Guinea Fowls, cicadas, gnomes and Halloween

We have two new friends living in our orchard that we are slowly planting with fruit trees.  Looks rather bare at the moment with  a few little citrus trees dotted about but we have plans!  The chickens and ducks live in this orchard of ours and now we have a pair of domestic guinea fowl too!

 Sitting on a bench at a nature reserve I felt water dripping from the Winter Senna tree above me.  I looked up and we discovered that there were cicada on the branch directly above us.  Apparently, the froth is produced from the cicada eating the sap from the tree!

 New cicadas!

 We found a little bat on our verandah one morning.  It seemed fine and we kept it in a dark drawer until evening and then released it on to the tree we near our verandah that we know bats like to hang out in.  Hopefully, the little bat was okay after that!

 I harvested a decent amount of chamomile from my herb garden.  Just love the smell.  And hooray for my own chamomile tea!

 We have one little baby chick called Sunny who joined our chicken flock in October.

 Noah has been busy creating himself a donsy of merry gnomes!

 

Our duck, Jemima has been sitting on eggs for what seems like ages.  One little duckling hatched and sadly died a few days later.  It doesn't seem like any of the other eggs will hatch.

 

And to end October, on Halloween, the boys carved fierce looking pumpkins and had a good time on a treat treasure hunt around the garden in the dark.  They then discovered lots of toads in the pond and spent ages sitting in the dark with a little torch watching the toads.

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. 

Happy Pumpkin!

We have been eagerly waiting for our silkie chicks to hatch.  For a while I thought none of them would hatch we seemed to be waiting so many days!  We have two broody hens sitting on eggs and since last week we have been waiting eagerly for our chicks to hatch.  Well, what a surprise on Halloween morning to find our first little chick.  Sol came rushing in yelling with joy on discovering the chick! We have called our first chick Pumpkin.  He is so small and beautiful!  How excited the boys were.

Sol made a little nesting box.  Good carpentry skills!  And drew sweet little chicks all around.  They fit into the box perfectly!

 We've moved the mother and chicks into the conservatory to keep warm although they are so warm under their mothers wing.  It is amazing to watch her tuck her chicks safely under her wings. 
We have four altogether now and the fifth has just started cracking through the egg this morning.  
This is the first one we will see in the process of hatching and the boys keep checking besides themselves with excitement.  We can hear the chick chirping away from within the egg!
That will be Alabaster's chicks all hatched and then Snowdrop's four to follow!  Goodness, we'll be overrun with chickens!  The chicks so far are all dark.  I wonder if any will be white like the mothers or lavender grey like the cockerel, Dab-Dab.   

Back to Halloween. 

 Our Halloween pumpkins on Halloween.  Jedi carrying his pumpkin around. 

 Leo loving all the squishy pumpkiny slushiness.  Look, he has lost his two front teeth!!

Later in the day, we bobbed for apples. 

I made delicious chocolate chip pumpkin muffins.

In the evening, the boys dressed up and we had a treasure treat hunt in the garden.   Still to make pumpkin pie.  Our little chick pumpkin made this a very special Halloween this year!

Pumpkin