EIE FLUD - toiletries, perfumes & life on the farm

Easter is full of symbolism - but one of the more basic Christian themes - is closure and renewal.

I don’t pretend to be in quite the same league as the Good Lord - but in a similar vein at least - I can say the Eie Flud is now truly closed for business.

The blog has become something of an inconvenience - something I feel guilty about - when to be honest I have a million things I need to spend my time doing.

It isn’t an end - but lots of new beginnings for me.

The time is right to stop and move along

To all who have contributed, enjoyed or bought from me - THANK YOU SO MUCH - you have been much appreciated these last few years.

I hope our paths cross again in new avenues - and be assured that me, the MD, Saturday Boy, Eldest and Youngest Eie Fludders - chickens, bees, sheep, pony, dogs, cat - the 2 gold fish will continue to blunder through our animal husbandry, small holding, business running and family life in inimitable style - with tears and smiles no doubt - but always with gusto!!

April 1st last year and we brought home our 6 rescued battery hens and we were so excited - looking back at photos of them - they looked pale, underweight, featherless and scared. But we were so pleased to have them - and they quickly took to freedom, sunshine and grapes.

Myfanwy;Betsy Coed; Red; Gwawr; Gwen and Blodwyn

They all looked different to us - each had a personality surprisingly - Shy Myfanwy, Bossy Betsy, Perky Red, Grumpy Gwawr, pretty Gwen and Blodwyn everyones favourite.

Today - short of a few weeks to their 1st anniversary only Blodwyn remains

Either from the effects of battery captivity, hungry foxes, destructive dogs, bacterial infection illness, or a terrible prolapse - one by one we have seen them go.

I expected - niaively I know - for them to last longer - to finally end their days peacefully in their sleep - not one of them has so far. When I found Gwen this week in a mass of blood and innards having passed quite the most ridiculously large egg - I really felt I would never keep another chicken.

I meant it.

But I do like keeping chickens - they are fun, productive, and just plain nice to have around.

But to look at a chicken that has been attacked by a dog or find what was left by the fox and know a personality or to have to hand one over  the humane dispatcher - however humane - I just think next time it might be kinder on us, not to have a name and personality - which on the whole has made the whole process of keeping our chickens that much more sad.

And I wonder - whether I will keep battery hens again.

Ever played that 6 degrees of separation game? I’m useless at it - but todays post is my version of it.

Last year I was diagnosed celiac which given the seemingly never ending list of autoimmune disorders I was picking up - was just lobbed onto the pile - so I’ll just give up bread I thought!

uh ohh! Apparently not!!

Before Christmas I was becoming quite ill - and it was clear that I had to take that Celiac label a bit more seriously - since then I have had to look at what and how I eat. 3 months on and I feel generally, a woman reborn. Its not so difficult to give up biscuits when you know how much better you’re feeling without!

Its also been a bit of a discovery, food wise. Good and Bad!

Ordering Amaranth and Millet from the Deli in Uppingham who were most obliging - bringing in the weird and wonderful for me to sample - the owner joked that I would be as well to just buy a box of Trill! do they still do that?

He had a point. This morning, in true Brit fashion, I boiled up millet flakes and amaranth (which even with a dummies guide I’d failed to pop) in milk and honey for breakfast. Budgerigars might not have taken to it - but Oliver Twist might have recognised the honeyed mush I produced!

I am happy to accept a few failures in the quest for those precious successes and it is kinda exciting. After 3 months of rice I am looking for new cereals that are gluten free. New textures.

I am in awe however of the versatility of rice - from flakes, puddings, rissottos to noodles - there are very few days go by when it isn’t in my diet somewhere. But after centuries in the paddy fields I can understand that the Chinese might be ready for a change - but instead of taking a tip from Peru or Mexico and having a go with Amaranth or Quinoa they have gone out at a tangent for more Western influence - we’re talking meat - loads of it.

I was quite nonchalant about the impending wheat crisis - only 10 weeks of stock, bread prices set to sky rocket - but thats ok, because I don’t you know!

Problem is that problems like these aren’t localised nor are they quite that simplistic -  the need for cereal for human consumption is far outstripped by the need for cereal for livestock - the food chain is out of kilter - home grown farmers are too busy tied in to hedgerow management and set aside - or other such EU strategems to keep them from producing whilst economically, there is this insidious seduction of China to take on board the very worse that the West has to offer - meat, big cars, unchecked economic growth at certain ecological damage…and British/American Tobacco finding rich pickings amongst a never ending populace.

Bowls of rice, bicycles, farming and chewing on bamboo will be distant images….but China can at least give up on the one child policy because they will be dying in their droves - if the smog doesn’t choke their lungs out - BAT will be there to fill the gaps, and mad cow disease and clogged arteries bringing up the rear.

Saints alive! I would  never have been this journalistic on a bowl of Weetabix!!

I haven’t seen any lambs yet.

Generally I would say thats a good thing from my personal point of view I hate to see them huddled bedraggled in the snow in early Feb.

But spring is around the corner and I have been gearing up to have a look at the bees - have they survived the winter? Are they in need of a feed?

I think I live in a very good part of the world for bee-keeping - well sheltered, with a lot of varied feeding opportunities and little in the way of competition from other colonies for precious resources and by implication I’d like to think reduced chance of catching apiary nasties.

I always get the distinct impression from the old guard at the Association and from reading books that a fondant feed is looked down on - not as nutritious and something of a cheat. But I have always found a block of pre bought fondant works wonders in my hives.

Well mine have survived the winter. They look young and healthy, so I would imagine the queen is laying already - I didn’t look in the brood chamber I think its still a bit early, a bit too cold.

I have been sent this week the Thornes catalogue for 2008 and I already have my wish list for this year. There might not be any lambs around but it really is that time of year and I’m in a much better shape hivewise this year than last and I am really excited.

This is the Manor Crown Business Park in Bourne, Lincolnshire.

This is also the second home of Cumulo Accountancy and Taxation - because as of March 1st- one, becomes two.

For the MD - this is a natural Blofeld progression - to world domination.

For me - its a shock to the system!