Update Monday

It is a case of the calm before the storm. Today looks as though it is going to be a beautiful day. The weather is set to change tomorrow for the entire week (surprise fu*cking surprise!), so I have had to get cracking with essential dry day jobs. Between 8am and 2pm I have cleaned out the majority of the hen houses, the shed, the quail cage and the outside store room. The dogs have had a four mile walk (they didn't have a proper walk yesterday due to all the Sainsbury's shenanigans) and I have just sat down with my first (yes first!) coffee of the day

I remember I promised to give you all an update on the characters of the field (charity work, weather moaning and lyrical blogging about Matt "be still my beating heart" Cardle seem to have taken centre stage somewhat, so with coffee up in hand here is a brief run down of the news.

Red (bottom left) and his five quail hatchlings have now all feathered up nicely in the shed., a few more weeks before they are set up in their own miniature enclosure on the field, the youngsters are growing beautifully and strangely for tiny birds are the most chilled out and calm animals I have ever looked after ( with the exception of Boris)

The runner ducklings (below) are quite another story..it took me an absolute age to creep up on the seven nutcases when they were sunbathing this afternoon....and still the photograph is not too clear. Although I can hear quacking, I still cannot ascertain exactly where the noise is coming from amid the chaos, so sexing the little buggers is difficult .....I need to get going on this as Dan in Huddersfield is ready for his babies to be set up in his garden........"patience grasshopper....patience" 

I photographed Gloria when she was half asleep in the sun this morning. For most of the year she has been moulting, and has resembled a somewhat shopworn old tart, but now just before winter, she has feathered up and looks quite beautiful in her virginal white.

 The ghost hens are the girls that have changed the most in the few months I have had them . They are huge bumbling birds that remind me of the maid from Tom and Jerry, what with their ham sized drumsticks barely able to keep their over bred meaty bodies upright and in motion, but their life on the field remains calm, unhurried and I won't apologise for making their short lives as stress free as I can.
One girl is already showing the signs of cardiac failure ( breathless with an exercise tolerance of say ten steps!) but they have survived longer that I have expected given their genetic make up, and that fact gives me so much pleasure, I couldn't tell you. Hopefully they will make it through their first winter.

And finally Boris!..... after his sexual over exertion and collapse of the summer, he has bounced back slowly after more TLC than I care to admit . I have made sure that he has corn every night when he is put to bed and the extra rations have allowed the old boy to pile on the weight he lost so quickly when he was ill.

This morning he sat with me for a few minutes when I tried to photograph him and Gloria, and snorted loudly in my ear like a randy horse.....he's a real sweetie!