Happy Easter: a market and a chicken story

Happy Easter everyone. Its Sunday here and day 3 of a lovely 4 days off work. How we need this time to recharge the batteries and keep on keeping on.

The weather has been great: clear and sunny with a genuine Autumn chill in the air but seems like rain may be on its way now. The Highlands have been inundated with visitors, which is very good for the local economy.

Yesterday afternoon we went, as always, to the Burrawang Easter market where they close the main street and transform a quiet little village to a teeming mass of stalls, people and dogs. It is the best market around with good food, lovely craft, classy products and happy people.

We stocked up on cheeses, local wine, cherry-almond shortbread, lime infused dijon.  To us the produce is always the best bit about a market.

I bought a darling doiley holder made of old tea coloured linen with hand embroidery, a scalloped crochet edge and satin ribbon close. This double layered cloth was designed to keep your doilies clean, flat and safe inside.  I have never seen or even heard of one before. It is so precious. 

I added to my African textile collection with a raffia mat from the Congo made by the Kuba people. Its geometric pattern is made with pulled raffia and has a course brush-bristle texture. I have another Kuba mat of a different style that I picked up in New York as well as many mud-cloths.

We were at the market for hours and merrily looked at antique stalls, hats, tea towels, food, cider and more.

Now I promised you a story about a chicken. It is Easter but its not the happiest of chicken stories although I'm optimistic it will end well.  Katie is the most accident prone little chook and has been convalescing in our bathroom for days. On Tuesday I heard her making the most piteous noise, rushed outside to find her trying to push through a wire fence. She seemed to have taken a fright to something and was determined to get to the other side of this fence and under our house. The first thing I noticed was her comb which is all bloody and droopy. But the real damage is to her wing which she has scraped badly. I won't share a photo of that. So back into the cat box in the bathroom to be kept quiet and away from flies and pecking.  She has barely made a peep ever since, but has been eating and drinking.  Anyway we decided we should let her have some time outside and see how she goes. She's outside now scratching around with Scully.

The funny part of the story is Howard and I trying to bandage her wing. I'm here to tell you it is no easy task!  Howard held her while I applied a non-stick dressing and wrapped a gauze bandage around the top of her wing. I used a bit of masking tape to hold it in place. Well one flap of her wing and the whole bandage went flying across the room. Hmm, not to be deterred from our mission we unwrapped the bandage and had another go. This time I wrapped the last bit of the bandage across her body, pinning her wing to her side.

When we set her outside I realised I had pinned both wings to her sides!  She has managed to shrug this off now but not the dressing on her wing. Poor chicken would probably fair much better without me trying to help her! We hope she comes good. She has been in the wars but is looking happy out scratching for worms.

The rest of my days off will be spent cooking, making soap, pulling a few weeds and generally enjoying the peace, quiet and relaxation of time at home. Whatever you are doing I hope you are enjoying it!