Gardens, Chooks and Fairy Godmothers

Garden update..
Old Garden: In the ground, leeks, onions, potatoes, madder and Japanese Indigo. I'm not happy with the leeks as a few of them have disappeared. There were all in the same section of the row so I don't know whether they just didn't make it through the night or if a small, hungry beastie with a taste for tender leeks had a few nibbles.

Herb Garden: I need to dig this up tomorrow morning. It's full of things I don't want there, like Hostas! The daffodil bulbs, the Columbine and Lily of the Valley will get moved to the side leaving a nice space, with easy access to the house, in which to grow herbs.

New Garden: It still needs dirt! I've got rows of leaf mulch, green mulch and 700 litres of top soil. It needs more dirt. It might have helped some if I hadn't expanded it mid project! I won't have the time to do anymore to it until next week.

The chooks are growing like gangbusters! We put in this huge new feeder and they emptied the darned thing in just 2 days. We'll have to put a roost in there soon. I went in and one was roosting on top of the waterer. I had to clean off an awful lot of chicken poo! It would seem better to have roosts and to need to wash the waterer less often. They sure are a scraggly looking lot though, with their feathers coming in and the beginnings of combs.


A few weeks ago, I met a new spinner (new as in just learning) at a guild meeting. We were going to the same course, so I impulsively suggested we commute together. I didn't even think that she might be a chain smoking, junk food junkie with bad driving habits at first. At any rate, we hit it off and have a scary amount of things in common. The drive was one of the best parts of the whole week long course! She collects antique sewing machines.

Isn't this a beauty? It's a Singer 201-3. It's very similar to the sewing machine I learned to sew on, though that one didn't have the belt drive. I don't still have that machine unfortunately, which is something I have often wished I did. It was a very pretty machine and well, it was my 9th birthday present. So back to the pretty Singer 201. Yesterday at a guild meeting, a friend gave me this one! I'm so thrilled about this as it brings back lots of memories and I've always had a very soft spot for those old black Singers. The 201 does only a straight stitch, but does the best straight stitch in the world. I have an old Singer 15K (I think) and it needs work, but I have the accessories for it. I wonder if they will fit the 201? This makes me want to fix up the old treadle machine I've got. It was my grandmothers and I did a fair bit of sewing on it as a teenager.