How was your bank holiday weekend?

Mine was utterly fabulous thank you for asking.  The weather was just truly glorious and we were able to potter around the garden getting various chores done, sit and enjoy the quietness and views of the surrounding countryside, and spend time with our animals.  Who couldn't feel joy and contentment when you are surrounded by visions such as this...

Saturday was a bit of a hectic get things done day.  We had a grocery shop delivery and made a trek into town to run a few errands and pick up a few animals supplies.

On Sunday we had a new member of our animal family arrive in the form of Poppy, the beautiful Toggenburg girlie.  She is around 7 years old and pregnant, perhaps with twins, due around early June time.  She will be our first milking goat and we are very blessed to have been gifted her.  She was brought to us by a very lovely family, the mama of which I have been speaking to online for a long while.  It was really great to meet Jackie and her gang at last.

Poppy settled in pretty quickly, and after her initial "Argh!!  I desperately need to follow my mama and daddy down the drive" panic as they drove away, she was happy to stay with us and just amble around the place at her leisure.  Pixie and Rosie our younger girls really didn't know what to make of her.  There was a little bit of 'erm, I'm just checking you out' butting but nothing painful and I'm very happy to say they now graze side by side.

Monday's weather was just as glorious so we were outside in the garden from early morning through to dusk again.  We decided to have a day from any back breaking chores and instead just did the necessary animal ones as per usual.

The children pottered around us doing various things - talking with the chickens, spending time with the goats (Pixie and Rosie are still at the yay we will chase after you stage), and making use of the swing and climbing frame...

And we all enjoyed the presence of our feathered friends...

Poppy appears to be able to take or leave the company of Rosie and Pixie at the moment.  She won't actively seek them out, but will happily allow them by her side to graze.  She seems to prefer seeking out humans to spend her time with.  

She is already a firm favourite within our family and we love looking out the windows to see her ambling around munching on any nettles and brambles she is able to find (we have deliberately left parts of the land unruly and untidy to suit).  Every now and again we hear her call out gently and she will look as if she is searching for someone, often just appearing at the window with a kind word is enough for her to wander off and start eating again.  

She's looking pretty content and settled here already though don't you think?

Taisia thoroughly enjoyed the warmer weather and the fact that she was let loose with the hose pipe...

We bought her the watering can from a charity shop on Saturday and she love it muchly.  She potters to and fro the hose pipe to fill it up and sets about watering everything from her daddy's shoes through to the dog (being so hot the dog didn't seem to mind!)

We had to have a quick change of clothing when it started to get a little cooler as the little lady was drenched!

Taisia has been helping water the plants too and they are shooting up very nicely...

We have been gifted beetroot and chard plants from one of our neighbours as well as an animal husbandry book.  We really are very blessed to have such kind and generous souls surrounding us.  Our tadpoles have been returned to the pond from whence they came from, in the same neighbours pond, and we hope to be able to check on the arrival of froggies when the time comes.  They had started to form legs and we felt it was right to let nature take its course in their rightful home from here on in to give them the strongest chance of survival.

We have been busy making plans for the future and what else we wish to achieve.  High on the list of priorities appears to be a couple of ponies so I shall have to see how we can make that happen.  We need to rent a further bit of land first so will be actively seeking some in the local vicinity.  Exciting times ahead no doubt!