappointed if our plant doesn't look like this!

Babbity Bumble - Snake Catcher

jul_12, originally uploaded by ian_pullen.

I think we know what happened to the snake in the garage - at least I hope so, as I'd not like to think that the snake that Babbity Bumble had adopted as a pet was yet another slithering serpent to enter our home. Ian took it into the country and released it.

Teaching Chickens to Free Range and Abseiling Kittens

There is a field at the other end of the village where part of it has been completely stripped by free ranging chickens. We've been trying to teach ours to free range as our back yard is currently full of grasses with seeds which must be a rich treat for chickens. However ours appear to be a little fussy. They've only just accepted eating their food off the ground and not put nicely in bowls, the concept of actually going out and finding their food seems a one that they refuse to grasp. We've even tried reducing their food, but all that happens is that they try to get into the garage to get to the food bag.

They're not too bad with vegetable peelings, although they did take great offense to some potatoes I put out. Tomatoes seem to be their favourite. The small ones use their size to their advantage and manage to nip under the legs of the bigger ones and run off with the tomatoes. It's quite funny to watch. They've also taken to melon, which is just as well as we have a melon mountain. A man came to the door selling them by the basket and we ended up with 7 or 8!

Jesus said he'd like a couple of our chicks. They are looking rather good now (in a funny silkie sort of way), although we still can't tell their gender. I just hope we don't end up giving all the girls away!

Ian's been trying to teach the kittens how to abseil. As they are small, although they are good at jumping, the chances are that the dogs could get to where ever they could get their food. Ian's put their food onto a table in my workshop with a towel strategically placed over the edge to encourage them to climb up and abseil down. They eventually got the hang of it, Bob trying to work out his own route to the food is keeping him amused for hours on end.

Our boilers not working, however it is so hot at the moment that it is impossible to get cold water anyway. Admittedly tepid showers aren't great, but it's not too bad.

Ankle is doing well, just a bit stiff. Went on a cycle ride, and didn't have any problems. However I decided I wouldn't worry if I did as what we really need is a tandem. I've explained to Ian how great it would be. He went deathly quiet with excitement - I think...

Sprained Ankle

Well, I fell off my bike on Tuesday and sprained my ankle. I'd like to say it was as I was traversing a mountain or jumping across a river, while in fact I hit a pile of sand and came to a standstill, falling off in slow motion. I'm not sure what hurt most - my ankle or my pride following the fact that Ian thought I had laid down for a rest. As if I am in the habit of lying down by the side of the road.....

We went to the hospital as I couldn't move my toes, and three hours later I was allowed home. They x-rayed my ankle from all positions and were very thorough, but because my foot was swollen they couldn't see any stress fractures in the bones by the pins. But even if they could there is nothing they could do, so I was sent home. I was so happy I was almost in tears. Ian was also almost in tears - but for different reasons. I think he was looking forward to the meat-fest which is a combination of Ian's cooking when I am not there and the 100% meat content of hospital food that I used to save for him!

I can move my toes now and today have started putting weight on my foot again. I have a super ankle brace coming. I am looking forward to it. It says that I will be able to play professional level support. Amazing, obviously some sort of miracle brace, seeing that I am normally a sports sloth. I obviously just need to decide what sport to play, put the brace on and I'll be playing at professional level. Like a sports-Superman. I put the brace on and I become sports superwoman.

Spain got through to the final of the world cup. I was trying to tell my class about the German octopus, however it got very confusing. They are all painting their faces on Sunday, so I am sure that we'll see a few red and yellow faces at the door! Last night we were left in no doubt as to the result. Not sure what we'll do on Sunday, I guess we'll go and watch the match somewhere. I wondered if they'd put a big screen in the square, but Ian pointed out that they'd be unlikely to get something like that sorted at such short notice.

Miss Moppet and Babbity Bumble are now very much part of the family. We're pleased to see that they are becoming very social and actively seek out other animals or us to join during the day, but we still shut them away at night.

We've had a severe heat warning this week. Following the summer of 2003, when in Europe 30,000 people died over a 7 day period in August because of heat (15,000 in France), the countries most affected now have a traffic light system. We were on orange alert, Badajoz was on red alert. The big thing is dehydration and people who are housebound are particularly at risk. There is a system now where people who are housebound can register and they get a telephone call every day to make sure that they have water and an alarm is raised if they don't answer their phones.

We cope with the heat quite well now, the key really is to just go with the flow and do like everyone else. On Monday we went out for a cycle ride at 6.30 in the morning and the village was already in full swing and really busy - nearest thing to a rush hour! Go out at 4 in the afternoon, however, and you are walking into a ghost town! Until about 11 in the evening, that is, when things start to get busy again (yet again I had to clarify to the parents of my class that the class was starting at 10 in the morning and not 10 in the evening!!).

Kittens Roaming

We've introduced the kittens to the dogs and cats and now the novelty has worn off, we're letting them roam free. They still see my workshop as being their 'safe' place, but are happy to explore the rest of the time. We've started shutting them in the shower room at night as they were getting too tangled in things in my workshop. They are extremely nice natured and very friendly. Although they are very vocal and let us know when they are hungry - or if they get separated.

We had thought that we'd keep them separated for a lot longer so I am pleased with the way that things are going. We were going to have problems with Babbity as she is very quick and very clever and was diving out of the door before I'd got a chance to catch her.

Yesterday we cycled into llerena for breakfast. We went there one way and came back a different way. The way we went entailed crossing a stream with a fresh water lobster in it, so I was quite happy to avoid that by coming back on another lane. Actually, we don't do too well with streams as we found one today too, and gave an old man in a field much amusement as we tried to navigate our way across it without getting too wet!

Fiestas, Cycling, Jesus and Kittens

We went to the fiesta on both Friday and Sunday. On Friday we stayed until 3 o'clock, which sounds impressive until I mention that when we went we said good bye to my class, their friends and a wide range of younger siblings! There was no band on Friday, which we wondered was part of a cost cutting exercise. We went again on Sunday, which started a little earlier at 11. The band was excellent. They were probably a little more flamenco-y than the other bands that we have seen and the two main singers were male. There were lots of songs about lost love, including Maria from Portugal who seemed to break everyone's hearts and a sweetheart in Russia. Naturally there were the obligatory pasadobles. We left about 1 - just as people were coming back having gone for their evening meal at about midnight!

We've been enjoying cycling round the country lanes. I've just discovered Google Maps. I sometimes surprise myself at the things I don't know about! Considering that we make our living on the Internet, there are still huge swathes of it that pass us by. Anyway, most of the lanes - and indeed roads - that we walk along or cycle don't show up on maps, so I've been plotting the paths that we've cycled on Google Maps. There's still loads to discover and when we've finished we'll have a really good map of the footpaths and tracks in the area. This what the map is currently looking like and this includes an elevation map of one of the roads - it looks like we live in a very hilly area!!




Jesus has finished painting the side of the house. He had a very clever technique and didn't need scaffolding as he did the bottom half on a ladder and did the top half by climbing onto the roof and leaning over the edge with a roller and paint pot to do the top half. It is VERY white! I don't think we'll be emulating his painting technique.

The kittens are doing well, they've met all of the dogs and most of the cats. Kittens must think that the world is a very noisy place as they are constantly followed by crashing and banging.