More mushrooms, chicks and old cottage

A miniature field of mushrooms.  I can almost see the little folk playing hide and seek amongst the mushrooms.

 Walks and explores along the riverside.

 This tattered fly agaric is the only one we have been lucky enough ever to see!  Always on the lookout though, every autumn.

 Happy yellow mushrooms!

Our family of silkie chicks are growing, growing.  Just look at them being so attentive!  They have grown so much more since I took this picture.  We have another hen sitting on eggs which should hatch soon.  We can't wait!

There is a deserted old farm cottage nearby.  I find it very intriguing.  No-one has lived in this little old home for over fifteen years.  The building is really neglected and tumbledown-ish with nature starting to reclaim the space.  Plants peeking in at the broken windows... but oh so much character.

Just look at the old clothes wringer,

 and the beautiful old stove, (not a good picture - sorry)

 and the kettle still there on the floor.  How busy it must have once been...
There is no electricity or indoor plumbing.  I asked the farmer about this interesting little place.  He told me that a brother and sister lived there for many years until they each passed away in their late seventies and that his family bought their land and home from them in their later years.  He fondly remembers as a boy visiting every Friday on baking day and enjoying the best homemade cake and bread made on that stove.  They lived very simply preferring to be without electricity, heating or indoor plumbing. They milked their cows, farmed their land, and walked to the village several miles away when they needed supplies.  I find it so fascinating to walk through the cottage.  The traces of their lives in this cottage, how they lived, their hard work.  Old horse harnesses in the attic, preserving bottles in the pantry, the cow milking barn.  It is sad to see this cottage and the little barns nearby in such disrepair when this could be a wonderful home although the farmer plans to restore some day.  The homestead is in such an beautiful, secluded spot with miles of rolling countryside around it, old oak trees here and there and the brook nearby.