Introducing Tilda... Monday 8th December 2014

Good morning friends!

Ha! I bet you thought I was going to share my latest Tilda creation? Wrong, a quick post today to introduce you to Cara's new coop mate.

Firstly though, thank you so much for your messages on my Bella post...I was welling up reading them, you are all so thoughtful.

It's hard when you are forced to go out and get a pet because one has died, but hens just shouldn't be on their own. If Tom had listened to me in the summer and we had got the two Orpingtons that I wanted, we wouldn't have had to...Saturday was busy, we had to zip over to Thornbury, a town close by, where Judy, who used to always be the stallholder next to me for the fairs we did in Chipping Sodbury(she makes lovely jewellery) had a stall at their street fair. Our Fairs didn't happen this year, but she had ordered some Christmas cards from me. We had planned a leisurely look around the Food and Gift Fair(which was huge and looked really good) and then a day in Clifton, Bristol...well of course that was out now!

We couldn't park, it was horrendous ..it took ages to find anywhere- so a quick chat with Judy, cards delivered and off to the bird farm. We could only get one hen as you aren't supposed to add two to one (even if Cara is a pretty tough cookie!) and I had decided on a Cotswold Legbar; they can hold their own, but at the same time are good pets. An Orpington wasn't an option because they are so docile and Cara is  a proper Diva with the temper to match. As it happened they had lots of Orpingtons and no Legbars.

I guess I always new we'd return with another Bluebelle - we have never not had one of these large, pretty hens..gorgeous hues of blue and grey when in full plume and so a Bluebelle it was to be. I picked one out..she had an unusual brown back with black spots, James the owner misheard me and picked up another and once she was in his hands it was fated, I wasn't going to ask him to put her back.

She seems pretty feisty and dare I say clever? She is in a nursery pen during the day and we have a very large coop, so I was able to divide the sleeping quarters during the night. She and Cara had a nasty spat once through the bars of the pen, but she held her own and she immediately worked out how to use the plastic corn ball toy, which all the others were afraid to go near for days.

For three weeks now we had been trying to teach our girls to use a new treadle feeder. They stand on it to open the feed dispenser and it stops unwanted critters from getting to the food, as they don't have the weight. They haven't wanted to know it, so I thought I would put in in the pen and see what happens - she ate from it straightaway. Of course the problem will now be getting Cara to eat from it when we put them both together..hopefully she will copy Tilda,  as one always has to have what the other is having.

The name? Well we hadn't had much chance to think and I've been making things from so many Tilda patterns over the last few months that the name is firmly embedded in my brain...so Tilda it is!

Thanks for stopping by, I will be back with craft tomorrow,

Love and Hugs

Carole X

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