Just a quickie…

…to introduce the latest Bubs Bear available to buy on Misi. She’s made from Cath Kidston’s Rose Sprig fabric and is completely adorable.

 

Feeding time at the Mutterer’s Zoo

I’ve spent some time hanging out with my girls this morning…in the garden. It’s amazing how they can change in just a matter of weeks. Remember poor Flopsy and her lack of feathers?

 

Well that was just 3 weeks ago, and now look how beautiful she is today…

 

Now it’s poor Snowy’s turn to be shivery and cold, she’s lost about half of her body feathers and all her long tail feathers so her bum is all rounded instead of pointy!

And look at how Lisa has grown up, back in August she had no comb or wattles…

but now they are big enough to challenge the boss JT for top position in the flock…

It’s quite cold and damp out there at the moment, so me and the Littlest Mutterer thought we’d treat the girls to some warm spaghetti, one of their favourite treats.

Quack…did someone mention spaghetti?

I wonder sometimes if Annie thinks she’s a chicken…

…but she clearly doesn’t like spaghetti…

Did you ever see a sheep looking so dejected?!

She tried to see if the camera tasted nice instead…

It didn’t…

*sigh*

I think she’s a little confused and needs to be with some other sheep. When I was cleaning out the chicken house this morning, the chickens were all traipsing in and out being nosey, so she followed them…through the pophole! It’s not much bigger than a cat flap and she nearly got stuck! And then she tried to follow me indoors when I’d finished, and I got this look from her at the gate…

…”are you leaving me?”

Poor Annie! But it won’t be long until she’s ready to go and find some new friends. When she came to us 8 weeks ago, we were bottle feeding her milk every 4 hours throughout the day and night. We have gradually reduced that amount as she started eating more solid food, and today will be the first day of just one bottle! I fed her at 8 this morning, and she will have to wait until tomorrow morning for the next one. After a week of that, we will stop the bottles altogether and keep an eye on her for a few days. If she’s ok, then it’s off to Ferne where she can be with other sheep and goats and finally learn what she is supposed to be.

It’s a hard life when you’re a sheep…

I was grumpily doing the washing up earlier (I detest washing up) and glanced out of the window and saw something which banished my bad mood immediately. I grabbed my camera and then perched on the worktop, I hung out of the window paparazzi style to take this:

 

 

Half an hour later and she’s still there, fast asleep! I know if I go outside she will immediately jump up to come and see me, so I’ll just leave her be.

Then I popped upstairs to show Mr Mutterer the photo, glanced into the girls bedroom and saw this in their wardrobe:

 

 

Oh, to be a cat! To spend all day snuggled up in a warm and cosy cupboard with not a worry in the world!

A Seth Surprise!

After a whole day of me and Mr Mutterer chanting “you don’t know where you’re going!” in sing-songy voices, last night I took the biggest Mutterer on a surprise birthday treat for her 9th birthday. When we got in the car I told her she could be in charge of the music for the journey. The first CD she chose was an album called “Kitty Jay” by Seth Lakeman, “He’s my favourite” she muttered to herself. After that had finished, she chose “Freedom Fields” also by Seth Lakeman. I teasingly asked her if she liked Seth Lakeman then, and she replied, “I don’t like his songs, I LOVE them!”

So you can understand her expression perhaps when over dinner I showed her exactly what her birthday treat was…

…seeing the man himself in concert at Salisbury City Hall!! She was also amazed when I told her how I’d emailed Seth’s record company and told them that she was coming to his concert, and they sent a signed photograph for her…

We had found the venue earlier and I’d had to steer Biggest Mutterer past it whilst pointing in the other direction so she didn’t see these big posters!

After purchasing the obligatory band t-shirt for a ridiculous amount of money, we got to the front of the queue…

Now if I’d have been on my own, I would have raced to the front of the stage as soon as the doors opened…but I’d seen how lively Seth’s concerts can get and I didn’t want to end up with a squashed child, so we went to the seating halfway back and got a great seat about level with the stage and high enough to see over the standing crowds. And luckily nobody sat in front of us so we had a really clear view.

And despite being very tired, the birthday girl was so patient. Seth Lakeman came on stage at 9pm and played a fantastic set for the next hour and a half. He played some of our favourites and the Biggest Mutterer stamped her feet, and clapped and sang along with as much energy as she could muster! He also played some new songs which will appear on his new album. He said they start recording it on Tuesday, I hope they get it done quickly, I can’t wait!!

So at 10.30pm, very tired and a tiny bit sad he didn’t play her ABSOLUTE favourite song The White Hare, I tucked Biggest Mutterer up in the car with her pillow and began the long drive home. She’d wanted to hang around the stage door for an autograph, but I persuaded her not to! Oh dear…what have I started?!

I managed to get some videos so she can remember her first concert. A bit wobbly but they sound ok…enjoy!

Cath Kidston Bear on Misi

I have finally listed my first “ready-made” teddy bear on Misi. That’s her below, she’s so pretty!  Click here to see my listing!

I’ve also set up a Bubs Bears fan page on Facebook, and you can join that by clicking here!

 

 

 

Bye Bye Bears!

My bears are packed and ready to leave home.

They’ve got their little For Sale tags around their necks,

and are just waiting to be bought.

They are going a few yards up the road to the village coffee shop.

They will be on display with lots of other local handmade gifts.

But I’m worried.

Little children frequent that coffee shop.

That coffee shop sells very sticky chocolate cake.

Little children who go there end up looking like this…

and this…

but more worryingly, like this…

(ok, so this is mud, but you get the idea!)

My poor bears.

I do hope they get put up high out of reach!

Munty Burning

After weeks of cutting, pinning, stitching and stuffing, I gave myself a day off from bear making today. So did I put my feet up and watch a movie? No, of course I didn’t. I went and spent over four hours in the drizzling rain doing tiring manual work without getting paid for it!

Mad fool! I hear you cry. But I loved it. You may remember I did a similar thing back in September when I was clearing a pathway for the Forestry Commission. This time we were doing work for Somerset Wildlife Trust at a lovely place called Munty Nature Reserve. The origins of the name are unclear (or maybe the Wildlife Trust people just didn’t have a clue). I have tried Googling it to see and have come up with the following:

1) According to the Urban Dictionary “munty” has many definitions – to snuggle up; really awesome; to feel very rough after a night out; to nibble; an ugly person; plus one other definition which shall remain unsaid on here as my mother reads this! So maybe Munty Nature Reserve was frequented by really awesome ugly people who liked to nibble on things and snuggle up when they were feeling a bit worse for wear? No, I dont think so either.

2) Or maybe it is home to the Munty Flumple (?!?) which apparently is a little dough-brained chump that likes everything. It wanders around and stares at things, instantly falling in love. Sounds familiar, but I don’t think I saw any of these today:

 

 

So, I’m none the wiser.

Anyway, our job today was to clear a large patch of gorse and brambles to let the pasture regenerate. Some of my American friends didn’t know what gorse was when I mentioned this on Facebook earlier so you can find out what it is here. Munty is a 25 acre site which used to belong to the local Water Authority. It has a spring fed stream running through it and they used to pump the water from there to supply the local area. They gave it up a few years ago and the land is now privately owned, but the Wildlife Trust lease it and keep it maintained. As they are a charity they can apply for funding to help with the cost of maintaining the land. They receive just £400 a year, so rely heavily on volunteers like us to help them.

The first thing we all noticed as we descended down the hill into the pasture we would be working in, were all these mounds (apologies for the quality of the photos, I had to use my phone to take them) :

 

 

I was really surprised to learn they were ant-hills, as the only ants nests I have seen have been completely under the ground. These hills are made by the Yellow Meadow Ant, or the Lasius-Flavus…this little chap:

 

 

Apparently common in central Europe, these ants live mainly in meadow or lawned areas. The Wildlife Trust man informed us that the fact that there are so many of these ant-hills all over Munty is a sign that it is a site of ancient pasture that has never been ploughed or treated with any chemicals, as the ants just wouldn’t be there if it had. Another sign was plenty of Wax Cap mushrooms. I’m told that they come in a variety of bright colours, but the ones we saw were like this:

 

 

It felt quite special that we were standing on land that has been undisturbed for hundreds of years!

The Reserve is home to some Shetland ponies who are there to graze the land. We were told that they might come and see us, but if they did the guys would rig up an electric fence around where we were working because the ponies would become a hindrance as they are very nosey! But obviously today they were being more sensible than us and sheltering from the rain as we saw no sign of them at all.

We worked solidly until lunchtime, by which time we had cleared most of the area we had been asked to do. The men got all macho about the fire lighting and you could see they all wanted to be the one who got the flames really going! An almost impossible task as it has been raining for days and everything was soaking wet. So we left them to it and eventually they succeeded and we had great fun piling the gorse up high and watching it burn…when we could see through the thick smoke that is!

We had a great day. We were all filthy, scratched, and stinking of smoke, but it was very satisfying to see what we had achieved.

 

 

 

 

Another mad fool, my lovely friend Kathryn:

 

 

 

 

And to round off the day nicely, just as we were picking up the little Mutterers from school, we saw a very fleeting glimpse of this beautiful rainbow. It only lasted a few seconds, but they were VERY impressed!

 

 

Bad Penny’s Giveaway!

Since I’ve been writing this blog, and reading many others, I have constantly been reminded of the kindness of people out there. It has quite often been when I’ve been feeling a little down-hearted, and it lifts my spirits to know that in this “me, me, me…I want this, that and then some more” society, there are still people who like to give rather than receive.

A parcel arrived for me this morning. A few days ago, a fellow chicken loving blogger Penny told me she was doing a giveaway of chicken related goodies, and all I had to do to enter was comment on her blog and tell her about my first pet. You can see what I wrote here. And much to my surprise, I won!

I took the parcel upstairs to open as Mr Mutterer has been ill and resting in bed all week. Penny had used sweet smelling hay to keep the prizes from rattling around so we now have bits all over the bed, but never mind! I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I unwrapped the little packages, but I never imagined such beautiful and thoughtful things as these:

 

 

There’s an egg cookbook (I was only saying a couple of posts ago I needed to learn some more egg recipes), two pretty china egg cups, a chicken doorstop (will come in very handy for our living room door which is constantly swinging open whenever it feels like it), a packet of Country Garden Stuffing to go with our Sunday Roast, some pretty paper napkins with hens on,  a wooden basting/pastry brush, and finally there are some yummy chocolate eggs (I should say there were some chocolate eggs, and they were indeed very yummy!).

So thank you Penny, I’ve had quite a dismal week and you’ve really cheered me up with your kindness. And it’s already got me thinking about doing a giveaway myself. I just need to think of a theme….maybe something sheep related?!

 

Sainsburys and Silly Ducks

I’ve learnt two things today:

1. Don’t go shopping in Sainsburys on a Friday, it’s very bad for ones level of calm.

I’d managed to put off the grocery shopping all week as I’ve been so busy sewing. I should have just spent ten minutes doing it online but I never got around to it. It was only when I heard the smallest Mutterer telling her dad on the phone how she’d had porridge for breakfast and tea that day, that I realised that I couldn’t put off going any longer.  The car park was completely full so I spent ages trying to find a space and the supermarket itself was full of people dithering or chatting in the middle of the aisles so it took me twice as long as normal to get what I needed. I did treat myself to a couple of dvds though to cheer myself up, “The Kite Runner” and “Pay It Forward”. There’s been a lot of talk recently on some blogs I follow (Sew Scrumptious and Amberlife) about Paying It Forward, so it will be good to watch the film again.

2. Don’t try chasing ducks around a muddy garden when you’re wearing a tight skirt, it makes the job of catching them much more difficult.

Our neighbours have gone away for the weekend and we’re ducksitting. Mr Mutterer hasn’t been feeling too good so I thought I’d let him rest and go and put the ducks to bed by myself. What a stupid idea that was! We’ve been spoilt with our ducks and the fact they can easily be herded into their house at night. Next doors ducks are much more mischievous and have to be trapped in a corner of the garden/cardboard box combo. Easy when there’s two of you, downright impossible when there’s just one. My first attempt saw four ducks scatter in every direction possible and me diving into the middle to catch duck number five. I put her safely in the house and went of to try and get the others. My gosh those ducks are fast, much faster than ours. They found so many ways to outrun me that I had to return home to get our big fishing net to try and catch them. By the time I got back, duck number 1 had got out of the house and was giggling along with the rest of them. So I’m there in my nice black skirt and wellies, its beginning to rain so I can’t see through my glasses, the ground underfoot is very slippery, and I’m almost certain the old folks in the bungalow across the road are having a really good laugh at me. I’m quite nifty with the net, even though I say it myself, and determined not to be beaten I managed to catch two straight away. Three left. One hid behind the duck house. One went in the pond. And one was nowhere to be seen. Oh great! I tackled the one in the pond first. It flapped and struggled and completely soaked me…but I caught it. I chased the one out from behind the house and netted it before it knew what was happening. But where on earth had the last one gone? I searched everywhere. The garden isn’t huge and I couldn’t work out where she had gone. Then I saw a flash of white squeezing through a hole in the fence. I dashed over and grabbed a leg just in time. If she had manged to get through she’d have been trapped in a gap of a few inches between the willow fence and the wall behind it which runs the length of the garden and I’d never have got her out. I’ve learnt my lesson. Tomorrow I’m taking the little Mutterers and my stepson for back-up.

In comparison, our menagerie have been a delight today. Our cuckoo Maran hen Lisa has taken a liking to Annie the lamb and has given herself the job of personal groomer. Any speck of dirt on Annie’s fleece is swiftly removed by a peck from Lisa. Yesterday she tried cleaning the mud from Annie’s nostrils which Annie didn’t seem to mind at all, but todays pecking was more focussed around her private parts and from her reaction I can only guess it hurt a lot!

Annie is getting heavier by the day so I hope that means she’s eating in between bottles. I did sneak up the garden path earlier to see what she was up to and she was eating out of the chicken food trough! I can’t stand up and hold her now as she’s just too big, but she’s more than happy to sit on my lap on the garden bench and snuggle up to my neck like she did when she was tiny. I in turn do the same to her, she is so warm and snuggly and she has a very warm comforting smell. I think she must miss this attention now she’s outside on her own all the time.

 

I feel like I’ve hardly seen her this week with all the sewing I’ve been doing.  I’ve finished the fourth bear made from my Saints and Pinners fabrics. A very colourful bunch I’m sure you’ll agree. Fran at Saints and Pinners loved them and will be posting a picture on their own blog.

 

I’ve been invited to sell my bears via a new website which will be selling selected handmade items from the UK. They launch the website at the end of November so I will tell you all about it properly once it’s up and running. But in the meantime I can show you my first bear I’ve made for them. She (it has to be a she, it’s so pretty) is going to be the prize for their first monthly competition. I have also had to write a little bit about my bears, and set a multiple choice question and answer for the competition…and no I’m not telling you what it is, you’ll have to wait! All I can say is that the answer is found on my website, so hopefully it will be a good (and free) way of advertising what I make. So here’s the prize, a lovely bear made from Cath Kidston fabric…isn’t she adorable?

 

 

 

 

Blonde or Brunette?

Annie is trying out a new look today it seems…

 

 

…I’m not sure it really suits her! And you’ll see she’s getting rather cheeky and sticking her tongue out for the camera!

She’s getting so heavy now I struggle to lift her, but she still loves her cuddles and takes great delight in leaving my hair all sticky with saliva! I’ve just come inside from having a cuddle and she nearly fell asleep with her head on my shoulder. It’s been so amazing having Annie here and I’m really going to miss her when she goes. A friend just asked me if I’d do it again. If she’d asked me two weeks ago when I was up to my eyes in poo covered towels and soggy carpets, I probably would have said no, but today it was a resounding YES!

 

More Bears!

I’ve finished the second blue and white bear, and I think you’ll agree, it’s definitely as cute as the first one. And I’ve finished the Cath Kidston fabric one too, she’s very pretty and I’m sure she’ll be snapped up by someone when she goes on sale.

Just one thing missing…

One of the best things about having our own chickens and ducks is all the lovely fresh eggs we get. I can’t wait until the spring when they will all be in lay again…we could have anything up to 17 eggs every day! I’ll have to start thinking of ingenious ways to use them! If we’re lucky we may start getting some goose eggs too, although we probably won’t eat them, we might see if Betty can hatch some little goslings!

But look at all these lovely eggs…

 

 

…there’s just one thing missing though. A lovely pretty eggcup for them to sit in! Here’s a very cute one…

 

 

…and it could be mine courtesy of the Dorset Cereals Little Blog Awards if you lovely people keep on voting for me!

This months competition finishes today, and after being pipped to the post last month, it would be so lovely to finally win. Of course I can’t do it without your help though so, if you’ve loved reading about Annie our wonderful little lamb, or if you’ve enjoyed the jam-making stories, or drooled over some of my lovely fabrics…please take a minute more to click here and vote for me. If you enter your email address Dorset Cereals will enter you into a prize draw to win some of their delicious goodies (I’m having their Fantastically Fruity Roasted & Toasted Muesli for breakfast…it’s SO good), and they promise not to bombard you with emails unless of course you want them to!

And before I go, a huge thank you to all those of you who have voted already…for those who haven’t…please get voting! xx

Evie’s Bear

You may remember a while ago I posted this photo…

…and I said you’d have to wait to see the finished bear as I didn’t want to ruin the surprise for it’s new owner. Well, despite the postal strikes, the bear has safely arrived at it’s new home and I can now show you all how it turned out:

It’s been made using baby clothes belonging to a little girl called Evie, and this will be her 3rd birthday present. Unfortunately I have to wait until the very end of the year to see if Evie likes it as it isn’t her birthday until 30th December, but her mum Sarah was absolutely over the moon! It’s good to know I made someone smile today

My bears have really come a long way since making the first one nearly five years ago. As you can see from the photo below, it’s been very much loved (read squashed) by the smallest Mutterer and desperately needs a bit of TLC before it’s legs and arms fall off, but I think that just adds to it’s charm!

 

Meet the Mutterers…

Seeing as Flopsy had a post all to herself yesterday, I thought it only fair that I introduce the rest of our girls too. I had been meaning to do this a while back, but then Annie came along and rather took over! It’s only right that I start with the boss, that’s JT…a Light Sussex who definitely rules the roost. I think you can tell that just from this photo!

Our next oldest is Snowy, and as you can probably guess from her name she’s completely black (that’s what happens when you let a four year old name a chicken, but at least she wasn’t named after characters from Barbie films like the last lot of hens we had). Snowy is a big gentle Silver Sussex and she follows me everywhere when I am working in the garden, as she knows wherever I am there’s bound to be something nice and wriggly to eat. She has a very distinctive low voice and I can recognise her even without seeing her.

Then we have the three Cream Legbars:

Flopsy,                                                Mopsy,                                            and Ploptail.

They are quite quiet and kind of just blend into the background and don’t make a fuss. They aren’t over-friendly but they aren’t shy either. Two of them lay bluey-green eggs and one lays light pink.

One of my favourite hens is Lavender. She is a Lavender Maran (as you can imagine it took us ages to decide on a name for her!) and she has the most beautiful soft grey feathers, and black legs and feet. She is quite bossy, and very springy and despite having her wings clipped can still manage to get over quite high fences by jumping!

In the summer we bought five “baby” chickens who have yet to start laying. There is Goldie, the Buff Orpington. She is a massive ball of feathers now with a very tiny body underneath it all. When she runs they all swing from side to side and it reminds of an old lady with a big fat bum waddling along! Goldie can be quite soppy, and when she first arrived would happily sit on my lap for ages.

Next is Pipsqueak, a Silver Laced Wyandotte bantam. She is still small enough to sit in the palm of my hand, but my goodness she’s fast and noisy when she wants to be. If you pick her up, she screams blue murder!!

This one is Lisa, she’s a Cuckoo Maran and also very springy like Lavender. She can often be seen wandering around on the trampoline. Like Snowy, she has a distinctive voice and if I say “will you sing for me Lisa?” she will burble a little tune. She is becoming more brave as she gets older, and has realised that following me around the garden can reap rewards. Unfortunately she isn’t as patient as Snowy, and starts to jump up and peck my bum if I haven’t found anything for her yet.

And last of the babies, we have two more Orpingtons: Spooky who is white, and Kathryn Splash Baker II (don’t ask!) who is splash colour. Both are quiet and spend a lot of time at the back of our deep shrubbery beds looking for things to eat.

Sadly, back in September, we lost our beautiful Welsummer “Pleasance”. She had lost weight and was very subdued. She was trying to eat but it wasn’t making enough difference, and despite worming her and trying all manner of things, she had gone too far so we put her to sleep. The little Mutterers were keen to replace her with another Welsummer as they loved the colourings of that breed, so we got Penny. She is still quite nervous of us and runs as soon as we go near, hence the blurry photo below!

Not being content with just chickens, we have five ducks too. They were more expensive than the chickens, but have proved they were worth every penny, as we have spent many an hour just watching them bathing, waddling around and generally being amusing. It’s better than telly!

Maisy and Puddle are White Campbells, and Daisy is a Black Swedish. They all share a house and go round in a gang (and have been known to get a bit frisky with each other in the pond!)

And our little call ducks are Liz and Dilly. They are extremely cute, but I do wish they would shut up sometimes! It’s a good job we have nice neighbours who like ducks, otherwise I think we’d be in trouble!

And lastly of course we have Frank and Betty our Embden geese, and you can read all about them here.

Featherless Flopsy!

I just wanted to show you all these photos of one of our Cream Legbars…Flopsy. I knew she was moulting (as are some of the other hens) as it’s that time of year, but when I went out to feed them earlier I noticed just how many feathers she has lost in the last couple of days! The poor thing was shivering!

 

 

Above is Flopsy back in August…below is Flopsy today!

 

 

It’s no wonder she’s stopped laying! She needs all her energy to grow some new feathers before the weather gets really cold. Flopsy lays the most beautiful blue/green eggs, but it’s been a few weeks since we saw one. I do hope she starts again soon.

 

Invasion of the bears…

My desk is being taken over by bears! I’m sitting here with nine of them watching me. Even though they are all made to the same pattern, have the same eyes, and (almost) the same nose and mouth, they all seem so different. Depending on the fabric and how much it stretches, some end up quite small and skinny, others end up with big rounded bellies. I love every one that I make, but my newest favourite has to be this lovely blue and white one I finished making last night. In fact, I love it so much I have already started making another one from the rest of the fabric…I wonder if it will be as cute as this one?

 

 

Even the littlest Mutterer has been joining in the fun by taking pins out of fabric pieces for me…

 

 

I now have two more teddies cut out and ready to sew together tomorrow. The blue and white one, and a pretty Cath Kidston paisley and roses one (you can see the fabric on the desk in front of the sewing machine). I can’t wait to see how they turn out!

Annie’s new home?

We went to look at Ferne Animal Sanctuary today. It’s one of the places who have said they will take Annie when she has been weaned. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, it sounded lovely from their website, but you never know until you see it for real. It didn’t disappoint. The roads leading to Ferne were beautiful, driving through tunnels of autumnal trees and hardly any traffic, I had a good feeling about this place.

 

 

It was a lot more low-key than I imagined. I think I was expecting one of those “petting farms” that have sprung up everywhere in the past few years, where seeing animals isn’t deemed enough entertainment and there has to be bouncy castles, trampolines, big slides and junk food. But Ferne is a real sanctuary where the animals can live in peace. The first thing I noticed was how chilled out all the animals seemed, they looked happy and not bored like at a lot of animal parks. The horses were frolicking in the field next to the car park, and there was a chicken digging for worms in a massive pile of manure…my birds would have loved it!

We wandered around the sanctuary for about an hour and found all the places where Annie might end up:

 

 

In the field with the old sheep, with this beautiful view to look at…

Or in amongst the native trees…

Once she gets older, Annie would be put out onto pasture with the rest of the flock. This made me a little sad when I heard this, as it’s a part of the sanctuary where you can’t go and wander around so it means we wouldn’t be able to go and see her. But as Mr Mutterer pointed out, it will be much better for Annie to be on a lovely grassy hillside with lots of other sheep of a simliar age to keep her company.

Up until recently, Ferne was home to Chilli, Britain’s largest bovine. He was abandoned at their gate aged just five days old, and by the time he was fully grown, he had reached 6 foot 6 inches tall up to his shoulder! They have a life size painting there to remember him, so we just had to take the obligatory photo:

HUGE wasn’t he?! (yes, I know I’m short, so most cows look huge next to me…but really, he WAS massive!) I bet he was a real gentle giant.

Anyway, I digress. I think we may have found a very wonderful place for Annie to grow up. The animals are obviously extremely well cared for at Ferne, and that has set my mind at rest. I’m still dreading the day when she leaves us, I will be heartbroken, but to keep her would be very selfish as there isn’t enough space or company for her here, and it’s all about what’s best for her at the end of the day isn’t it?

Just look at Annie now!

I’ve been looking through my photos of Annie this morning and wanted to share these two photos with you all. The first one was taken when she was two days old on the first night she came to us. She was skinny and filthy and looked a sorry sight. The second was taken this morning in the garden, she is now four weeks old. Just look at the difference! And for those of you who know how touch and go it was for a while, you’ll understand how amazing the transformation is and how thrilled we are with her progress.

And just one more thing…I never knew that lambs had such beautiful long eyelashes!

Teddies and Trishia

Tonight will be the third night Annie will have spent in her new outdoor bedroom! She seems to be quite happy in the shed, despite the MASSIVE spider that is always lurking when we go out in the dark to feed her. I was worried the first morning when I let her out, as her ears were really cold. But I was told by a neighbour to check the base of her ear where it joins her head and see if that was warm, that’s what you do with with horses apparently. We’ve just checked her tonight and they are toasty and warm so I can relax a little more now.

We have started the weaning process. According to the instructions on the powdered milk packet, and in a book I’ve read, you can either wean slowly by gradually reducing the number of feeds a day; or by stopping them abruptly so the lamb has no choice but to eat other food when it’s hungry. I thought the latter sounded a bit harsh for a lone lamb like Annie who has been born in a season when the nice fresh grass has stopped growing, and there is no one to show her what else tastes nice, so we have gone for the gradual option. We have reduced the number of bottles per day from five to four, and have stretched them out through the day so she now gets fed every five hours instead of every four. In between I have been encouraging her to eat the creep feed pellets from my hand and she is slowly getting the taste for them. There is a plentiful supply of hay in the shed for her to eat too, but she still prefers to nibble at everything else instead. She also has a bucket of fresh water on hand every day but I don’t think she has worked out how to drink it yet!

While our dinner was cooking tonight I went outside to keep her company for a while. She did her normal routine of jumping up at my legs to search for a bottle. Then when she realised I didn’t have anything she just started nibbling at my trousers instead. She was desperate for some attention so I picked her up and gave her a long cuddle, while she snuggled her face into my neck and nibbled my hair! But my goodness, she is getting heavy! I must take the bathroom scales out and weigh her as I’m sure she is much heavier than the 5kg when the vet weighed her a couple of weeks ago. It won’t be long before I’m unable to lift her. It’s sad, they grow up so fast!!

Now she is fending for herself a lot more, I have been able to get back to my sewing. The local coffee shop want some of my bears to sell in their Christmas display, so I have two weeks to make as many as I can! So far I’ve finished these two, and have two more ready to be stuffed.

I’m really enjoying using different fabrics, as I usually make my bears from baby clothes or wedding dresses. These fabrics I bought from Saints and Pinners are so colourful, and are a great excuse to go delving into my drawer full of threads to find the right colour!

Today could have easily ended up being a very tiring and depressing day if I’m honest, not helped by the cowardly blog commenter trying to leave nasty comments again. But no sooner had I read what they had to say, than I received another email informing me that Annie’s biggest fan Trishia in the USA had sent another donation to buy food for Annie. Trishia is an amazingly generous lady, and she frequently restores my faith in human nature, and often at the time when I need it the most.

It’s a bit quiet round here…

Well, that’s it. The house is now sheep-free. Stop panicking you lot, she hasn’t gone completely…just out to the shed. I decided to take the plunge and enlisted the biggest Mutterer’s help after we got back from school. And actually, it wasn’t as big a job sheep-proofing the shed as I thought it would be (especially as my lovely neighbour said I could store my lawnmower, garden furniture, bikes etc in one of her sheds). So here’s the finished result:

Not bad I reckon. We’ll just have to wait and see how much damage she can do! I’m still a little worried about it. She’ll be plenty warm enough I’m sure, but she may get lonely. We’ll be putting her in there when it gets dark (about 6.30pm at the moment until the clocks go back) and will have to go out at 7pm and again at 11pm to feed her. When we start to reduce the number of bottles it will be easier, but she needs to start eating more hay and creep feed before we can do that.

This evening I will be doing my very best not to stand at the back door listening to see if she’s bleating for us. And just so I won’t cave in and bring her back inside the house, I have dismantled her playpen and put all the furniture back where it goes so there’s no way she can sleep indoors. There are plus sides to her being out there. No more washing her dirty bedding every day and my washing machine can take a well earned rest. No more risk of her kicking me in the face every time I lift her in and out of the playpen. No more being greeted by a rather pungent smell first thing in the morning.

But there will also be no more little lamb trotting around the house behind me. No more little lamb snuggled up at my feet while I sew. No more little lamb sitting between us on the sofa. And all that makes me quite sad. She’s only 4 weeks old and already she’s outgrown us and left home! But as Mr Mutterer told her when we showed Annie her new home, she doesn’t really belong in the house, and she’s out where she should be now. And maybe, if she gets lonely, I’ll stick a duck or two in there to keep her company!