Slutty Blanche

This morning I am waiting in for the lady to collect the unwanted cockerels. Finally the rain has come, which has been welcomed greatly, as my seedlings are all in need of some watering.
Blanche remains broody as hell, so has been "sin binned" as promised. As you can see , she is not in the best of condition at the moment, as she is half way through her annual moult, and this moulting takes a great deal out of hens physically, so much so, that they can sometimes deteriorate health wise as well as stop producing regular eggs!.
Sitting on a clutch of eggs whilst in this condition would probably finish her off (Blanche does not eat or drink well when incubating)
Richard (Chris' dad) is arriving on Monday for a crash course in animal care.Not only has he the hens to watch over, he will be looking after the scotties and Albert, as well as the pigs, ducks,ducklings and turkeys. The broody Elizabeth sat heavily in her rabbit hutch could well be a little labour intensive, as she has to be gently taken off her eggs three times a day to feed and water, so bless him, I suspect he will be more than knackered when we return.
I am very grateful for his kind acceptance to "babysit" as having a group of people coming in to check on the stock often results of something being missed, and with ducklings and broody hens that could well result in the death of an animal.
I am working all day tomorrow, so will have a cooking day on Monday, to ensure that Richard will have a ton of homecooked pies and puddings to munch on..it's the least I can do.

Music to cloud watch by

I listened to this beautifull piece of music when having my five minute cloud watching moment.......today I was joined by Mildred Pierce rather than Boris.......I think he doesn't like the cello

Bette Davis lives

As usual my trip to Sheffield comprised of too many white wines and a great deal of gossip. Mike and Jane were typically urbane , chatty and fun whilst Johnny H was in one of his outrageous "Bette Davis in full flow" moods, which is always worth the price of an admission ticket. It wasn't a late night, but an overdue one. I am glad I made the effort to catch up with them

Before I met them all, I had the chance to do some birthday card shopping at Cole Brothers, then took a quick stroll around Hillsborough Park to see the snake sculpture in the playground (below) before going to Johnny H and Bev's for tea!

As usual I got home early this morning (complete with the obligatory hangover) and went back to work on the field. Elizabeth Spriggs (below), one of the buffs has gone completely broody, so I have set her up on a half dozen eggs in the rabbit hutch. Blanche remains broody also, but is out of condition and moulting, so to save her any longstanding damage I have tried to keep her out of the nestboxes all day. Angry and vocal she has stalked around the compound and ever time I got on with a job or two, she popped back into her nest. Tomorrow I will "sin bin" her in an effort to knock the broodiness out of her.

(Sin Binning is the practice where you put a broody hen into an "uncomfortable" wire cage for a day or so to break their nesting urges)
Susan is still with us by the way, but is hardly eating at all. She remains pathetically thin, and if she doesn't buck up by Monday, I think I may need to be kind to her and have her put to sleep.

This afternoon I have planted more onion sets (below), marigolds and have transplanted strawberry plants. The weather remains warm and dry, so much so, I have had to water all the seedlings by hand, which is a backbreaking job with a slight hangover!

Chris has gone ballroom dancing with Janet tonight.....I am resting with crap tv!

Early Blog

Just a quick note this morning! I am off to Sheffield this afternoon for a long over due friend meet up. Susan looks quiet today, and has not eaten anything, Things are not looking good. Hope Chris will be able to cope with her until I get back tomorrow

Susan update

She still looks dreadfully ill, but has eaten some cat food and corn from me today. I have sat her in her own coop with her own flock, and they have accepted her back (hens can pick on and indeed peck to death a poorly hen), so at least she has company.

An average traveller

I am not one of those people that complains I have not travelled as far and as wide as I would have liked, in actual fact, these days, I quite like being a bit of a home bird! But today I received an e mail from a friend which had attached a powerpoint presentation of a holocaust memorial on the banks of the River Danube, and I was reminded of a visit to Theresienstadt in the Czech Republic many years ago. This memory got me to thinking about the places I have had the fortune of visiting over the years, and although I have enjoyed several foreign jaunts, the list of my trips isn't that long!
During the morning coop cleaning, I day dreamed about knackering boozy ski holidays in Switzerland and Austria, sunshine breaks in Spain,Turkey,Malta and Greece and a civilized city jaunt to Paris (when Chris got pissed off with me and finished our relationship!)
I remembered with affection "nun counting" with Nuala in Dublin and Galway and the excitement of watching a small whale in Puget sound Just off the city of Seattle and I got to wondering what my top 5 favourite places would be if I had to make a choice.....
so here goes.....

My first choice would be a bit of an obscure one. Kutná Hora is one of the sleepiest and deserted historic towns I have ever seen. I visited it for a day when a friend and I had a city break in Prague, and I remember being quite overwhelmed by the slight sense of menace I felt as we explored the town's empty streets and squares, I cannot quite remember just why the place seemed so deserted, but I do remember feeling as though I was actually an extra on a huge film set......I was reminded of the that 60's tv series...The Prisoner.
The highlight of the trip was a visit to the "flying spires" of the Church of St. Barbara (below)....the whole cathedral was silent and empty when we entered.....it was a very surreal experience and quite a moving one as I think we then had a chance to process the previous day's emotional journey of visiting the Theresienstadt concentration camp, which was a terribly harrowing and humbling experience

New York will always be my favourite place on this earth. I have enjoyed the big apple now on 10 occasions and it always retains its excitement and vibrancy. I think I would quite happily live in Manhattan if we didn't have the menagerie
I know travelling to Derbyshire, isn't exactly jetting off to San Fransisco, but Chatsworth House comes a very close second to New York in my most favourite places to go. An amble around the ancient house, beautifully crafted gardens and world famous farm shop was a weekly treat from my busy manager days in nearby Sheffield, and over my 16 years in Yorkshire, chatsworth became a constant in my life. I miss it dreadfully.

Pittsburgh was the first place in the US that I ever visited. Through pure cheek and just a little chutzpah, I managed to arrange my month long elective placement from the 6 month Spinal Injury course I was on in Southport in the Pennsylvanian city!. Now this pissed off my fellow students who all worked on a local intensive care, but I didn't care!!

I had a cracking time experiencing this small, friendly and totally interesting city.My final fav place to go is of course the posh, laid back and sunshine town of Sitges just south of Barcelona, Spain. For years Chris and I have eaten delicious sea food, on the wide Promenade, washed it down with copious amounts of Rose wine and still had room for the odd whiskey cake or two. It is here that we have spent many hours relaxing, reading and people watching in the sun.....bliss

Baffled

I have been meaning to write this blog for a while, not that it is a burning issue or anything, but the subject matter of homophobia has I think crept into everyday Trelawnyd life, albeit in a fairly benign way.
Being gay is certainly the least interesting part of me as a person (well I could argue that it may compare with my passion for fat hens or my obsession with The Poseidon Adventure! in interest level) and in general I would never think that someone would not accept me or give me the time of day because of an accident of my sexuality.(if they react to my opinionated big mouth-well, that's another story)
To be honest I have seldom had a negative reaction (to my face anyhow) in all my "out" years but also to be fair I have never "looked" for any reactions also, so I think it has taken me a while to realise that there is a occasional one or two people in the village that perhaps have taken umbrage with me ---- and may whisper this " he's Living with a man!".
One woman in particular is conspicuous by consistently being cold and rude to me. I have never held a detailed conversation with her, so I know I have never knowingly upset her, but when I saw her again today, she again reacted to my greeting with the usual curt stare.
Another villager saw the interaction and picked up on its potential homophobic roots which was interesting, and although I was touched by her need to apologise for the other woman's behaviour, I didn't really need it.

I am always slightly baffled by homophobia, I truly am. This woman's reaction to me, didn't annoy me so much as surprised me.....I just don't get it!
Anyhow, I am proud that we have chiseled our way into the village community by being rounded,active and genuine people,if a few saddos don't like the fact that we happen to be two old poofs as well, well it's San fairy Ann !(http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/310500.html)

Cocks return

One of the buyers of a bunch of hens, brought back two of her cockerels this morning, which was a bit of a shame. I couldn't argue , but I was a bit pissed off as now I have 9 males which is far too many for comfort!
so, I have now had to toy with the idea of euthanasia, which is a depressing thought, but a necessary one!....... for ages this afternoon I have weighed up the pros and cons of each bird in turn. Of course the old boys Clover and Poppy, Stanley and Rogo are safe, so I am left with the choice of the two buff cockerels, a multi coloured bantam (rear left) and the aggressive but cute wynandottes Roger and Pirrie! As it turned out I had to thank god for Helen (my friend that owns the animal feed shop) who sent one of her customers down to me this afternoon. After a bit of schmoozing, the customer was happy to take the two returned cockerels off my hands.......result!!
Susan the sick hen, is just about holding her own today. I have injected her with the remaining antibiotic, and have hand fed her some of Albert's cat food....the next 24 hours may well tell...
I am knackered, had another cough laden night on the couch