Mother Love and Community Council

Badger activity has increased on the field. I know there is a set in the rented grazing fields somewhere nearby and a single boar seems to be living under the old shed on an unused plot of land just behind our cottage.
They are, I will admit beautiful animals, but they are also hefty and destructive predators that will damage flower beds and hedges as well as killing any single hen that can be cornered on their nocturnal exploits.

This morning , I found that Cora's small broody hutch had been rolled over by powerful claws sometime during the night. The hutch was intact and luckily had been knocked onto its front,protecting Cora inside. so I gently righted it and opened the door.
Cora growled gently at me but sat firm on her six eggs and as I checked each one gently for cracks I could only marvel at the plucky mothering instinct these little scraps of birds exhibit when they go broody.
Every spring a handful of my hens have chicks.and with their little brains no larger than an average peanut, they seem to possess all of those enviable mothering emotions , such as concern, pride and affection for chicks no bigger than a cotton reel.
It is a little miracle of evolution and it never fails to move me every time I see it.
Cora's eggs were all intact, and she looked absolutely fine when I checked her over. She fed and drank briefly then settled herself down onto her eggs with a low cluck as I weighted her hutch down with some heavy rocks.

Next week I attend my first Community Council meeting.
I applied to fill a vacancy on the committee before Christmas and was very happy to be accepted   Way back in 2005 I promised myself that when we moved from city to village, that I would make an effort to join in with community  activities. Now, I  am not a particularly committee orientated person, in fact the bread and butter meetings that were the stuff of management within the NHS used to drive me insane, but the older I get, the more interested I have become in what goes on  on my own doorstep and I would like the opportunity to learn more about what community decisions can be made at a grass roots level...

My friend Nigel, suspects that the meetings will be something akin to those seen in  .The Vicar of Dibley......he may be right....but I will keep my thoughts on this one, strangely to myself!