In winter, chickens dream of this.......

Is that a wood louse?!?

Yes, it is! (nom nom nom)

Did Violet just say she found a wood louse?

Gotta be one round here somewhere...

Did you know that chickens like to sunbathe?

It's bloody cold here today, minus two at four o'clock and falling fast after sunset. Being in a village on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds, we are forecast prolonged and heavy snow from mid afternoon tomorrow. Whilst  a part of me would like to get out on the allotment tomorrow and do some digging, clean out the greenhouse and so on, another part of me sees it as an excellent excuse to stay in the warm and sew! So, tomorrow morning will go something like; Make bread, supermarket, make soup and possibly a cake (loads of eggs) and then in the afternoon I will retreat into the back room and faff with my new sewing machine. i need to make a new bag for work and something to transport my lunch more easily. I'm designing two table runners, and I have a quilt to pin so I can start quilting. What excitement,  I am easily pleased!

The poor chickens though! For my three girls, Tallulah, Ruby and Violet, this is their very first winter. Today was their first ever snow, and they were not happy campers! Not even a bowl of hot porridge would lure them out of the coup first thing. On a normal day they will amble round the garden, looking for insects and keeping the grass trim; often I'll be sewing and have the strangest sensation of being watched. Looking up, all three will be eyeing me through the patio doors, beaks moving in a demand for treats that luckily I can't hear through the glass. Today however, I let them out when I got home from work and they immediately hunkered down in their sand bath, sheltering together and sharing body heat. Even before the sun went down they'd taken themselves off to bed. I have been told by other chicken keepers that they are resilient and are excellent at preserving body heat, but tonight I couldn't help it. I tucked them up at sunset with a hot water bottle in the coup, and hopefully they will be cosy and dream of last summer, and the one to come.