Eggs For Sale (by sarah)

We are now selling the eggs from our chickens 🙂 They are 25 p each or 6 for a pound. I am buying some egg boxes that we'll put our logo on etc... but would still appreciate the egg boxes people have been giving us for the eggs 🙂

Being ex-bats they have had all the innoculations etc... they are now happy hens wondering around in their new home being stroked by small children and given lots of veg to eat as well as their special diet to help them recover from their previous existence.

We also now have allotment (phase 1) at Primrose Vale farm shop so we are hoping to up the veg production this year 🙂 I'm still going to badger the council as I would like one that I can get to easily on my own, as well.

We are composting the chicken bedding so will have lots of lovely fertilizer 🙂

When it Rains It Pours (by sarah)

Yesterday I walked into town to take a photo of a burger - as you do, Jean loved it, my body not so much and a pain flare up had me crippled for the walk home, it didn't help that I got lost on route to where we were meeting Alaric meaning he had to pay and run back to work. I think I have labrynthitis again - I keep going slightly dizzy and my sense of direction has pretty much vanished.

It decided to tip it down on us on route too. It was a nice meal though and I got the photograph I needed and sat and knitted whilst Jeany read an entire book about a kitten which she kept filling me in on. The walk back was hard with hard sleety type rain, Jean described it as having tiny icy fists that it was punching us with.

Once home I discovered my email was broken once more meaning that it was a bit of a nightmare sending the images off for the group work 🙁 But I got round it and thanks to Alaric got it all sent before midnight - just.

But then it turns out the fridge freezer really does seem to be on the blink so I am going to have to do a baking day today which I really didn't want to do - I wanted to try and tidy - the space where the decorations go is where the tiles have blown off the roof and we still have no dinning room as the water is coming etc...

And then the tumble dryer breaks again this morning and it turns out she got hold of the play dough in the library again - ho hum.

Having said all this I've been looking at pictures friends are posting of the places they live and I feel a sense of relief that we only have a little leak etc... but again like the floods in 2007 I find myself wondering what the knock on effect of all these storms and the flooding are going to be on our economy. I strongly feel that they are linked.

Anyway - the day holds for me one toddler to entertain, washing to be done and hopefully dried, baking and some order making of the chaos that is the house - oh and hopefully some writing and college work (not holding my breath).

Writing 2014 (by sarah)

I really missed doing NaNoWriMo and the other writing challenges in 2013 due to my course - I still did well and wrote the equivalent of a small paper back but I want to really plough through the writing this year. With the five years of Monster Blogs there to help it shouldn't be too difficult but will not really get going until after my course finishes.

But there is a lot of work already up for people to read - several people have been asking me for the links recently so I thought I'd just pop them here.

Magenta Monster is flash fiction, short stories and serials and there are a lot of stories on there now and The Cavern is steadily going out - as a story it now exceeds the novelette range and is almost too long to ben a novella now! And I am still going strong with it.

A lot of the world building for my Punk story line is there in short stories under the category The Punks World. There are also plenty of story starters and writing inspiration I have shared for other writers to use.

My Poetry and Music goes out on Turquoise Monster, I tend to do a lot of poetry writing challenges etc... and if you want to keep up with what I am doing then there might be a good place to check 🙂

I'm aiming to release the Turquoise Monsters first poetry collection this year as well as Ballads of the Scientifica in double album mode. Along with the Muse Monster Poetry card game.

WoPoWriMo of course is still going strong - it had it's 5 yr anniversary last year so it is back to normal again this year. It's a writing challenge and community I help run so the blog needs sorting for that and I need to actually do the writing challenge myself. The site is full of exercises and ideas plus guest posts from various poets.

Orange Monster is my kidlit and illustrations blog etc... and this year it will mainly be about finishing stories off and illustration. I released The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry this year in physical form and hope to move forward with the Little Books in general and maybe collect together some of the other work I have been doing.

Jeany is also writing her book reviews on Orange Monster.

Red Monster is just a summary of what I've been upto on the other blogs and Blue Monster has writing exercises on for other writers. Yellow is my dad and Green is reviews of books and films.

Lime Monster is my gaming blog (mostly Minecraft at the moment), where I say what I think of games, progress I've made in some of the on going games and things I do inspired by the games like crafts with the kids etc... and also some fanfic too.

I have note books full of stuff for the gardening, DIY, Fashion blogs etc... but not really sure when I will have time to update them 🙁 Mainly I want to focus on projects that I can finish easily and get up and running.

I also want to make sure that Alaric gets a chance to do his writing this year.

And of course I am hoping to be doing some more science writing!

I think writing wise there maybe actually more editing than writing involved as I try and bring my novels into the world. I shall be prodding Al repeatedly about retrieving Dragon Hunter for me of the old laptop and I shall once again be attempting to type up The Drs Wife. I really really want to push ahead with the Punk series but realistically know it will always end up as my NaNoWriMo and GothNoWriMo projects!

The plan currently stands that we would like to have a week away together just to write for a 10 yr wedding anniversary but not sure if it will get to happen.

Knitting 2014 (by sarah)

So last year I knitted 2 bears, most of a creeper cuddly, heart coasters, tinsel, holly and the such like, I also made a pattern for my bucky ball but I haven't published it anywhere I as want to test it first - if anyone is interested let me know please 🙂

I tend to put the knitting stuff up at Ravelry.com I am 5affy on there if anyone wants to friend me 🙂 I do tend to be a bit sporadic with it though. I want to catch up and put all my knitting challenges on Salaric Craft but am so far behind now that is a major undertaking so we shall see.

Actual knitting wise I want to finish stuff off - there is the berry bear blanket which is for Mary and was supposed to be for her birthday - if I push the boat out maybe I might finish it in time!

I'm still knitting Jeany's Christmas present - a creeper scarf so I want to finish that first along with her creeper stuff toy which pretty much needs sewing and stuffing!

There is a science knit concept I am working on as part of my Science Communication course right now which is having to take priority. But if I can pull it off as an actual working thing is going to be awesome!

I'll be doing some quick knits like roses etc... to pop on etsy. The trouble is I get Wednesday whilst Mary eats her lunch after mini mice climbing to knit and maybe Thursday during film night plus odd bits here and there but it is all moving forward nicely and I learnt two new technics over Christmas.

Alaric is still clicking away at my tea cosy 🙂 And of course he is in charge of making the pockets for the berry bear blanket - but I think he has the sewing bug as I keep finding the sewing machine out and things fixed!

Jeany still loves finger knitting - so much so that I have given up on the concept of buying tinsel every again! She has just started with a knitting nancy peg doll so we shall see how that goes - she was rather taken with a rainbow or crazy loom thing she saw at a friends party over Christmas so I think she maybe saving her pennies for that at the moment.

I am also still working on my upcyle knitting loom to make upcyled shopping bags - we shall see 🙂

Doh Mummy! (by sarah)

Mary will be three at the end of this month, she tells me off in Lojban if I knock something over etc... she counts and she said her first lojban sentence over the Christmas period.

She has tantrums the like we've never seen with Jean and she screams, she also smiles and is cheeky cute and caring when she is thinking. She loves to look after baby things, dolls, teddies, cats (not entirely sure what the cats make of being tucked in and given toy kittens as their teddies but they let her do it).

She loves climbing sooo much and the little bears I knit her. She is shy of the other children but that is getting better and is part of the reason for going. She's moved up a section at nursery and is ahead an age group for most of their assessments. She is no longer behind on the social ones and has worked out that only certain people understand lojban etc...

She is currently learning colours - she says the correct one in lojban but not in English, she will hold up colouring pencils to me to check the colour and in general does this for objects she doesn't knwo. She is actively learning, seeking and exploring. She doesn't have Jean's patients but has fine motor skills and writes 'snails' as she calls them - these are spirals on paper.

Mary immitates sound really well, from chickens to engines to music, she sings and you know which song it is and she loves the hammond organ. She has opinions on what is good music and at the moment it is sadly Barbie Girl which she asks for and will dance too for hours, on loop.

Potty training... hmmmm somedays she is great others she is just too busy and doesn't want too know. She is naughty, pushing her boundaries and grinning whilst doing so - a contrast to Jeany who tends to accidently do things wrong. Mary says please and thankyou! Sometimes she gets them round the wrong way she has never said ta! Though she knows what it means.

She loves Gromit and Aardman animation in general, though what she really loves is She-Ra! And she holds her sword aloft etc... She will sing the theme tunes to things including the music of Harry Potter etc... enough that other people recognise it.

She is cuddly and clingy and full of character. And it doesn't matter where I had the plough dough - how high or low - she will get it and take it into the rooms with carpet!