Saint Christopher

The "hen in the airing cupboard" incident went by without so much as the raising of the famous "Roger Moore" eyebrow or the rolling of the infamous Captain Mainwaring eyeballs.

This slightly wrong footed me, as I was prepared to fight the little warren's corner,for she had been as good as gold wrapped up in a dog blanket behind the duvets and pillowcases, but Chris merely nodded his head and sighed with that "as long as I don't have to see anything" kind of way.

All the warren needed was to warm up. She slept and she kept calm in the cosy darkness of the cupboard and after a couple of hours was ready to return to the waterlogged field.

It is still raining this morning by the way.

A few years ago now, I made the mistake of hatching out 16 Indian runner ducklings without a mother and without a shed!

Strangely Calm, my last load of runner ducklings

All 16 were installed in a large dog crate in the kitchen, which was transformed very quickly from a delightful oasis of fluffy ducklings into a quagmire of shit flinging , needy and incredibly noisy and hysterical monsters.

The pitter patter of tap dancing webbed feet nearly drove poor Chris into the psychiatric version of "shady Pines". and nearly every morning he could be heard bellowing "Shut up you dirty little bastards" as they galloped to and fro in the crate following his every movement as he tried to eat his tea and toast.

Since then, I have tried to keep any  animal infiltrations into the cottage to an absolute minimum.Chris can cope with the dogs as long as they are clean and  does have a soft spot for Albert as long as he does not drag in any rodent no matter what size through the catflap, but in general terms anything else with fur or a beak would not be tolerated,

He's right of course.... the cottage is far too small for any miniature intensive care unit set ups.....I just wonder what could happen if one of the ewes has complications during the birth of a lamb....?

I couldn't see Chris boiling the hot water and fetching the towels as Irene lies prostrate on the kitchen table with her hooves up in stirrups....

Bless..... he does put up with a lot.

Anyhow the warren survived to fight another day, ( unlike the Pansy-Potterish Sarah Jane who was unfortunately voted off

The Great British Bake Off last night.) and hopefully the tropical storm which has battered North Wales and Northern England  is now petering itself out to nothing.

(BBC Wales)

Sarah Jane....a podgy star in the making

I am off now to drop some more Harvest Festival food off at the Church now....Trelawnyd collects boxes full from it's small congregation...all of which will be taken to the homeless shelter in Rhyl after the harvest services are all finished. It's another small, unsung positive community gesture which the majority of people in the village are unaware of ....