life at the cottage

Well, life at the cottage has been really hectic lately. The beautiful warm weather has made all the plants go crazy and we have finally started eating some garden produce. carrots, peas, courgettes, and of course eggs.

up until yesterday only 3 of our chickens had been laying and we were beginning to think that janice would never produce an egg, anyway she must have heard us talking because she laid one. I am very pleased to have 4 laying hens as we seem to be getting through all our eggs. I never realised that we used so many. eggs in bread, cakes, drop scones, potato farls and that's not even counting all the other stuff like omelettes. they are also becoming really lovely pets each with their own personality. chicken mania stills reigns at the cottage.

we have had a few unwanted visitors in the garden lately, my artichoke plants are covered in black fly. they have been decimating my poor plants and to top it off i nearly killed them by dousing them in soapy water. in the end we decided to fight them off naturally with ladybirds and nematodes bought online from gardening naturally. lets hope they wage a good war and the right side triumphs.


I have also found some time to make a few bit and bobs that i have been planning for ages. the elastic in my old pj's had gone and i had been walking around with my bum showing half of the time. it was not a good look. anyway i knocked up these. not a real fashion statement but the pure comfort outweighs everything else and besides who's looking really when you're just relaxing round the house.


I also made this towel poncho for francisco. it is very snug and i am quite pleased with how it has turned out, and he seems to really like it which is the main thing. i really enjoyed working with towelling and think i will do some more projects for myself. i just wish it wasn't so expensive. so far i've not managed to find it for less than £8 a metre. if anyone knows of a cheaper way to buy it please let me know.

I generally spend a lot of my time on a self-sufficiency quest. this includes trying to rid our lives of nasty chemicals. if i don't understand what an ingredient is it makes me wonder why it's there. inspired by angry chicken, my sister stopped washing her hair with shampoo a couple of months ago and has got me onto it as well. the new system involves using bicarbonate of soda and vinegar read here for more info on the method, and the reasons why conventional shampoo is not good at all. on top of this i have also been very inspired by angry chicken's blog and have used her recipe to create my own deodorant. i love it and it works! i have been using it for about 3 weeks now and am very impressed. i scented mine with geranium and lemon and made a little pot for steph scented with pettigrain and sandalwood, it is a little bit more masculine. the pot shown here is for my mum as a late birthday gift. i think she will love it too.


ambika x