Peace

It was nice to get home tonight and out into the cool of the field. Today has been another stinker, and I am tired of laying out dead patients towards the end of a shift.
The wet weather has benefited my root vegetables as well as the cabbages. Above my turnips are a good 9 inches across, whilst my cabbages (below) are literally the size of a human head....

The buff chicks have now started to grow feathers on their feet, and remain a joy to watch. Not even a month old, they are robust,strong little birds, with bags of quiet personality. I sat relaxing in the evening sun watching them fight over some greens Pippa had dropped in for them.

Postscript: another peaceful experience is the gentle stroll at ten pm, the final walk with the dogs down the lane. The bats are weaving in and out of the trees above the church wall, and a hoard of rabbits can be seen ambling on the grass further into the graveyard and field. The weather is cool but refreshing, and or the first time in 48 hours, it is lovely to be outside and silent.

lucky patient

Short blog tonight, very tied after a busy shift. mind you the daughter of one of the patients I was looking after, happens to breed poultry. I got talking about her birds (like you do) and hey presto , she offered me a young turkey hen.
Now believe it or not I have always wanted one, so I have tentatively accepted the offer ( bugger the fact that we cannot accept gifts in the nhs)...it's the nicest thing that has happened to me in a crappy, busy day.
Working all day tomorrow......

What a difference a day makes.................

Apologies for the brief rant about the weather, but it has pissed down all day today. My allotment is in dire, dire need of some sun to bring on the veg naturally, as some of the beans,parsnips are dragging their feet in the wet soil.
The over sized cowboy hat that Chris bought me from Canada has finally come in handy again and at least my face has kept dry as I was emptying the twenty foot square potato patch.

Compared to yesterday's sociability, today has been a bit of a bust as the rain has left me alone with my plants and chickens. Got a text from Sheffield mate Mike, who will be meeting me for a night out in the city on the 23rd,- which sort of kept me going until Chris got home.

Popped up to the garden centre and splashed out with my egg and potato profits on several black current bushes ( they were going cheap as they are not frost resistant). Despite the rain, I managed to plant the lot of them ( collecting a hundred or so earthworms as a treat for Nell and Maude as I did so)

I hope to have a large fruit bush plot all set up in time for the allotment open on August 6th.

Working all weekend (2 twelve hour shifts YET AGAIN), so I suspect Chris will be near breaking point Sunday night with all the animal responsibility....mind you I did notice he has bought The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare on dvd, so I suspect there will be a lot of lying around on the couch on Saturday.

Off for a long clean bath now, with tons of dettol added.....doesn't half gets you squeaky clean after a dirty gardening day.

Enjoyable day

It has been one of those busy and nice days that sort of creep up on you, every minute has been filled with activity, even though I have only one cake made to show for the energy I feel I have expended.
Caught up with a couple of girls from work, who visited for potatoes and eggs ( but really wanted to play with the chicks and ducklings), chin wagged with Geoff for ages, who is constructing his own hen house, and sold a score of produce by an increasingly large number of cold calling villagers.( all of whoom keep you chatting for hours)
It was a case of lots of talk, not a great deal of work done, which makes a welcome change.
Met a delightful lady from the village called Sandra who came down to visit the field. She had recently got rid of her runner ducks , hens and allotment ( to make way for a new house in her vast garden) and was obviously suffering withdrawal symptoms for it all. We chatted for ages and bounced around some ideas for organising a village "produce group"..........I am Pat Archer........

Janet's Garden open

Sister Ann stationed herself at the makeshift entrance and "shop" Everything for sale was grown and processed from her own allotment.

The turn out was respectable indeed, I think around 30-40 people turned up in small groups, and all got fed and watered, (my chocolate cake went down very well). The garden was immaculate.

Below Hazel and daughter Polly, with Aunt Judy.

Great neice Ellie and Tim turned up at around 7pm................and everyone else seemed to enjoy the evening. In the end Janet made 180 quid for charity.which was an amazing amount

With a heavy heart

Quick blog this morning, I have not had my coffee yet! When it was dark last night, I sneaked out to the shed and secreted the little black chick underneath Broody Nolan in an effort to reunite them after her attack on the little fella yesterday; so it was with a heavy heart ,that I checked on them all this morning.But the trick worked! and now Mz Nolan has five chicks to look after,

The buff chicks have also reached a milestone and now have ventured out into the big world for the first time. In a small way I am sure that I feel like a father does when his kids go to big school for the first time.

Omara Portuondo - Killing Me Softly

better than the original me feels

Roberta Flack- Kiling my softly with his song

I love this song. Heard it twice today, the first time was Roberta Flack's wonderful original, and the second time was the Buena Vista social club's latin American version on cd. I couldn't find the "social club's" musak-ish but ever-so-likable song on YOUTUBE, so will be content with Roberta.

The lyrics are stangely memorable, so I felt I had to research them on trusty wikipedia:-
"Killing Me Softly with His Song" is a 1971 song composed by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel. The song was inspired by a poem by Lori Lieberman, "Killing Me Softly with His Blues", which she wrote after seeing a then-unknown Don McLean perform the song "Empty Chairs" live.[1] Don McLean does not wear his glasses when performing, thus the line "he looked right through me as if I wasn't there"