The cat that has read but is now sleeping

Isn't this lovely? One of our regular customers gave it to us yesterday. He had seen it in a shop and immediately thought of us - the cat that sleeps having read the book.

We have had some lovely comments from customers recently, including:
'Le chat qui lit, le félin le plus rapide de l'Ouest' (the fastest cat in the west) after we had posted a book out in double-quick time.

Courtyard garden is taking shape

Here are three photos of our courtyard garden. The poppies and sweet peas are filling it out beautifully.
The photo below shows the amazing purple 'paeonyflora' poppies that I got in the cottage garden society seed distribution this year. The climber is a clematis.
The last photo shows the whole bed alongside the workshop. It will be lovely when the arches are covered - hopefully by next year some of the climbers I have planted will be up that high.

chickens kittens & sheep

One of the hens has gone broody. You can (just) see her inside the broody coop, above. We are calling her Mrs Peck, as that is what you get if you put a hand anywhere near. With luck we will have chicks at the start of August.

The sheep have started a routine of galloping down for their evening bite of food....

Eating the food as quick as possible, with maximum argy-bargy and searching in each bowl for the most food.. Then retreating back up to the main field, a bit more slowly than they came down.

Ma has decided to let us see her latest litter. There are 4 kittens, one black, one grey and two tabbys. One tabby is pale and smoky colour and one has very clear markings. They all seem to have blue eyes. They are 7 weeks old and Ma is starting to get a bit fed up with them. We think we have homes for 2, but if anyone wants one - let me know.

Here are the boldest two, the grey and black kittens, with the smallest of them all (the tabby) below.