jackpot day!

Hooray!!!!! The dishwasher arrived bright and early this morning!! By 9am it was installed and working!! Then to add to our delight the new vacuum cleaner arrived at lunch time!!!! Paul managed to replace the seal in the bottle trap under the sink and I pressed all the blocks I made at busy fingers yesterday!!! So a very productive day.
The new hens have worked out how to get up and come out of the pophole in the morning to get the corn and bread treats the other hens enjoy and even more impressively have worked out how to get back into the house at bed time! The first night I had to catch each one and post it through the pophole, the next night most of them had gone in by themselves but three needed shepherding towards the door. But tonight when we went down to the hen run all was quiet and they had all gone in by themselves. Now we just have to wait until they work out how to get on the roost by themselves!!
They are beginning to mix with our existing hens and work as a flock, I will know they are truly settled in when our existing girls teach them how to get into the field and then back into the garden where they know they should not be!
So far I have made about 52 9and 1/2 " D9P blocks , Samantha has asked for a picnic blanket size made into a secret cushion with handles!! I managed to sort out a bit more of the sewing room today and found more squares and half square triangles from previous projects. I have been looking at Bonnie Hunter's site showing how she uses leaders and enders to create units for her scrap quilts, I am sure I can use up some of these ideas with my odds and ends to make some 'dolly' blankets for Daisy. It feels good to use up the scraps I carefully saved, like having a 'free' quilt!!
The snow has nearly all gone now, it's been very windy and tonight a bit wet. The burn is really high and rushing with all the snow melt from the fells. We discovered the identity of the rogue dog who ate our hens, sadly it belongs to our neighbour who was distraught when she realised what had happened. She has very kindly made a donation towards the cost of the hens we bought in to replace them, and gave us a box of chocolates to say sorry. Although it was very distressing at the time, we know it happens, when you have animals  there will be times when they manage to get out and he was just being a dog.
Tomorrow we are hoping to go and see the new baby, little Lucy arrived last week! This week has flown by, I just dont know where the time went, but I have managed to sew most days.