Inside the chicken coop: February 2011

Monday, 21 February 2011

Better than an Oscar!

I was able to give the girls some wonderful news yesterday when I was honoured to receive a 'Gold Framed Dog Blog Award'!

These wonderful awards are given out by Penny, a very special little Jack Russel who guest appears on one of my fellow blogger's wonderful and thought provoking site Klahanie on http://klahanie.blogspot.com/

She gave out this award to celebrate the love and respect for the beautiful animals that share this planet and give us every day, pure and unconditional love. My hens certainly do that and I was thrilled to be the recipient of one of these awards.

They bring me so much joy and laughter, purely by letting me share their world inside the chicken coop. They ask for so little but give me a massive return - not only by their adorable company but eggs nearly every day and the motivation to write about them!

Who needs an 'Oscar' when there are awards like this around?

Monday, 14 February 2011

Clucky in Love!

'Whoohoo! I got a Valentine card! Wonder who it's from?

'I got roses, how romantic is that? I can't see a message anywhere though. I wonder who sent them?

'Yum! Stuff the romance! You can't eat cards or roses and I dont care where they came from - just give me chocolate!'

Happy Valentine's Day from Inside the Chicken Coop!

xx

Inside (and out) of the chicken coop

Hello and welcome to my blog. I hope you have fun viewing some of the photos and stories, a lot of them are aimed at the younger generation, but hope will appeal to anyone who loves keeping chickens as pets. I have been keeping chickens for several years now, they really inspire my writing as they are very comical. My original hens inspired me to write my book 'One Hundred Ways For A Chicken To Train Its Human' which was published by Hodder and Stoughton in March 2007. Now this little clan keep me blogging about them.

Apart from my hens, I do write other stuff too, I am trying to get my Novel - Red Kite, Published but it's so difficult without an agent, and trying to find an agent is equally as hard. However I shall not give up - that's the one thing I am certain of. In the meantime I am writing freelance magazine articles and children's stories.

Gentlemen of the River - Phyllis Blakemore

I am very proud to announce that my Mother has just had her book published. ' Gentlemen of the River - The last Coracle men of the Severn Gorge' is a lovely book about the lives of the coracle men who spent most of their lives around the River Severn in Ironbridge. It spans the generations of the Rogers family who had a long history of coracle making. My Mom knew Eusty very well as she grew up in Ironbridge. He was the very last of the coracle men of that time. I lived there for some time too and he was a wonderful character. It was very sad when he died on January 31 2003 as a lot of skill and a huge amount of memories went with him.

The photographs show a glimpse of what life was like in Ironbridge before it was a major tourist attraction and helps to tell the story of an ancient craft which is still going strong with the modern day coracle makers of today.

It is published by Stenlake Publishing Ltd and priced at a very reasonable £7.99.

Barmouth 2009

We recently took my Mom to Barmouth for a weekend break and had hours of fun on the beach by drawing animals in the sand. We had limited time to create our sand art, as the sea was fast on our heels. My Mom really surprised me when she drew a perfect Micky Mouse, which I feel was good enough for any comic of today. Our chickens were not so good, and they were soon to be washed away by the tide, but the memories of that time on a deserted beach as three adults being children again will remain as a lovely end to the summer of 2009.