Not chickensoup, that would be rude!

This pretty, old plate with the cherries belonged to my mother. I loved it when I was a child. Now my 5 year old grand daughter is enchanted with it.

The baked "snails" ready for afternoon tea, or breakfast, or morning tea, or....

The snails are ready to go into the oven.

Cut the snails.

Roll up.

Mixing the dough.

The ingredients for the filling. Sultanas and raisins, lemon and orange peel, organic sugar, Cinnamon ( I blend the sticks myself in my spice blender. I think they blend the ground cinnamon with something else, it looks different and doesn't have the distinctiv Cinnamon smell.)
Flaked Almonds for the topping.

My own recipe for Yeast Snails.

Ingredients:

500 g organic plain flour

1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast

80 g organic sugar

250 ml tepid milk

80 g butter

1 egg.......... from free range, happy, healthy chickens...better for your conscience and your health!

1 pinch of salt

for the filling

50 g sultanas

50 g Raisins

50 g lemon-and orange peel

75 g organic sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

30 g flaked almonds for the topping

100 g icing sugar

2 tblspoons lemon, (sometimes I use a couple of drops of bitter almond in 2tblspoons of water)

Make a soft yeast dough, but not sticky. Let it rise until double in size.

On a floured surface roll out to 1/2 cm thickness to a rectangle.

Mix the ingredients of the filling and distribute evenly on the rolled out dough.

Roll up from the long side.

Cut finger thick slices and arrange on a baking tin lined with baking paper.

Let the snails rise for 10 minutes.

Bake in the middle of the oven 200C ca. 20 minutes.

Mix Icing sugar and lemon juice, evt. a little more juice. The icing should not be to thick. Brush the still hot snails with the icing. Easypeasy!

The Angelinas crowding near the fence, waiting for their breakfast. All six now, the two shy ones are hungry too.

Unfortunately we are not allowed to have a cockerel in our estate. Cockerels usually say kikerki ...good morning at 4 am. In our world we can not ban cars, helicopters and planes to make 'brumbrum" at 4am, but we can ban cockerels. My neighbour had a cockerel and I heard him in the morning, it was a homely sound. Soon it had to go because cockerels are not allowed anymore to say good morning and have no place in our urban lifestyle.

Dwarf Minorka "Don Giovanni"

Zwerg Wyandotte "Biby

Chabos white "Pueper"

For a few days a couple of whip birds have made an appearance in my garden. I can't see them.They are shy birds and hiding in the tall, leafy trees. I can hear their distinctive calls. A long note followed by a whip crack. The call is a duet between the male and the female bird. The long 'whip' sound is the male bird calling. The short high pitched two note sound call is the female answering.

I am thrilled because I always could hear them from afar up in the bush. (Woodland, scrub. bushes and trees are called "the bush" in Australia. The bush has always a very strong earthy, leafy or flowery smell at different times of the year. When the Melaleucas, Paperbarks are in flower with their silvery blossoms teeming with insects, it smells a bit like cooked potatoes, odd.

To read: Planet Chicken by Hattie Ellis. It's subtitle is The shameful Story of the Worlds Favorite Bird. It is not a Hens World.