Newness

3 new things: 

• Today, I painted our hallway ceiling. It has taken me considerable time and planning to get to this point, including persuading the husband that its a worthwhile job. Its actually been quite fun - helped that the hall is pretty small in terms of paintable surfaces. And already the ceiling looks great! So clean and not-quite-white. 
• Today, it rained. While I know that rain in itself isn't new, it has been so long since we had any rain that I've almost forgotten what a good solid 24 hours of rain is like. Its delicious. Also, thunder & lightning! Brilliant. 
• We have new chooks. They aren't brand new - we got them a few months ago, but the new thing is that they are finally all laying. We got one older chook (2014 hatchling) and two young birds. The young birds have finally started laying, lovely little brown eggs. They are Isa Browns, and are called Gingerbread, Whitey (thanks, 5 year old child!) and Baba Yaga. This is Whitey (white feathers around her collar), at the kitchen door. They are the friendliest hens I've ever known, and just desperate to be around us as much as possible. They also quite like the rabbits (you can see their hutch in the picture too), although the rabbits seem a bit puzzled by them.