News & Updates from Christine Dixon · Page 15

It was my hubby's 65th birthday this month and we spent the whole weekend with friends. We went on a two hour trip on an old Thames barge, despite the freezing cold weather. Here's a pick of the sails being unfurled.

Even though my hubby's nickname (the polite one, anyway) is Crow, this is NOT him climbing up to the Crow's Nest!

The wind made our eyes water, but we could pop down below to sup hot chocolate and get warm beside the on-board coal burner.

It was quite an experience.

Chickens do the funniest things! I have a large plastic plant pot filled with sand in my car port. Here is one of my Light Sussex hens who decided this would be a good place to have a nice dust bath.

Hope this makes you smile, it certainly made me smile. Doesn't she look quite cosy? We bought a Light Sussex pair and called them Salt and Pepper. This is Pepper and you have to be careful what you ask for in my house, pass the pepper pot now has a new meaning!

Spring hasn't really sprung in my garden yet. Our heavy clay soil is still so wet, that only a few green shoots are struggling through and a few poorly looking snowdrop specimens.

So, I thought an attempt at introducing a little colour was definitely required, without the need to try to dig the freezing wet clay!

Here it is, two pots of Skimmia, a welcome site, as long as my chicks don't decide to dig in the pots....

Years ago when I worked all hours in a busy office, I never dreamed that I would become an avid vegetable gardener and hen keeper.

We inherited two hens when we moved house in 2004 and I've never been without a little flock of girls since.

Now, my friends will tell you that I'm totally hen-centric. They follow me everywhere in the garden, even hitching the occasional ride in the wheelbarrow when I've emptied it!

What inspires a card design? Well, almost anything - but with love in the air as Valentine's Day approaches, I fondly remembered one of my favourite films Truly, Madly, Deeply.

Then I found this scrapbooking page I made of my goddaughter, truly, madly and deeply in love with her puppy.

Aaaaaah..... and decided to make a set of cards expressing this sentiment. They are suitable for all romantic occasions, not just for Feb 14th!