Daily Archives: 3rd June 2017

The Good Life, Revisited

There hasn’t been a tale from the hen house recently, because, well, there haven’t been any hens. Over Easter weekend, Mr Fox decided to help himself to an Easter treat, and took Ethel, Mabel and Doris. We were heartbroken, but at least we know they spent their last[…]

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3rd June 2017 / Mahala / Leave a comment / Tales from the Hen House / backyard chickens, cream legbar, hens, rescue chickens

This is Mahala

Who is Mahala? Business Owner; Sound Therapy Practitioner; Whirlwind; Wild Woman. Single Mama to Bean (15), Plum (10), PK (8); Diabetic Coeliac living with Fibromyalgia.

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Week 2 of the free jewellery making course I'm doi

Week 2 of the free jewellery making course I'm doing for fun. Today we made bracelets with eye pins and jump rings, inspired by Sherwood Forest.

#inspiredbynature #inspirelearning #alwayslearning #jewellerymaking #sherwoodforest #metime

So, today is Ganesh Chaturthi, the anniversary of

So, today is Ganesh Chaturthi, the anniversary of Lord Ganesha's birth - or at least his acquisition of the head of an elephant.

Ganesha was the son of Shiva and Parvati, and started life as a human boy, although even his original "birth" was a little out of the ordinary...

Parvati created him in human form, entirely out of clay and gave him life. At this time, Shiva was away in battle. Parvati asked her son to guard the bath house whilst she bathed and not to let anyone in. Shiva returned from war and tried to enter the bath house, but was denied entry - neither Shiva nor Ganesha knew who the other was. Shiva was furious at being kept from his own bath house and fought with Ganesha, eventually cutting off the boy’s head.

When Parvati left the bath house and saw that her husband had killed their son, she too was furious. Shiva was no fool, and knew he had to fix his error or incur his wife’s wrath, so he sent his men out to bring back the head of the first creature they found. The men came across an elephant who willingly sacrificed his head for the honour of bringing back to life the son of Shiva and Parvati.

Shiva bought Ganesha back to life and his story is considered to be one of rebirth and regeneration. He is worshipped as a bringer of luck and prosperity. He was also the God to help the gods and humans in keeping balance by bringing obstacles to block the progression of evil and removing obstacles from the paths of goodness.

And so today, I have celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi at home, in my own way. It involved making Modak - a steamed sweet dumpling that is said to be a favourite of Lord Ganesha, and also ladoo - Ganesha has a sweet tooth! These were offered, along with flowers and fruit, Ganesha was cleaned with rose water and I made him a garland of white flowers, and then decorated with kumkum on his third eye. I am wearing colourful clothes and am fasting until evening (although to be fair, I always fast on Fridays, as part of my dedication to Maa Durga)

I thought you might be interested to see my shrine as it was at the end of Ganesh Puja - it's a lot more colourful than normal!

Watching Twelfth Night in Sneinton Market

Watching Twelfth Night in Sneinton Market

Loved the look of these raindrops in the grass. Ca

Loved the look of these raindrops in the grass. Can't stand spiders, but they do make nice art.

#raindrops #cobwebs

Stuffing her face ... Ruby hot chocolate with crea

Stuffing her face ... Ruby hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows, with a cinnamon brioche bun. How does she stay so skinny?

Girls' day out 😁 coffee stop

Girls' day out 😁 coffee stop

I broke my cafetiere the other day and I decided t

I broke my cafetiere the other day and I decided to replace it with this beauty from Le Creuset. It makes me very happy!

#cafetière #coffee #lecreuset #gorgeous #lookatthatcolour

Son's rakhis from his sisters this morning #raksh

Son's rakhis from his sisters this morning

#rakshabandhan #rakhi #siblings

Happy Raksha Bandhan! Rare photo of my son and his

Happy Raksha Bandhan! Rare photo of my son and his big sisters not killing each other 🤣

#rakshabandhan #rakhi #siblings

I made this roule at my French fiancé's request,

I made this roule at my French fiancé's request, for his birthday a couple of weeks ago. He wanted the cake used for Bûche de Noël. I use the recipe from @my_parisian_kitchen but made it gluten free so we could all have some. The ganache was made with 80% dark chocolate, which in hindsight was a little too much 😂 less cocoa next time!

There so little flour in the recipe that changing to gluten free makes no difference at all in how the batter reacts, so it was just a straight swap and no other tweaks were needed.

#glutenfreerecipes #glutenfree #coeliac #glutenfreefood #glutenfreeuk #gluten #glutenfreecake #bûchedenoël #buchedenoel

At the request of my son ...

At the request of my son ...

She rocks a hat too. Not many can pull off a hat l

She rocks a hat too. Not many can pull off a hat like this! 😂

#rockahat #witchshat #festivalhat

My little dude rocks a hat #longhair #longhairmen

My little dude rocks a hat

#longhair #longhairmen #longhairdontcare #curlyhair #longhairedboys #rockahat #hat

Courgettes 3,4 & 5 from my sole plant (I are the f

Courgettes 3,4 & 5 from my sole plant (I are the first 2 before taking a photo!). There are loads more flowers, so I'll be inundated, as long as they survive the rain - every heavy downpour knocks of a couple of fully developed flowers 😔

#growyourownfood #growyourown #squarefootgardening #vegetablegarden #growyourownveggies #courgette #justthebeginning

Culture clash again ... According to my French fia

Culture clash again ... According to my French fiancé (ha, not used to saying that!), this constitutes cooked - or even overcooked - scrambled egg. Me, I like eggs cooked until they can't dribble 😂 mind you, I'd quite happily eat scrambled eggs that would bounce!

#cultureclash #clashofcultures #runnyegg #frencheggs #whatswrongwithcookingthem #callthevet

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