Yesterday's chick project stands up to foxy scrutiny.

Yesterday you may have noticed that I moved the chicks from their rabbit hutch home into their own space, namely a piglet rearing room as was, now pretty derelict and unused, the sow's section is the feeding room with several large bins of wheat and barley for the animals.

Being the overly cautious and undeniable Virgo that I am, I gave the chicks the large dog cage to sleep in, as I can close them up in there securely for the night, then added a couple of surplus wire cages on top to block the doorway in fully.

Then because I am a real Virgo through and through, I also added a spare rabbit hutch door, which I wedged in against the hinges of the wooden door to the room, effectively blocking off all the gaps above the cage and the gap under the door too.

Feeling that they were locked in pretty tightly I went off to bed quite happy.

At 1.30am this morning I was rudely awakened by the cries of a fox, and our numpty dog barking his little empty head off.  I released said numpty into the night, and he actually ran in the right direction and managed to chase the fox off.  I checked on all our birdies and bunnies and they were all in one piece but by the door of the piglet room I could see that the rabbit hutch door wedged in place had been disturbed, but unbreached.  Score one for the Virgo traits within.

Speaking of our numpty dog, he will be 4 tomorrow.  He is a Border Collie who appears not to have inherited any of the intelligent traits common in collies but all of the bouncy energetic nature.

I know Borders can be difficult dogs to own, hard to train and control and they do have several down sides to their intelligence, but we have been very fortunate in our dog's temperament, and he makes a wonderful pet.  He has never worked as a herd dog, his natural inclination is to be herdee not herder, he has a small repetoire of tricks, and he is very conscious of his territory but not a guard dog as such, being more inclined to run back to you barking rather than seeing anything off his patch.

Anyway last night at 1.30 we were wandering around with a torch listening to the fox shouting at us from various fields.  One of Arthur's tricks is to bark, run a tight circle and return on command, so we were wandering the lanes and I was sending him into fields randomly with him barking his happy little head off then coming back and being sent off again.  I think he thought his birthday had come early.

Needless to say he is doing the sleep of the dead now, taking on the appearance of a great big smelly rug across the front door.  May have to consider some form of fox chasing reward for his birthday treat tomorrow.

Today's gardening projects already completed, garden weeded, potatoes treated, colorado beetles squished, tomatoes transplanted, next lot of peas collected and frozen, poppy and sweet william seeds collected and redistributed throughout  the flower beds ready for next year.  Time for breakfast now.

Reasons to be cheerful - 1.. 2.. 3..

1. Another bright and sunny day, at 25°c by 10.00 am this morning, washing on the line, greenhouse watered, freshly cut wild flowers and mint decorating the house in huge fragrant bunches.

2. Garden finally growing well - stopped worrying about the things that are obviously not going to germinate and grow, just going to sit back and relax and enjoy what we have, and today looks like a harvest of radish seed pods, the first courgettes are ready to eat too and an abundance of coriander in bloom.

3. Chicks have grown up well, all 10 have survived and have just moved into their new home this morning (what used to be the piglet rearing room, now with the door blocked off with a big dog cage), and in full view of the rest of the chickens so should be able to integrate them soon.

Here is Mama Hog paying the first visit just to see what food they may have, they are about the size of our bantam cockerel now, but I will feel happier letting them out when I think they can stand up to the other larger cockerel and not get bossed about too much by the Queen of the yard, Edith.

Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep (and a fat free cake recipe)

A bunch of new arrivals, 10 lovely little yellow chicks.

Yum yum for my tum - new arrivals means a cull of the older birds - the current count is 6 rabbits, 4 ducks, 4 chickens due to go in the freezer - just waiting for the rain to ease off.

With an early start this morning, I though I would get ahead of the game and have another go at making a cake for us to munch for elevenses.

This time I managed to remember not to try to turn it out before it had cooled and so managed to successfully keep the centre in the cake.

Citrus Fat Free Cake

150g of natural yoghurt
2 beaten eggs
225g caster sugar
orange zest and freshly squeezed juice from one half - or lemon or satsuma or grapefruit or whatever you have - a squeeze of prepared lemon juice in one of those plastic things will do at a push
225g self raising flour - if baking in France I use the Farine Fluide with a sachet of baking powder (leveur chimique - I don't use the Gateaux flour as I find this makes a heavier cake albeit that it is more crumbly)

As I make mine in the bread machine and mine has a cake setting it is very easy, throw in the wet ingredients, then the dry with the raising agent if using it last of all, then let it bake for the preset time.

If making in a conventional oven preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, butter then flour a bread tin, combine the wet ingredients with sifted flour until you have a wet runny lump free mix, pour into the tin and bake for 30 minutes or until golden.

Just what we needed with a cup of coffee when we got back in this morning.