Escaping hens,field update and Strictly......

The eastern side of the field has the formidable boundary of the old Church wall. Now most of it is intact and true but there is a crumbling gap of around three or feet next to my shed which needs repairing. I suspect it will never be touched as it is the responsibility of the Church to maintain it and dry stone wall repairs are prohibitively expensive.
Several of the hens have been using these collapsed stones as a staircase to enter the Graveyard and although they do no damage at all to the graves and floral tributes I am sure some visitors do no like the thought of skinny little feet and ever hungry beaks around for much of the day.(not to mention a loud slightly hysterical guinea fowl)
So I am now resolved to start the laborious job of fixing the gap but will need a bit of a mentor to show me how lay the stones properly......I am sure the ubiquitous Steve will be on hand to lend me a few pointers.......in the meantime, I will re cut the flight feathers of all 50 hens in an effort to keep their feet on the floor.It is another big job to add to building the new pig pen and setting up a new pig house.
Below some afternoon photos

Blanche and her ever growing single chick

Scratching Nora's ear after filling the pig house with autumn warming straw

Halleh, is now looking such a handsome duck

Tonight we enter the second night of middle class television bliss (am I right Nige????) With our individual cans of gin and tonic at the ready, we have settled down to watch the usual motley crew of "celebs" bounce around the dancefloor with egos at the ready!

This years pig-in-a-wig has to be Jo Wood......who I think, resembles a poor man's Ivana Trump without the brains.....god help her! and early favourites are Laila Rouass, chunky Natalie Cassidy ( with her Matt Lucas figure) and the slightly camp Chris Hollins (above wth Ola wearing a face flannel)