Coco settles in (or does she?)

smaller love sign for Charlotte

Summer holiday 

week 1 round up....

So, Cleggy comes home with a little chocolate brown Orpington - who is named Coco after the duckling who left home a few weeks ago. She is about 17 weeks old and, man, she is cute. She's also tame and really friendly - GB and Cleggy love her!

....not so the other ladies! Poor Coco, all innocence, sweetness and light, seeks out the ones who look like her and hops over to introduce herself...

The ladies (and honorary lady Gladys - who now clearly has ideas above her station) literally stand and stare - all beady eyed! You would think Gladys would be pleased - after all, with Muriel gone she is current bottom of the pecking order...

At first they just look - but before long the games begin and they give her a really hard time. So like high school! Coco resorts to standing on the highest rock she can find...

Since the whole pecking order thing is completely normal we let them get on with it for a couple of days  - although they don't let her in the coop at night (she roosted in a bush)  and on day three took it one step too far and pecked her head so badly we had no option but to remove her and let her recuperate with Ned for the time being. 

When Cleggy took the boys to get ANOTHER duck (long story) Anthea the kindly duck lady suggested taking Coco with them and lo and behold stitched up her head in the comfort of her kitchen.

She then spent a couple of days living in our kitchen...

where she chose the highest point she could reach (the bin) and happily purred and cheeped at us until she went back to Neds.

She is clearly too young and naive to live with our mean girls so we'll keep her separate until she toughens up a bit...will keep you posted!

Photos of new duck next post!

Meanwhile, on the crochet front  I've become obsessed with finishing my first blanket and find myself saying 'just one more row' on a regular basis. (Bee - I LOVE a competition more than most - but it's practically done, I can't lie) Just some small stitching on of flowers then I'm all over the ta daaaa.

On the boy behaviour front, after a hard line approach to the general moaning and groaning of boys, the bad cop/bad cop response has worked and harmony has been restored. Obviously relative harmony, but a much nicer place to be.

We were delighted to be invited to the evening reception of G Kisby's sister Vicki's wedding to Dave. They both looked beautiful and, (almost) as importantly, very happy! 

The boys scrubbed up well (no mean feat), here we are at the beginning of the evening...

and here they are, less scrubbed later on(watching a magician)!

Nelly and Gaz looked beautiful too - here's me fav picture of them looking glam

Granny has taken herself off to Prague for a week (so proud of you Mum - hope you are having a fab time)

...and our neighbours have popped up to The Lakes for a few days. Now, there are many things a neighbour could ask of you on leaving; could you water the plants? could you feed the cat? put some lights on?

But the words 'could you pick some sweet peas and help yourself to the ripe beans' is surely music to ones ears!

 Cath and Ian have the most delightful cottage garden, and the scent of sweet peas fills the air. We have a loose reciprocal arrangement whereby we provide a clutch of eggs and Ian shares his crop of vegetables. So far this summer we've enjoyed new potatoes (butter and salt, heaven) lots of beetroot (roasted with garlic) and green beans (gorgeous in a salad) 

I took the opportunity to take some photos...

and our kitchen smells divine

We've also used our lavender to make sugar this year (basically chuck some flowers into a jar of sugar and leave to infuse) and yesterday made some delicious lavender shortbread (recipe here) which went down very well with a cup of tea!


And last but not least - Nelly and G Kisby brought Mabel over to use Granny's garden suite for a night away we're calling a city break (mind over matter!)

She's such a delight and the boys all enjoy making her laugh - none more than Kenzie (currently known as Hugh, since he loves his dressing gown as much as Heffner!)

 Oh yes we do!

fee x