The view from my desk

 I have shown you the outside of KC INKS LTD http://www.kc-inks.co.uk/ I am not quite ready to show you the inside (need to tidy my desk!) but here is the views from my windows - yes I have two!  The picture above is looking down into Blackhall Yard, the tree is very beautiful in the summer, lots of people like to sit and enjoy the sunshine, not in March though!  I think I need to clean my desk AND the windows!

 It is bliss having such a nice view, our old office had no windows at all and it was like a goldfish bowl!  Now we are completely spoilt we have windows and skylights - its a wonder we ever get any work done!  This picture is the back of Black Hall, it is a very old building (one of the oldest in Kendal) and has two round chimneys, and I can see them from my desk!

This is the front of Black Hall, Kendal's first alderman lived here in 1575.  The building was renovated in 1875 and became a brush factory and has the sign of the Bristly Hog.  You can see him above the blue arrow sign in the picture. The next time it is a nice day I will go and get a close up of the hog, he is special!  I will get a better picture of the building as well you can't really make out the entrance to the yard in this picture, it goes under the two windows on the right.

A tiny daffodil

 Look at the size of this little darling!  Fran gave me a beautiful planter and I finally got round to putting it together a couple of weeks ago.  I had a couple of spare bulbs so popped them in a plant pot and this is the first flower!  A minature daffodil - spring is here!

That is my index finger holding the bloom up for you to see, that gives you an idea of how tiddy it is!  No I haven't got enormous hands!  I went a bit mad and have bought a nice selection of roses to plant in my border, my seed trays are planted too.  I have a lovely wide planter in the kitchen at the moment as I have planted night scented stock and I think it is still a bit to cold for it to be outside.  I am going to fill my planters with freesias, sweet peas and calendula this year, I'm sure I will add more as I go along!  John is waiting patiently for his tulips to grow, no sign of them yet!

A tragedy

I took these pictures of our beautiful doves on a lovely spring evening and the very next day a sparrow hawk took four of them within 24 hours.  It is sickening, the stupid bird didn't even eat any of them, just killed them and left them lying around, and yes it is definately a sparrow hawk, I know my birds of prey!

 They were so pretty, and went everywhere in a little band together, sometimes they were cheeky and when we fed the hens they would join in!  The hens couldn't get to the doves food though!

 When we got home from work and they heard us getting out of the car they would coo to us even when it was the middle of winter and pitch black!

 The really sad thing is that this one is the mummy and she was the first one that was taken.  The two chicks were just starting to get their feathers and luckily they are ok (touch wood!)

 Feeding platform, the one on the right is daddy, he has a pink ring on his leg.  He got taken about a week after the first ones.

The dove cote last night it was slept in!  We only have two remaining adults and the two chicks.  Luckily we have a large dog run and we moved the survivors into it.  Daddy was also moved into the dog run and did a very good job of looking after the babies until he took it into his head to squeeze through a tiny gap and escape and unfortunately that was the end of him.  It isn't perfect - but at least the survivors are alive.  There is room to fly (it is about 15' x 4' and nearly 7' tall so they are not in a tiny box.  The chicks are eating themselves now and growing up, I worry about how they will learn to fly.  I hate sparrow hawks.

Slightly late but Belle is feeling better!

Belle is now back to her normal self and bouncing around at top speed again!  Her eyes were very sore for a while, she was so good about having ointment in them.  She is just starting to loose her winter coat, not many hairs on the carpet yet but I know it is not long!  I took this picture as the sun was setting, you can see the glow on Belle's coat!

Little lambs

 I felt guilty that I used a picture of lambs that were not "ours" a couple of posts ago.  So here you have some genuine real lambs from just over the wall.  It was a beautiful evening and the little lambs were really having a nice time.  This mummy is looking after a couple of other lambs besides her own, they had just come to visit, their mum's were in the middle of the field.

 No 8 is a real cutie and was into everything, already nibbling a bit of grass and is the ring leader of his little group.

This is a view of the field - lovely and peaceful in the evening sunshine.  Most of the sheep are Texels, the black sheep you can see in the background is a Texel x Suffolk, she is a lovely girl, her lamb is to the left of her - yes it is white!

Meet some of the chooks

 This is our very smart cockeral, he really is beautiful.  Most of our hens are Old English Game bantams, the little black one in the picture is a bit too clever for her own good.  When I go to feed the birds (not the hens, the wild birds on the bird table) she flys up and tries to sit on my shoulder or my head to help me!  I don't appreciate it!

I took these pictures in the evening (the same time as I took the lamb pictures - I will put them up soon) and the light on his neck and tail feathers was really lovely.  His spurs are HUGE, I never really notice until I looked at these pictures.

He got bored of posing for me and went to sleep!  I suppose that shows how tame and friendly our hens are, I always see normal size hens and think they are huge compared to our little banties!  They are only about a foot high!  We used to have cochins and they were about three times the size!  Our hens roam all around the field outside our house and as soon as they see you they all come running, they like to be with you whatever you are doing outside, these pictures were taken outside the new extension we are building, they like inspecting the work!

Work work work

This is why I needed the Pro Plus!  John and I have been working non stop on the website, you can't see any difference when you look on there, it is all background stuff.  I took a picture of my computer screen to give you an idea, it is really boring stuff.

We have been putting lots of links on every page, that makes it easier for google to find and read all the pages.  It is very repetitive as we have to do the same things on every page, every single cartridge and every printer.  And yes there are thousands!

John and I started by coming in on Sunday, and we have been in early every day since.  We got here before the car park opened today!  It is weird though because by 10am it feels like lunch time, we have been working for four hours by then!  On top of that is the journey into work so we are good and tired by the end of the day.  We are about halfway through and guess what it is STOCK TAKE next week!  I have once again bribed my little sister Sarah to come and help out, luckily she loves it!

Look what I found!

Ok so I went to Boots to get some Pro Plus for work (will tell you about that later!) and I just so happened to see a lipstick called Belle!  I had to get it and luckily for me it is a beautiful sheer colour, nowhere near as dark as it looks in the picture.  Don't ask how I managed to be close enough to read the names of the lipsticks.... Well I had better get back to work, in fact I will do another post right now so you can get an idea of what I am doing..... it is not fun or interesting though!

From today I will be more organised...

Here is the schedule I have drawn up for the three blogs I am in charge of for work (no this is not one of them!) This is just for March and as you can see I have completed the first one!  Actually I have now completed the second (but not third) I have until the end of the day!  Here is a link in case you are interested in any of them http://inkandprintercartridges.blogspot.com/  http://www.kc-inks.co.uk/pages/Charity_Drive.html  http://www.kc-inks.co.uk/pages/blog.html  this little lot tend to keep my quiet for a couple of hours at a time!  I am very bad for not writing anything for a bit and then going mad and writing LOTS so I thought if I drew up a schedule maybe I would stick to it?  Well here is hoping....