"A proper cup of tea" as we like to call it in this house. A full pot of tea and a jug of milk on a Sunday afternoon - nice and proper indeed! I have so many different flavours of tea in my cupboard, my favourite being the peppermint tea, followed closely by green tea and a whole myriad of various fruit teas. But there is only one "proper tea" and that is the black tea - although I am enjoying a decaf version of it these days, being pregnant requires reduction in caffeine so I'm playing it safe.

A real treat for me - relaxing, warming, tasty. We also, recently incorporated a new addition to this Sunday tradition and that is to treat our two puppies to a nice cup of tea too - they each get a little cup of cold milky decaf tea which they really love! Whenever I say "a cup of tea" their little faces lit up with joy and anticipation! Who doesn't like a nice proper cup of tea!

The chicks that hatched at the start of June were the first ever chickens that James and I hatched on our smallholding. It is incredible just how fast they are growing up! They spent the first 4 weeks in their baby brooder indoors and now the last week inside the nursery shed that James has cobbled up using some leftover wire net and pieces of wood. Today, however, we decided that it would be good to release them so they get used to the large field and start free-ranging. Little by little this smallholding is becoming nice and established and with that we are inching closer and closer to our dream of self-sufficiency!