Thursday 30 September 2010

Ducklings

Introducing the latest addition to our menagerie, Willow and Amber, 2 khaki campbell ducklings. We got them at the Edenbridge and Oxted Show in August when they were just 2 weeks old.


They actually belong to Emma who has a thing for ducks! She did some research and Khaki Campbells were generally the breed recommended as good back garden ducks and good layers. We are looking forward to duck eggs in our future (they are both girls), I've heard that they are very good for cakes (the eggs not the ducks!). They are also very cute!(The ducklings not the eggs!)



They have grown at an amazing rate, there was only a week between when the first and second photos were taken. Now they have most their feathers they have moved outside into my old eglu. We shut them in at night to keep them warm and safe from foxes and have given them a large seed tray to paddle in. Eventually they will be put in the big pen where the chickens currently live and I am on the look out for a paddling pool for them.


Emma has been spending alot of time with them as she wants them to be tame this seems to be working well with Willow but Amber is a little more shy, they both however seem to recognise her voice and will start quacking if they hear her, they obviously think that she is their mummy!

Wednesday 22 September 2010

Autumn

Can't believe that I haven't posted since July! The summer has gone really quickly and it is definitely starting to feel very autumnal outside. Things have been growing well on the allotment, including the weeds, and we have been harvesting things regularly. I need to grow more onions and carrots next year as these are the veg that we use the most and are going to run out soon. My sweetcorn, which was looking quite promising earlier in the year was eaten by something, I think rabbits, whilst we were away on holiday. We only managed to pick 4 unnibbled cobs, strangely they didn't touch the carrots.

I have been preserving as much as possible for the winter, our fruit trees are still very small and only produce a few fruit, but I was able to pick plenty of pears from a friends garden, which have been bottled, and my parents have given me lots of plums for jam and cooking apples which have been cooked and frozen to be used in crumbles and pies over the winter.

We also have added to our menagerie of animals over the summer but I will post about that another day.