Clover leaves, St Trinians Pullets and a backward wave

Clover leaves for pastures new today, he has been adopted by a chap who bought Duncan last year and will have a small group of females to watch over. The pullets from the shed are now happily sorted in the old buff house (above with Clover in the foreground)
They remind me of a bunch of St Trinian school girls, as they are constantly noisy and constantly in motion, Both Poppy and Clover have found all the excitement totally baffling and have stood outside their run for hours watching the hysteria.
I have taken an inventory of the field population this morning as I was watering the vegetable beds. The numbers of birds have fluctuated with a few older birds dying off recently so now I have 23 old birds, the original 7 dog attack survivors in the top run, Bunny,Mary and Roger the bullied bantams,Blanche and Haleh in their own little run,the 5 runner ducklings which are almost full grown now,the 9 original runners,Scotty, Poppy and the 5 female buffs, and the 12 new st Trinians hooligans make up 74 birds (Including Boris and Gloria of course oh....and the two unknown chicks in the shed)
I found a pretty neat Laura Ashley carrier bag tied to the garden gate this morning. In it was an egg order and a little package of cooked penne pasta all wrapped up nicely. It was a gift from a neighbour who heard that Susan the run down hen was having special "pasta" dinners to build her up. People can be very sweet can't they?
Chris is happy to be home and I am happy that he has returned after a week away. As he left for work this morning (he takes his moped to the local station down in Pretatyn), he gave me a small backward wave as I was walking back from the allotment.
It was a small gesture, but it moved me greatly.
After nearly a decade together, it is so easy to take each other for granted. It is also easy to let yourselves get lost in the every day life of bill paying, work pressures,home routines and family .
Sometimes a little moment like this morning's wave of goodbye can reinforce the bonds that tie you together, and because of that, is a small but vital lesson to realise!