A very busy half term holiday

As well as having fun with Compostgirl, I spent the half term holiday week leading up to Samhain/Halloween working with groups of children on various seasonal craft activities...mainly involving pumpkins ( now there's a surprise!)







All told I have been involved, one way or another, with the carving of 54 pumpkins, over the last 5 days in October.....



On one of my days off working we went round to see our very good friend M and her 2 lovely children for the day, we had lunch, the children played, M and I chatted and we carved ( you guessed it!) pumpkins!



Here is Compostgirl carving pumpkins with her friends.



The craft sessions I ran also involved lots of glue and glitter and orange paint





And lots of bats and spiders, of course!

I DO like my work :-) (even though it took a very long time to wash out all the glue and glitter in my hair.....)

but I think I will give pumpkin a miss for a few days...... :-))

Update on Spike the hedgehog

When Spike the little Hedgehog was handed over to us after being found on the School playing field, he was a weak and poorly little hoggie. He only weighed 150 g and was desparately in need of food and water and warmth.

Once I got some drink and a bit of food down him he perked up and has twice in the past 3 weeks been into school to have a look at the children and for us to answer questions about hedgehogs.

We weighed him on 18th Oct and he had increased in weight to 300g....so he doubled his weight in 5 days!



he is getting bigger and eating more and more cat food so we weighed him again on 30th Oct and he weighed in at 450g.....



and when we weighed him again last night, he was a wopping 550g!





At this rate he will be big enough to release outside before the end of November and he will be big enough to go into hibernation!

Oh, and he looks a bit dusty in these pictures because we have just scrubbed out his cage, dried it, put in fresh bedding and dusted it with Diatom powder to kill off mites and fleas.... he isn't really grey!

Wonderful new hen run!

Wonderful new hen run! To go with the wonderful new hen house !

Built by clever Compostman, as a ( very) belated birthday present for me...and to go with the house he has already built for me....



Except we have swapped things around, so the new run now goes with Cluckingham Palace ( a boughten house) and the home made house (called Peckingham Palace) is now attached to the run which came with Cluckingham Palace ....

It does all make sense, honest!

Anyway, its a wonderful, wonderful present, the hens love it and it will make my life a lot easier, as all the hens now have lots of dry, sheltered space if they have to be left shut in for any reason.

THANK YOU lovely Compostman, you are a star and I love you very much!

Ruby and the chicklets, week 5

The Cream Legbar chicks are now 5 weeks old and have largely lost all their baby fluff and have proper feathers now. The cockerel is a bossy little chap to his sisters and steals their food whenever he can. He comes running to me whenever I go outside, though! I think he has worked out I mean food is on the way!



I turn out Ruby and the chicklets into the veg patch every day, they are safe from the other hens in there although not from cats!



They love to scratch and furtle around in the soil, eating all sorts of stuff. Ruby is a very attentive mother and teaches them well.



Ruby and the chicklets dust bathing in the sunshine. See how big the chicks are, now!

Spike goes a visiting....

Spike went a-visiting yesterday !

I am rather unwell with a sore throat and cough so Compostman stepped in for me and helped at Eco club yesterday. As Spike is now recovered and eating well, Compostman took him into school as the plan was to make some hibernation houses for insects and things...

and Spike was an absolute star! He uncurled and trotted around the inside of the circle of children sat on the floor, stopping to sniff at them and generally be very friendly. The children adored him!

Compostman talked about hibernation and how/why hedgehogs hibernate. He also discussed with the children about what happens to the late summer baby hedgehogs and why "autumn orphan" hedgehogs are unlikely to survive the winter and hibernation without human help. (For those who don't know, a hoggie needs to be at least 500g to survive hibernation and waking up in spring, and the late babies often don't have time to get to this weight before the food runs out)

Compostman mentioned that Spike wasn't really ill, as such, when he was found on the school field (although he looked it) but was just cold and hungry and thirsty. When Compostman added that Spike had probably got separated from his mum, several of the children had to be stopped from running up the field to look for her....ah bless!

Spike is now back in his cage, in the warm, tucking into yet more cat meat and has gained 10% of his body weight in 1 day... !