Mrs Fox's Chickens

This Easter we got week old chicks from my little foxes old school, who take part in the Living Eggs scheme.  The scheme has been running for 10 years and gives schools and nurseries the opportunity to hatch their own eggs, to give children the opportunity to see that special moment when life comes into the world.

The children adore them and have named each one; Astrid, Anoushka, Agatha and Ashleigh.  Last week they moved out of their brooder into their new run in the garden.  Here they are, aren't they grown?  About 10 more weeks and we should be getting eggs.

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How Does Your Garden Grow - The garden's swan song

The last week has been BIG on pumpkins in the garden and the allotment.   Harvesting on the allotment; mostly potatoes, pumpkins, onions and beetroot.  There is spinach that will continue all through the winter, some leeks and onions, but, then that's it.

There was a surprise on the allotment.  I've no idea what this flower is, or where it has come from, it is in the scruff at the edge of the allotment.  Does anyone know what it is?

I have so enjoyed this linky, really, it is my favourite, and although I've not contributed every week I have read it every week.  So, a big "THANKS" to Mammasaurus for hosting, her beautiful photos, and my particular favourite 'Grandad's' beautiful veggie garden and all the other regulars whose gardens I have been inquisitively nosing around, "Thanks for sharing".  I am saying this as, with the weather proper cold this morning on the school run, I know there will be less and less to photograph in my garden and on the allotment.

We've been tidying and putting the garden to bed, cutting back our vine and roses.  Little Louis Fox took this shot of a rose on the weekend as we took the final blooms inside.

There are a few little flowers, like these cyclamen, still poking through in the slightly more sheltered areas of the garden.  I need to tidy my plants in pots into these sheltered corners, if they are going to survive the winter.

I really don't want to sound melancholy as I actually love the autumn.  The last foraging of blackberries.  Autumn walks with the dogs and children chasing leaves.  The colours of autumn.  Little Una Fox's veg art, that we are not allowed to move until she has taken 100 pictures.

One thing I really enjoy is preserving the last of the bounty from the garden. We make chutney, jam, pontack sauce, sloe and damson gin, freeze apples, blackberries, black currents and damsons, my kitchen is even more of a permanent mess than usual:

The last tomatoes ripening on the window sill, waiting to be turned into green tomato chutney.  The last, too far gone, blemished skinned, red tomatoes I roast with peppers, olive oil and chillis and make into my spicy passata.   I use it in chilli which we eat with corn muffins.  A friend with family in the US buys me Jiffy corn muffin mix.  It's the cheapest stuff going, probably not very wholesome, but I got a taste for it when I lived in the states.  It's great with really spicy slow cooked chilli.  And on that note I have made myself so hungry I have to go eat.

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Welcoming the Autumn

It's arrived hasn't it?  It's well and truly here.  Our front garden is littered with the leaves from our lime tree.  We squelch through the moulded grapes and decaying brown vine leaves in the garden.  The remaining tomatoes, still green on the vine, are heading for my chutney pan at this rate.  A few are still ripening on the window sill but...  It's Autumn isn't it?

I don't want to sound down about this because I love autumn.  Those first hazzy mornings are lovely.  The freshness in the air on our dog walks up on the fields makes you breath in deeply and thank your lucky stars for living here.  It's beautiful.  And as all around you dies, or falls asleep, it makes you glad to be alive.  I love autumn colours; the low golden light; the last blackberries.   There are things that you see more sharply in the autumn; like the mushrooms that appear all over the woodland and how rich and green the moss looks when all around starts to turn brown.

This Autumn is a little bittersweet for me as Little Louis Fox has started school full-time.  I am so happy for him, and he is already settling in with his new teacher and happy to be with so many friends that he already knows from nursery.  I am not going to be one of those mother's who feels redundant now that both my children are in school, makes jokes about "having another one..." and starts manically re-decorating.  But I do miss him.  I really do.

And, as our ceiling fell down in the back room last month there is a certain amount of re-decorating going on Chez Fox. Hee, hee!

Now they are both in school full-time it makes the weekends all the more special.  We are all together and meals are noisy and messy, and we visit and host our friends; the devastation that ensues is no better or worse than before but the clean up on Monday is a little more lonely.  (Yes I do indeed leave my housework until Monday morning!)

Last weekend we went for a walk in the woods, to one of my favourite places; Trent Park in Enfield, where I used to go with my parents, aunts and cousins when I was growing up.  The children had a great time building a bivy and we were hard pressed to coax them out of it, even after a good hour of mucky play.

And that's what is wonderful about autumn isn't it.  Before you get a chance to be tired of the chill, and the wet, and the mud, there is autumn.  All the positives of the chill - big warm coats, wet - wellies, yay! and mud - erm... (you'll have to ask the little foxes exactly what the positive of that one is) are here to be enjoyed.  

So, welcome autumn, nice to see you too, xxx.

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Oh I do like to be beside the seaside - Whitstable

The Foxes (All of them!), are now off on holiday, but here's what we did last week:

Photo by Penny Mayes

Hurray for the summer holidays and with this month’s crafty boxes theme being the beach we thought a trip to the seaside could not be missed.

We went to Whitstable and as so often when we go I find myself coming home to peruse Rightmove for houses and scour the train timetables into London for the hubby’s commute.  I love the seaside and dream of living closer to the ocean.

I love watching the little foxes amusing themselves on the shoreline, finding interesting stones and shells, ...

...and investigating jellyfish,

....and oyster mounds.

The children did not appreciate the oysters themselves but Mr Fox and I love to eat and drink the local beers at the Royal Oyster Exchange.  It can be busy, but the food is great and the beers from local brewers are delicious, I especially like the stout.  Kid’s portions are available, and although often busy it is the type of vibe tolerant of young families.  Being so close to the beach means you can save dessert for an ice-cream and beach walk to off-set some of those yummy extra calories.

And after we got home, little Una fox could not wait to make something from the shells she’d collected, more inspiration for this months craft boxes,  if you would like to order for delivery after 30th August, click HERE.  

There are so many things to make with shells and Little Una Fox has become quite obsessed using her book from her granny to identify them and collaging using old shell illustrations I have downloaded from the internet.  If you'd like to have a go yourself here are some for you to download, click on the pictures below:

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Crafting in the Garden

It was a funny old day yesterday wasn't it?

There are the little foxes at the beginning of the day, yes, those are snails all over her hand:

And here we were at the end:

All hard at work testing the crafts for this month's kid's craft box that we are due to send out soon and available for pre-order on the website here.

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Crafting with Boys

Today the other Mrs Fox and I have been slaving in the studio, in the hot summer sun, getting our next Crafty Box ready to head out the door to all our little crafty foxes.  Last month's theme was flying and we came up with so many ideas that we decided to split the box over two months.  So, last month was Flying Animals this month is Flying Machines.  Purely by accident this month's craft box is very boy friendly.

I can't be the only mother who has noticed the difference between girls and boys when it comes to making things.  Little Una Fox will sit and draw, paint, cut, stick, sew, knit, model, string beads, collage with flowers... the list is never ending.  And when she is a little bored she usually asks me, "Mummy, what can I make?"  And I know that Little Eve Fox is the same.  

My son, on the other hand, who is not a particularly 'boy-ish' boy, loves to get messy when he crafts. That is basically his criteria for a good time.  But that good time seldom lasts all that long.  He get's bored quite quickly.

Last weekend in the midst of the heat we pulled the garden table out of it's position under the pergola and set up an outdoor studio for the little foxes.  With tables and chairs, cushions and carpet, their crafting box with paints, scissors, glue etc and their easel.  We put them in old swimming costumes which were quickly shed, so that they could make as much mess as they liked.  They spent the whole day in the garden occasionally jumping into their paddling pool.  It was the most focused I have seen Louis when painting.  He was extremely proud of one particular picture and insisted on taking it into school on Monday to show his teacher.

I think that being outside and allowed to really make a mess gave him a real sense of freedom.  From little Louis Fox there was a lot of chat about cars, and garages with wheels and boats that could take cars on board, he really let his imagination run riot.  He painted picture after picture, sketching some of his ideas in pencil first, enjoying mixing the colours, and layering the paint on thick and fast.

It was great to see him really enjoying himself and crafting with zest.  He's asked to paint every day this week.  So, I am pretty chuffed with this month's box, lots to get him interested in crafting.  For from this month's crafty box we will be making; planes, catapults, 3D kite and hot air balloon pictures, flying saucers, helicopters, rockets and paper planes.  

Loads to do for the summer holidays!  It will be going out to our subscribers imminently.  If you would like to purchase one for a little help crafting with your boys this summer hols they are £12 (+£4.50 p&p), to pre-order  click here.

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How does your garden grow?

We live in an old house.  Just as our home tells the stories of the people that have lived here before us, so too does our garden. 

When we moved into our house the garden was a bit of a mess.  The previous owners had obviously stopped caring for it, at least during the long process of selling.  When they left they decided to have a big bonfire on the small lawn, take up the patio and dig up some large plants that they wanted in the garden of their new home.

In the garden that remained there was also clearly still the mark of the owner previous to them.  A man called John, who owned two Rottweilers, who is at least a generation older than us, an avid gardener, with quite a traditional English tastes in gardening.  My neighbour, Jean, who is in her 70's, often bemoaned the ‘lovely’ garden John had left behind.  She also told me about the Rottweilers who are apparently buried under some rose bushes.  John loved roses, had a veggie patch at the back and liked privet and little brick walls.  I know the latter not from Jean but from what my garden has revealed over the years.  

Jean’s garden is how I imagine mine used to look.  Boarders along each side packed with perennial shrubs and every flower of every colour she can fit.  A lot of hard landscaping, including a few 'interesting' statues and perfectly clipped lawn.  

I have two red rose bushes; a rambling rose and stately hybrid tea rose (I think) that marks the Rottweilers' resting spot.  Two white rose bushes; a climber (above) that we have not quite persuaded to take flight over the pergola and another hybrid tea rose (I think) with a dusky pink centre that is highly perfumed(below).

When we first moved in I was not a massive fan of roses, mostly because I am a little intimidated by them.  There seemed to be a lot you have to do to look after them.  I didn’t want to remove them straight away, mostly because I was a little scared of finding the Rottweiler skeletons.  But they were very thorny and I had an unsteady toddler.  They were also rather leggy, covered in black spot, whitefly and with very few flowers the first year.  But, with a little pruning and feeding they have worked their magic on me.  This year the white ones have just started to bloom and they have already made me glad I kept them.

And what I can’t show you is the beautiful smell; cut roses do not have it; rose water and eau de cologne doesn't capture it either.  But a bit of rain, a warmish evening and you understand why they are the flower of love.  The smell is so wonderful.  

So, thank you John for our roses, aren't they beautiful?

I took all these pictures this week and other than a bit of edge blur, I've only done digital touching up on this last shot.  I only say this because the beauty in the pictures really is entirely down to the beautiful roses themselves and some lovely light in the garden on Tuesday evening - thanks for the tip Mammasaurus.

And for some more gorgeous gardens this post is part of Mammasaurus', How does your garden grow... linky.

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Where is Elmer Fudd when you need him?

Photograph by Little Louis Fox

You see how our dog Beau (or Killer as we sometimes jokingly call him) is smiling?  Well that is because I just told him he IS allowed to kill rabbits after all.

Does that sound harsh?  I mean, Bugs Bunny is (or maybe now was) my favourite Loony.  I love those giant Belgian Hares in the children's zoo at the local garden centre.  One of my best and most loved friends and her beautiful children have a house rabbit, called Bun, who I will admit is gorgeous, and in a non-lapin-a-la-casserole kind of a way.  Come on, I am a Mrs Fox.  BUT...  

Image from: www.cimmarononline.com/hares

And I apologise to those of you, and your children, who have a bunny as a pet.  

I never thought I would be so intolerant.  I believe in non-violence, I do.  I love nature, the great outdoors, am an environmentalist through and through.  I believe in sustainable and organic gardening on my allotment.  BUT... Dogs are organic right?  And really those bloody rabbits are just not sustainable.

I went to the allotment after last weeks “How does your garden grow...” post and I spent a lovely afternoon planting up peas, onions (Yes, I know late, or way too early depending on how you look at it but it’s been a funny year right!) and beetroot.  I went back this Monday expecting to take some great pictures and do a little tour of the allotment for this weeks post.  And in the meantime someone had stolen the metal fencing along one side of our allotment, the rabbits had got in and had a party.  

Now, I am usually all for parties, love 'em.  BUT... not at the expense of my beautiful, carefully nurtured, diligently tended, much loved baby plants.  I cannot repeat what I said upon seeing the devastation.  I cannot show you a picture, because I didn’t have the heart to take one, and even if I had I could not have put it on this blog, because I couldn’t take the daily reminder of my distress.

Do you know how long it takes to plant 8 rows of 10 - 12 onions out?  That’s over 80 onions they ate, 80, aaaaaggghhhhh!

I have no love left in my heart for rabbits, I’m sorry.   

I don't much like the people who stole the fencing either, but, they are long gone, if I thought my dogs could take them on, well, I go no further as I could incriminate myself and my dogs.

So here are some pretty flowers from my garden, they are all that is keeping me from taking Beau and his girlfriend, Bea, over to the allotment right now to begin the Bunny Shock and Awe Campaign.

And just on a final note, I took this picture today, look at this daffodil, what a weird year, how often do you get daffs in June!

P.S. No rabbits were actually hurt in the writing of this post.  And if you want to see some beautiful non-rabbit devastated gardens whose owners do not rant, try here:

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