I'm procrastinating by coming here to blog. I ought to be ironing a few shirts for next week but I feel like sitting down a bit first, so the shirts can wait for a bit.

We've booked a cottage for a week's holiday. Now, that is something to look forward to! This cottage is one we have been to before and we love the area. This time we will be able to explore a few new parts of the region and maybe revisit some old favourites. A treat like this is a good thing to be able to keep in the corners of your mind and take out and think about when you're feeling too tired or are down about something.

The hens finally started laying again in the middle of the week. The eggs were rather small to start with but they are back to normal now. The fluffballs (bantams) have continued to lay one between them each day. My husband cleaned them out this morning and let them out for a run round the garden as he did so. He was the one who had the run round the garden, though, because they didn't want to go back in their runs when he had finished. This afternoon, I let them out again. When I was ready to go back into the house, I just called them, opened their run and they all came and went in as nice as you please. My husband's face was a picture. You can tell who is top hen round here.

Right, I am going to go and get that iron out now.

Well, it has been quite a week. It was very busy at work. We had another storm this Thursday and a further bit of sheet metal came off the roof. Hopefully the roofing contractors have us near the top of their schedule. Lunchtimes at work are manic with the kids banned from going outside. I've come home really tired.

Then on Thursday we discovered that we had been the victims of identity theft. It is an increasingly common happening, unfortunately. However the criminals actually came to our house and used it in their fraud. Not nice! And we have had to spend HOURS on the phone trying to check everything out. Ugh.

And my hens have not been enjoying this windy weather. The Warrens have not laid a single egg in the last 8 days. I keep having to apologise to the friends who count on me providing their eggs each week. The little bantams, who haven't laid an egg for months are suddenly providing us with one egg a day between them so at least we have eggs for our household. But there are not enough for anybody else. I've had stern words with them but I think I'll just have to learn more patience.

I'm back! It is two and a half months since I last blogged but I've been really busy. It has just been one of those spells when you prioritise in order to get through - and blogging just did not come high enough up the to-do list.

We had some fun on Thursday. In the storm, a section of the school roof lifted off.... We had to get an emergency roofing firm in to tie the roof down until it could be safely removed on Friday when the storm had died down. ~And we'll huff and we'll puff and we'll blow your house down! And we don't even live in an area which had severe weather warnings. I know lots of people here who had trees down in their gardens and loads of fences were blown down. The rest of the country must have suffered a lot.

I've had several people ask me for my spare eggs since Christmas. I could do with some more hens to keep all my customers supplied now. The bantams are not laying well except for Mrs Ratbag who lays about 4 a week on average. We're lucky to see 1 egg in a week from the other 4 bantams put together. We'll see how they do when spring has sprung. My farmer friend tells me that he knows what he would do with them and that he would have done it long since...