What a dirty, messy day. We finally installed the chickens and Bovril into the old coop and cleaned the garden again. It’s been a mammoth task after having left the garden for three years! The chickens are now scratching away happily. We had a horrible week with a fox attack and lost two of our… Continue reading Dirty Day
Myrtle was the first chicken I lost. I felt helpless as the vet couldn’t diagnose. She couldn’t breathe and I read every book I could, but everything led to the same diagnosis, which I now know is not always right. It was supposed to signify gape worm, but I honestly now believe it was sadly… Continue reading Little Souls
Autumn has arrived here in France, the air is still humid and heavy rains fall. Its cow country snd pasture appears never to cease growing here, but after September it slows, the leaves start to turn their autumnal colours and we have a couple if beautiful months of bedding down for winter. I have a… Continue reading Bird October
During molting season, just finishing now, the poultry garden is full of feathers, sometimes like a soft snow fall over night. Meticulously I gather them, long, strong flight feathers and tail feathers from the geese, pure white ones from the pekin ducks and pretty patterned, spotty ones from Bovril, our guinea. The gingers, coffee, clotted… Continue reading Feathered friends
I have been very tied up with new projects involving fishes, a book commission for a lady in America and big plan changes re our future home. Therefore I cheated a little and I am reposting about my Naughty Goose, as very soon I will be working on adding more and given we added Louis… Continue reading Getting to grips with the goose
Every morning is a surprise here…some are misty, the coops slowly becoming visable as the sun rises and evaporates the damp air; others are cold, chilled with a tough layer of frost, buckets of water frozen solid and perfect to create ice scultures, the garden filling with little ice discs or the sound of torrential… Continue reading Winter wordless
I haven’t posted for a while and wanted to catch up with a few updates. It’s a longish post but bare with me…I promise over the next few weeks they will be shorter and very varied. A lot has been going on and I have exciting things happening. But it had to start somewhere….. In… Continue reading Pipi found me
Over the last couple of years the feathered gang has increased. From two flocks of chickens with a couple of rescue roosters, we have now nine boisterous Tolouse geese including our new rescue Louis ( was on the food menu, bought for meat and luckily the buyer regretted and asked for rehoming!), two guineas, seven… Continue reading Gates
Spent some quality time with Bumble today. We had him at just a few weeks, he was yellow, fluffy and cute and he was extremely playful and curious. His favorite toy was a squeaky pig and we would chase each other round the garden with this silly pig, him tackling me and visa versa for… Continue reading Bumble trouble
I have been absolutely useless in posting recently but I do have a few genuine excuses. The weather in France has been one long spring of rain, and although it is exactly what creates this beautiful scenery, meadows and cow pasture, it’s almost June for goodness sake and should at least allow me to remove… Continue reading Geese in the grass
I am very lucky to live near Aubusson, https://www.cite-tapisserie.fr/ the famous tapestry town in France. Felletin is just another twenty minutes further south and our brocantes are full of notions, wools and tapestries to snap up as bargains. I collect pre-loved tapestries too, always birds as they are my passion. Thistle Cottage studio will eventually… Continue reading Tapestry time
Last year I was given a box of baby guineafowl. They were supposed to be banthams. Billy Bantham my adopted, feisty cockerel needed girls. He had adopted the role of deputy to Ronnie roosters flock of Rhode Island hens as Ronnie had an amputated toe and found rounding up the girls at sunset difficult. But… Continue reading Pipi Pintade
Very excited to have at last designed my first fabric for children, and honestly for a great group of poultry loving homesteaders and keepers I connect with on social media. Getting great feedback. I have for a very long time had a passion for fabrics, especially retro, folk and pre-1920’s designs, plus the ubiquitous English… Continue reading Naughty Goose
Freezing today but luckily Penquin my Pekin duck had laid an egg. It was still warm and I held it in my pocket between feeding all the feathery family. My girls are now three years old and egg laying is sporadic. With the winter chill all the hens have slowed and from twenty hens I… Continue reading Boys will be boys
As a child my walk to school took me through a rambling footpath between mighty oaks and horse chestnuts. The latter supplied conkers that resulted in many bruised fingers from conker fights. Now this childhood right of passage has been banned. Shame, but it was actually rather dangerous. But also rolling around in leaves could… Continue reading Fallen leaves
Every year the feathered gang have a molt but sometimes its harsher. The damaged and worn previous year feathers are renewed and ready for winter. Sometimes the molt is so harsh, as is the case often with chickens, the regrowth resources so much calcium, any lacking it their diet is taken up from their bones,… Continue reading Feather memories
A misty morning should mean a mellow day ahead? Hardly. Our mellow is unloading two new cast iron stoves, bagging up our flurry of leaves for composting and making a new chicken ladder. The silly cou nous cant jump. These podgy naked neck chickens have no sense of balance and at bedtime literally wail because… Continue reading Little daily musings
Because I finally found my vocation…. Every day this chicken slave trudges through mud to do her egg collecting and cleaning duty. My bleary eyed morning routine at the farmhouse starts with a hot cup of English breakfast tea. Can’t abide that thin whispy Smokey Earl Grey stuff. No has to be robust enough to… Continue reading It’s a poultry thing
Yesterday was quite a day for the geese. In the morning I bought the usual lettace and tomatoes, but no geese. Called them. Tried to get excitement in my tone. Nothing. Then saw they were all quietly standing near the fence. Very odd. Entered the pen cautiously and walked over to the little goosie gang.… Continue reading Goose not on the loose
Pecan and Cashew are getting all feathered up. And the tufts on their heads look just like daddies!At that dirty grey stage. Ugly ducklings who will turn into beautiful swans..no I mean stroppy, demanding, clumsy, geese. Now we will have five rubbery footed guys yelling at us instead of just three.
Not just one little goslings hatched today, but a couple of hours later, another! After feeling immensely proud of Barley and Bonnie this morning, to have two little cuties….over the moon and back. Poor Bonnie suffering from lack of sleep. Having guarded all last night and today, he was starting to drift off. Get some… Continue reading And then there were two
Barley has finally decided she will brood. Could there be a tiny slither of hope that one of those large grubby eggs will hatch a mini version of a happy-go-lucky Barley crossed with an aloof tufted headed Bonnie ( Dad)? In three weeks we will know. Barley chose a secret spot near the chicken forest… Continue reading Your place or mine?
This week I had a delicate matter to resolve. Below we have an innocent looking tea-towel. An Irish linen one. Great at drying dishes and quite an old one. I think I may have even bought this from Harrods in Knightsbridge, London. Every January the sales are often with 80% discounts. The China department is… Continue reading The evidence is clear
Simply my lovely Tolouse goose Barley lays her eggs daily, carefully covering them with straw and twigs in an attempt to be a careful mumma goose. Except she doesn’t brood over them. Bonnie her mate (Sorry we thought he was a girl) doesn’t chastise her either. So I collect them and in return for the… Continue reading From field to plate
I really thought Barley had a false alarm the day before yesterday. Nest building all morning but no egg. Barley had found a quiet spot in the goose pen and had been trying to arrange the few bits of straw and dried grass there. Her nest efforts were a disappointment with such megre materials, so… Continue reading Poop an feathers: We have goose eggs!!
Today Barley built a nest. The geese have been extremely territorial recently and grumpy. Bonnie and Bumble have been hissing at every one and anything, including wellies, buckets, egg baskets, grain bags. But quiet Barley has been making a little spot to maybe lay her first egg? The geese are a year old now and… Continue reading Nest building
Our mountains to the South send strong, almost hurricane proportion winds across Limousin. Farm roofs take off, trees are uprooted and last year our garage collapsed. Today was no exception and the ominous drone above our barn made me uneasy. Wandering down to the garden for my daily coop clean and tussle with the hormonal… Continue reading At home and hurt
Snow finally arrived. The geese love it. Living inside your own goose down duvet makes you cuddly and ready for a big goosie hug! Bonnie doesn’t mind a bit. Orange feet go a little pinker in the snow but the girls seem oblivious. In fact it seems they tried to footprint every snowflake in sight!… Continue reading Snow geece
Who would have thought there could be so much fighting over a small rubber tub of water? Everyday clean water for geese to waterproof feathers and clean muddy feet. Geese relish a good splash about. Orange pond for paddling and a temporary small tub for floating in. Plenty of time to share? No. Bonnie hogs… Continue reading Feathers and Poop: Territorial
If there is one thing, or should I say 15 things that have kept me going this year, through all the stress and tiring train journeys from home to London so many times, then it’s my feathered friends. Whatever priorities in life I have, for the chickens and geese, they matter not at all. What… Continue reading Our little helpers
Geese have personalities. Strong personalities. Returning from England to three what seemed very similar geese, in just two months, we have “trois enfant terrible”. The three seem very content with us and each other, a Trois Mousquetaires, where one goes the other follow. The expectation of a noisy haggle hasn’t materialized, instead a constant chirrup… Continue reading All for one and one for all.
They say two’s company and three’s a crowd. Well when it comes to water and a miniscule tray to dunk your hot webbed feet into…even two is bothersome. In this case sharing is most definitely restricted. It’s not a pool, it’s a large drinking bowl. Useless. So feeling guilty, we scoured locally, dismissing children’s pools… Continue reading Pool side
Arriving back has been a roller coaster of catch-up. Mowing waist high grass, bonding with three young geese and spending time with the chickens. On top of this our barn is screaming to be worked on..we are very behind since time spent away but Tony has pulled out the stops and bedroom is livable. It… Continue reading Rubber shoes
Well one week and counting. I can’t wait. My girls are all growed up and shortly to have swimming lessons. As you can hear Tony hasn’t got the names yet…goosies will do for a while but if one needs to go to the naughty corner…I need to wag my finger at the right goose! Typically… Continue reading All feathered up
A French Homestead Life 