Farmhouse cooking and The Great Escape

Halleh has amused me all day by deciding to join the small flock of hens that survived the dog attack last year. As they moved around the field on their scavenging hunts, Halleh gamely waddled after them, rooting in the grass when they did and resting in the shade when they wanted to. Even Rogo seems to have accepted his presence with some alacrity. Below Halleh next to Rogo, Belle and Linda at feeding time

It is half past eight and I have just sat down after a busy day. This evening I have been jam making! (no one tells you that hot jam is like lava!) and I was pleased as punch with my four proud jars of strawberry jam! Before that I have laboriously picked all of the pods from the pea canes and with George for company shelled the entire bucketful whist sitting in the sun.

Shelling peas reminds me very much of my childhood. It was a job Janet and I sometimes did with my Grandmother, and the boring job was always livened up with her embroidered stories of wartime Liverpool!

Today I just had George and LBC for company. The other dogs couldn't brave the hot sun and lay in the shadow of the Church wall.

My sweaty efforts to cordon off the graveyard from the runners yesterday seemed to be in vain today as despite the fixed netting, all nine of the noisy buggers found their way amongst the gravestones time and time again!. I couldn't work out just how they were breaking through the netting, so after chasing them back into the field for the third time, George and I set up camp behind the turkey house to watch just how they did it!

The nine ducks were crafty, they grazed the grass on the field for a while, but ever so slowly they made their way to the top right hand corner which annexes the graveyard. Here they looked around nervously for a long time and then one by one, like commandos on a secret raid, they disappeared down into the ditch! (below)

I take back my usual inflammatory notions that runner ducks are thick as mince, as the nine of them negotiated the long and dangerous ditch and small brook like extras from The Great Escape. In true indian style they snaked their way silently with heads bowed, only to pop up 100 yards upstream in the middle of the graveyard chattering excitedly to themselves! It took ages to string another length of netting across the brook but at least they have now been contained!