Rain,sleet, snow & good manners

The Good life is not always warm and fluffy

Not a bird in sight

It is still October and boy does it feel like deepest January. The weather was so rough this morning that I suggested Chris take the car to the station instead of using the moped and by mid afternoon it was freezing and snowing hard. The animals with the exception of Boris and Gloria, all retired to the warmth of the coops, and at the height of the storm I found my favourite duck Stanford (the only black female) trapped in the electric fencing. Somehow she had wrapped the wires tight against her wing, and with my hands blue in the cold, I had to cut a hole in the fence to free her.The runner ducks panic dreadfully when threatened, but strangely she remained calm and still for twenty minutes as I helped her out.

The sick Nolan sister looks poorly in the shed. I have treated her for worms, and checked her for an impacted crop and a nasty sounding condition called "egg bound" (I will leave that one to your imagination!!). She has had some antibiotics with a little water but no food today, so I doubt she will improve.I will take her to the vets tomorrow but perhaps it's just old age catching up with her after two years of strenuous egg production.

Not the best of photos but I did manage to snap Albert swinging on William's beard, during a rough and tumble this afternoon.I find it amazing that William in particular will interact with other animal species quite easily.

He has a particular interest in ponies and horses and will often go nose to nose with them inhaling deeply as they breath in and out in greeting, but will also sit still for ages watching the hens to-ing and fro-ing.

Today, with incredible patience William has allowed Albert to claw his face, bite his ears and kitten box his head, and never once did he loose his cool..

The village has been all but deserted today, and many Coal fires seemed to have been lit in response to the cold weather. The Crown Pub had its big fireplaces going full blast when I passed even though the place seemed empty.

Last night Geoff and I came a fairly respectable 6th place against the other regulars,and I had to smile at the locals' traditions of being parked in their own particular seats before the quiz starts.Whoa betide anyone who makes the mistake of poaching the wrong seat!

Pressure for seats is always an issue on Monday night, and some vague acquaintances of Geoff's tried to join our table without actually asking us if we minded. One opinionated women actually started to move the table and re arrange the chairs and seating to her liking,which I thought was incredibly rude.In the end I made it clear that I wasn't happy and we moved to another table...god I know I am a grumpy old git sometimes.....but I do hate rudeness in any shape or form..

Speaking of bad behaviour,..... the owner of the stables still has not turned up to pay for the damage his Alsatian did, the attack was over two weeks ago now....now if that was something William or George had done to his property I would have been round the next day...I will write the a letter about the matter this evening