Murder in the Garden

On my birthday I had a lie in and then sat in the garden with a cup of tea, enjoying the beautiful sunny day.  The chickens were wandering around the garden, the cats were sitting on the patio, Alan was sitting drinking coffee.  All was lovely and quiet, song birds sang and seagulls screeched and then I witnessed murder!

I was so shocked that I did not have time to move, everything happened so very quickly and it was all over in a minute.

So who was the victim and who was the perpetrator ?

Was it the chickens? 

Was it this one?

or this one?

 or perhaps this one?

or where they all involved?

(Chic -Ken is the one that is hiding, the one with no head)

Well there were some other possible perpetrators around at the time perhaps it was one of them?

This one perhaps? who has been know to make offerings to Alan and I!

and this one, below, has given us 'gifts' before now

however we can discount the rabbit as he was locked away for safe keeping.

One of the above is the murderer.

However who was the victim? 

Before I reveal this detaill I can say that I have been reliably informed that the 'murderer' could have a £2000 fine slapped on them,

as the 'victim' is protected under UK law!

THE VICTIM WAS A HUMBLE BUT PROTECTED SLOW WORM.

I  have to confess that the murder happened so quickly and I was so amazed that there was nothing I could do to help.  One of the chickens was wandering around by our feet and decided to amble back up the garden via the steps.  We had some spare engineering bricks, with holes them, and I had placed these at the bottom of the steps. As Hen-Rietta was walking past her head went down, her beak went into one of the holes and when her head came up- in her beak was a wiggling slow worm. She dropped it, then pecked at it and in a few seconds it was dead. She also eat it.  UUggghhh 

We have a number of these slow worms in the garden, and have tried to rescue them from the cats before now, but on this occasion we were just not quick enough.  On one occasion we rushed out to chase the cat away and placed a flower pot on top of the slow worm to save it.  However, the chicken was too quick for us and murder was done.A friend in planning has said that there is a fine of up to £2000 for killing a slow worm - I wonder how Hen-Rietta is going to pay? 

in Eggs perhaps?

which will take an eggtrodinary time to pay

(oldies but goldies!)

Heathers Mutterings: Rag Rug

Heathers Mutterings: Rag Rug: I have been working hard on a new rag rug, I started it at the Quilt and Craft show. I have woven it on my peg loom and promised to post th...

Rag Rug

I have been working hard on a new rag rug, I started it at the Quilt and Craft show.  I have woven it on my peg loom and promised to post the photos as soon as it was finished. I found this craft last year while surfing on the Internet, and my thanks go to those folks who have posted videos on YouTube. I was looking for information on how to use my large collection of carrier bags and found the Peg Loom. I still have my large collection of carrier bags which I now use to store all the different colour strips of fabric I have now accumulated for my weaving.

For those of you who have not seen a Peg Loom before its just a piece of wood with holes drilled in.  Mines a dual gage as it has two rows of holes, one row is for light fabric and the other for heavy like denim.

You then have pegs - made from dowelling - with holes drilled through which you thread. as in the photo above.

Once all the pegs are threaded you place them in the holes and you are ready to start weaving. I like to use old clothes which I cut into 2inch strips -  I get the clothes from my friends and neighbours, also my daughter from time to time has a clear out. I only use clothes that cannot be worn anymore i.e ripped, grease, food, paint stains.(yes they are clean before I start cutting them up),  I have used sheep's fleece in one of my rugs you just have to put a twist in the length to give it some strength.

The rug in these pictures has been made from old summer clothes, the bottoms of my daughters trousers, an old net curtain that one of my cats decided to use for climbing practice and ended up with two lovely long rips and a bit of a loss of dignity, an old pillowcase and some silky fabric given to me at the Quilt and Craft show.

The photo above is a close up of the fabric woven on the pegs and that bit of yellow stripped fabric is a strip from the bottom of my daughters trousers.  I have just been weaving in stripes however I do not change the colour at the end of a row but just sew in a new piece when the old colour runs out.  I like to sew the ends of the strips together which makes neater join, you can knot the but I like to have neither a back or a front.  If you have knots they have to go to the back.   I do not colour co-ordinate my thread but just use whatever spare I have in the sewing basket.  Its just a rag rug , we are all going to walk over it and its to use the waste fabric/thread/wool to stop it all going into landfill.

I have used pink wool to thread the pegs as I wanted to finish the rug with pink fringing. I weave until I have run out of the colours I need or have reached the length of rug required.  And below is the finished rag rug.

This is a rug for my daughter and son-in-laws Yurt and I hope that she recognises the bits of her trousers I have used.

If you are looking for a recycling project and a craft I would recommend this one for you.If you have any questions please leave a comment and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

The Wedding

Great weekend - I knew that August and Septemberwere going to be busy - what with work all week and then weddings at the weekends.  This weekend my nephew Nathan got married, a big family affair.  Emma and Tommy over came from Portugal, Alan and I travelled to Croydon and stayed in a hotel for two nights.

Being female I had a number of different outfits with me, as I wasn't sure what the weather was going to be like I decided to cover all the bases, just in case.

I took a green coat that I had for Emma and Tommys wedding along with a green dress.  But, also packed a pink Monsoon maxi dress with a cream top.  And, finally put in a purple Monsoon dress which is the one I eventually wore, under the green dress. Black heels but I did pack a flat pair of shoes in the car for later in the day, and other women guests did the same.

The service was held at St.John the Baptist church and we sang some familiar hymns Shine Jesus Shine and Jerusalam.Music during the signing of the register was the Beatles 'All You Need Is Love' and we all raised our hands and swayed - the photographer smiled and encouraged us to keep going so she could get a good photo.

After the service came the photo opportunities and everyone wanted to take a photo  -  a bit like a rugby scrum.

And then off to the reception - I didn't get a photo of the bride and groom driving away I was to busy changing my glasses to my sun glasses as the sun was so bright and hot.


A weekend away with lots of good food  I know I ate to much - good company- very good entertainment but noisy - is this just because I am getting older and my hearing is getting sensitive?  I enjoy loud music and dancing but am finding that even the Karaoke at the Pub is to loud. I enjoyed the wedding and caught up with lots of family news.

The Weather

OK typically English to talk about the weather but I was cold last night and lit our fire, normally wouldn't do this until end of September.  This summer has been bad and the old wife's talk about St Swithuns Day has been discussed -if it rains on St Swithuns Day - 15th July -  then we will have rain for 40 Days.  Well, we have had rain, wind and not much sun but today the sun is out. 

We have let the chickens out to roam the garden this morning and hope to spend some time in the garden. Am going to take a chance and put a load of washing on the line as well - the last lot got rained on twice! 

Then its back to St.Saviours for the last day of the Quilt and Craft Exhibition, this is the first time I have demonstrated my craft and their has been some interest.  I am going to take some photos and post them later, so come back and see them.

Today

Hi and thanks for looking at my blog.

Today I have been demonstrating at a Quilt and Craft Fair at my local Church, St Saviours, Folkestone.

I have a Peg Loom and weave with recycled fabric.  My latest creation is made from summer fabrics from old summer skirts, shirts, T shirts and the bottoms of my daughers trousers. Emma is 4ft 10inches and every time we buy trousers about 6 inches have to come of the bottom.  Some are such lovely fabrics I just had to find something to do with them, so have cut them into 2 inch strips and wove them into a rag rug.  I am going to give this to her for her bedroom.  Once its finished I will post a photo.

Part of my day has also been involved in moving our chicken coup - our three girls have only been with us three weeks - we adopted them from the Battery Hen Charity.  I have to say that the Charity was wonderfully organised they had 400 chickens to rehome and lots of interested people and everything went smoothly.  Within 24 hours our girls were giving us eggs and we had been told not to expect any for at least three weeks.  Well three weeks have gone by and almost every day we have had eggs. Well done girls