13-May to 19-May 2012

Sun 13-May: 'What's this?' says Samson, 'New girls?'. And he's right. Allotment neighbour Grenville emailed me to say a friend had four chickens available, giving up keeping them in their back garden, he was having two so did I want the other two? I'd been thinking of flock renewal so was perfect timing. Sectioned off part of the chicken run so they won't get henpecked until they're all more used to each other. When calling the existing chickens into the run they knew something was up right away and held back. Not so Samson, who after a short hesitation realised what was in it for him and shot over to display himself on top of a log, all feathers fluffed out. He then strutted his stuff along the temporary barrier, periodically making his noise indicating he's found a tasy morsel for the girls.

Mon 14-May: Here's our temporary kitchen, where Linda's been doing the washing up in a small bowl, with things stored here and in the dining room. Only another eight days to go... the granite man came this morning to measure up and confirm the worktop will be fitted a week tomorrow. The plumber/electrician will come a week Wednesday to finish everything off, and there'll be a transformation from scrabbling around every meal time to luxury cooking. Started moving a few things into the wire baskets fitted in just about every kitchen cabinet. I'm pushing for a storing convention so there's strong logic to where everything goes... Linda sees this as her perogative and is 'mildly' resistant.

Tue 15-May: Was surprised to find the new chickens jumping/flying over their temporary barrier to be with the rest of the brood... swiftly welcomed with the occasional chase and peck. An egg had been laid in their temporary home and the brown chicken (named Pecky by Sam) obviously knew what she was doing... she went into the chicken coop and laid her egg in the nesting box the other chickens use! As this image shows, Samson joined and started courting her with only one thing on his mind... can see where the phrase crooning comes from. But when she exited the coop he was left inside, gently crooning to himself for twenty minutes. Back outside, he was ready for action but his attempts to catch anything wearing feathers wasn't too successful this time. The new chickens happily hopped back into their temporary home when our visit was over.

Wed 16-May: Did a variation on the Houghton walk by walking along the north side of the river at Houghton Mill and wandering through the meadows back to the path to St Ives. Stopped off half way for a soup and cakes lunch at the mill cafe. Here's the view from our favourite seat in The Thicket. Doesn't look much, but sit quietly in the sunshine for about ten minutes and small signs of the wildlife start creeping back... not much this time, but on previous visits a busy fieldmouse under one of the logs, dragonflies flitting around in the shade, ants, spiders, a wren.

Thu 17-May: Been trying to hold off doing a OMED image of the kitchen until it's fully finished, but after yet another day tied to the house while the plasterer did the two walls I'd walloped the old tiles off, had to take this image. Looks much better now, ready for wallpapering if I can find a stylish enough design (they're all soooooo boring!). Minor problem... looks like the plasterer slightly marked one of the cabinet doors with his aluminium steps. I've let him know and will be on to the kitchen man tomorrow to see if he can suggest a solution. Update: Panic over... the mark is actually pva glue which should come off in time.

Fri 18-May: Here's Paige and Connor this evening sharing a bag of chips, chatting away to themselves. After tea at Becky's it was round to Beth's to babysit. Off we went to the local field with Sandy, Paige on her bike and Connor with football in hand. Connor went into the chip shop to buy the chips and got an extra bag to share out with Paige. After half an hour playing with friends on the way back they were off to bed by around 21:00.

Sat 19-May: Here's the first purchase of replacement contents for the kitchen... a 44 piece stainless steel set of cutlery. Wandered into Townrow in St Ives for yet another look at pots and pans, toasters, kettles etc etc and spent twenty minutes handling the cutlery on display. Was really taken with the design simplicity and weight of these... plus they were reduced from £200 to £70. Will really have to try hard not to photo every replacement we buy, but since my mission is to buy lots of style and colour, snapping away may be something I find hard to resist.