Christmas Advent Swap Day2.

What a nice way to wake up knowing there's a special surprise parcel to be opened up. Wouldn't it be nice (but very exhausting) to do this for 365 days of the year!! I hunted through the box and found present number 2. 

Dearest Mrs HMM had cleverly put together a hand crafted decoration featuring a picture of my lovely Dad as a wee fella sitting on Santa's knee. Boy, did that bring a tear to my eye. You forget your parents were once little and had the same excitement for Christmas that your own kids have. Thank you Mrs HMM, this is very precious!!

My darling Dad as a wee fella sitting on Santa's knee.....melt.

I hope to get the Christmas tree decorated very soon. Unfortunately I've succumbed to a flu bug, so I think I'll just be taking things slowly here today.

TTFN Mrs SFP XX

Christmas Advent Swap Day 1.

On Saturday my sister, the lovely Mrs HMM and our Mum met to exchange presents in our 24 day Advent swap. Mum hasn't participated this year, but maybe next year..... It was so exciting knowing that there are 25 presents to be unwrapped and no one has any clue of the contents. This is very important from a Mummy point of view- most years we organise our own presents as well as everybody else's.

We sat down to a nice morning tea of homemade pikelets and swapped boxes of gifts. Here are the results so far:

My box of goodies for Mrs HMM.

My first present to her.

An Advent Calender- please note the absence of chocolate, Dora the Explorer and Barbie. Not an easy feat these days!!

My lovely pile of booty from Mrs HMM

Mum enjoying a cuppa.

My first gift from Mrs HMM- very appropriate!!

We had a lovely morning catch up, with more presents to be opened. What a lovely way to count down the days to Gods most precious gift to us.

Garden Update....it's been a while.

Sorry, it's been a while since my last post. Things have been busy in the lead up to Christmas. This is my big boy's last year at High School with exams, graduation and preparations for University next year. Younger son has had his first real taste of exams and the pressure to perform. I think I've been more stressed out then he has.

The lovely Mrs HMM and I committed to a Christmas advent swap between ourselves this year. A bit of a frantic last dash before the finish line, but we made it. We've had lots of fun.....I think, and so we've decided to do it again next year. Less pressure when you have the whole year to prepare. More of that to come later.

Here are some pictures of how things are growing in the garden at the moment. The chooks are delightful and getting bigger. No eggs yet, but looking forward to our first one!!

Strawberries, garlic, blackberry and blueberries.

Flower garden.

Eeeek, my guilty secret....hopefully a before picture.

The other side of the garden, unseen by bloggy eyes to date LOL.

My first attempt at growing broccoli, not too bad, but the plants are SO big.

Silverbeet for Mr SFP and the girls, lettuce and peas.

I've managed to fix the irrigation down the back which was a big job- I must of turned it off and on about 50 times. So, I think overall I can see a pin prick of light at the end of the tunnel....if I use the binoculars. I'll be back soon with the Advent swap goodies.

TTFN Mrs SFP XX

The Chickens are in da house

Today at lunchtime we braved the unsettled weather and made the trip to Chook Manor at Little River. There we purchased 4 gorgeous Brown Shaver girls who were 12 weeks old on the 5th of November.

Driving home with teenage son in the back seat, Mr SFP and I contemplated names. He wants to call one Camilla in honour of Charles and Camilla's visit to New Zealand. Funny, I never thought of him as a royalist. I like Izzy and Henny Penny. Teenage son piped up that one should be called dinner.......I'm sure he's just pulling my leg!

We got the girls home and settled into their new house and run. They spent a lovely time in the run scratching about in the weeds. I can see why people use them to condition their vege gardens before they plant them up. 

The hardest thing was trying to round them up at bedtime and get them in their house. I'm hoping this will become a learned behaviour as I don't fancy chicken wrangling every night. I must admit I've made several trips down the back to check on them and count them since their arrival. It's a big responsibility being a Mother to 4 more. Plus I just checked to make sure they were all tucked in for the night. So cute to see 4 little chickens cuddled up to each other on their perch.

I'll leave you with some pictures of the girls........TTFN Mrs SFP xx 

Beautiful sunset.

Mr SFP disappeared with my camera today- something to do with work. Unfortunately this meant  I couldn't take any pictures of the progress achieved in the garden this weekend.

He did take some arty pictures of last nights sunset and rainbow. I'll add these and hopefully get some more pictures tomorrow. We're off to get the chickens at midday, so I should have some pictures of the girls in their 5 star accommodation.

TTFN Mrs SFP xx

The Chicken house is finished!!

The chicken house was finished on Friday........hooray!! My very clever craftsman has made a wonderful job and has thought of everything. I'm amazed- everywhere I look there is an innovative idea. It makes me smile each time I walk down the path to open the greenhouse, or to hang out the washing. I've taken some progress pictures and I'll take a picture of the finished house tomorrow. We hope to go on a road trip on Monday to Little River and collect 4 brown shaver chickens. I'm excited and nervous. We may have to have an official opening of Chook Manor- ribbon cutting and cucumber sandwiches?

No mistaking who lives here!

While I was working in the Potager garden last weekend I had some company. Naughty Spock had stayed out all night and was catching up on his sleep. It was like the equivalent of a hangover- he couldn't keep his eyes open. It must have been cosy snuggled up in the pea straw.

It was very hard work and I wondered why I had thought this a good idea, but one corner of the Potager garden is now complete!! It required hours of weeding as it had been in lawn, and digging in many bricks. I added pea straw and compost, but it's done. I put my bean support together which I had won off Trade Me a couple of years ago and planted my White Lady runner beans grown by me from seed. Also planted silver beet- for Mr SFP and the chickens and lettuce plants. I'm very proud of my efforts- only 3 more sections to go........may take a while.

I'm very proud of my construction skills as I had lost the instructions LOL.

The fence is to deter our big dog Rosie from using the garden as a toilet- oh the joys of owning a dog....not!

I'll leave you with this pretty white campanula growing in the flower garden. I'll be back very soon with details of today's progress in the garden.  TTFN  Mrs SFP xx

Progress in the garden......

Today was a beautiful day to be out in the garden. Not too hot with a refreshing breeze. I started off inside, but we had a power cut for about 40 minutes so I progressed to outside.

The clever chicken house man returned to do some more work on the chicken mansion. Pikelets and coffee were delayed by the power cut, but it meant more work got done.

Progress on the hen house so far:

Hen house has been added to the platform and nesting boxes attached.

From a different angle

While the hen house was being worked on I diligently went back to the small corner of the potager garden I'm developing. I dug in another circle of bricks around the outer edge to walk on and dug in some of the others. Still one edge to finish, but it was hard work!! This area has been in lawn for 20 plus years and is very compacted. I need to get this area established as I want to plant more lettuces and lower growing vegetables there.

Progress in the potager.

Tom left home yesterday and was precariously carried down to the green house by Mr SFP. He arrived in one piece (Tom) and just squeaked in. His tomatoes are getting bigger by the day.

Tom has left home- spot the tomatoes.

I'll leave you with a couple more pictures inside the glasshouse. My seedlings continue to sprout and get bigger. It's very exciting and satisfying to plant a seed and watch it's progress. 

Good night Mrs SFP xx

Cucumber Spacesaver grown from seed.....by me!!

Seedlings sprouting- a miracle!