Autumn

The rain has lashed down all night, and this morning the field, as it did last year, has become a mud covered swamp. It is cold today, almost autumnal infact , and I have made sure that all of thew hen runs have extra cover as hens do not like to become wet AND cold!

Kate Winslett had to be prised off her nest this morning and would not eat and drink in her desperate efforts to return to her now six chicks.....not a buff amongst them as we have 5 black and 1 white baby, but all seem to be doing ok. I have put water and chick crumbs in small containers inside the broody box and will construct some sort of awning to cover the front poop hole as the house is tiny and driving rain could well get in with mother and babies.

The circle of life continues on its small way here: Poppy went yesterday and one of the very old hybrids, Rose (Blanche's sister) died in the night....yet we now have these 6 new babies, the 2 scruffy bantam chicks still in the shed and the 12 "teenagers" in the main run, which makes an extra 20 mouths to feed.

The turkey eggs in the incubator have not hatched as yet (they are due today!) I bobbed them in warm water earlier and no movement could be seen....shame! perhaps young Boris is firing blanks????

I will do the basics outside today and will, I think make some rhubarb jam and start to organise some of my teaching course which starts on the 27th!

night in

I was hoping to have a night out with a friend last night but it was not to be.....so I got absolutely soaked walking the dogs and locking the hens up! spent a boring hour or so organising Chris' expenses and ended up having a few wines watching cute Simon Pegg in Shaun of the dead

I felt rather boring and had a big sulk!....but good news of the day was that Kate Winslett now has three tiny chicks hiding under her big fat thighs!!!

Forgive another boring Veg and Hen blog

Kate Winslett has hatched out 2 chicks so far, and seems to be coping well juggling chicks eggs and sudden motherhood. She is a hefty fat hen , so I have worries that she may crush them as she did her own eggs, but so far so good! The sides of her nesting box seem a little steep for any unsteady chick to be able to climb back in if accidentally turfed out, so I have banked it up with sawdust, other than that I have left them all well alone.
The daughters of the lady that was buried last week have visited the allotment almost daily. They bring bread for the hens and biscuits for the pigs, and I think the peace that the animals bring them obviously helps with their grief just a tiny bit.- funny how that can happen eh?
Today's main job has been the broad bean harvest, an hour and a half sped by as I shelled hundreds of pods ready for the freezer whilst listening to Radio 7's production of It Had To Be Murder which was the original book which the film Rear Window was based upon. The book was ok but not a patch on Hitchcock's psycho babbling film production! And there was no Thelma Ritter character!
This afternoon I had a phone call from the girl from Penyfford asking if she could take Poppy off my hands. She is a nice girl with a mass of animals at home, who knows her stuff when it comes to hens, so of course I said yes. She collected him this afternoon and he was quite well behaved when I caught him. I will be sorry to see the boy go, but I must get a little less sentimental when it comes to the cockerels, I cannot have too many. So with a sign he is off to pastures new and I am left with the bouncy Scotty, the reliable Rogo and the diffident Stanley oh and not forgetting the bantam males Roger and Pirrie.

Farmhouse cooking and The Great Escape

Halleh has amused me all day by deciding to join the small flock of hens that survived the dog attack last year. As they moved around the field on their scavenging hunts, Halleh gamely waddled after them, rooting in the grass when they did and resting in the shade when they wanted to. Even Rogo seems to have accepted his presence with some alacrity. Below Halleh next to Rogo, Belle and Linda at feeding time

It is half past eight and I have just sat down after a busy day. This evening I have been jam making! (no one tells you that hot jam is like lava!) and I was pleased as punch with my four proud jars of strawberry jam! Before that I have laboriously picked all of the pods from the pea canes and with George for company shelled the entire bucketful whist sitting in the sun.

Shelling peas reminds me very much of my childhood. It was a job Janet and I sometimes did with my Grandmother, and the boring job was always livened up with her embroidered stories of wartime Liverpool!

Today I just had George and LBC for company. The other dogs couldn't brave the hot sun and lay in the shadow of the Church wall.

My sweaty efforts to cordon off the graveyard from the runners yesterday seemed to be in vain today as despite the fixed netting, all nine of the noisy buggers found their way amongst the gravestones time and time again!. I couldn't work out just how they were breaking through the netting, so after chasing them back into the field for the third time, George and I set up camp behind the turkey house to watch just how they did it!

The nine ducks were crafty, they grazed the grass on the field for a while, but ever so slowly they made their way to the top right hand corner which annexes the graveyard. Here they looked around nervously for a long time and then one by one, like commandos on a secret raid, they disappeared down into the ditch! (below)

I take back my usual inflammatory notions that runner ducks are thick as mince, as the nine of them negotiated the long and dangerous ditch and small brook like extras from The Great Escape. In true indian style they snaked their way silently with heads bowed, only to pop up 100 yards upstream in the middle of the graveyard chattering excitedly to themselves! It took ages to string another length of netting across the brook but at least they have now been contained!

Swine

Swine flu is in Trelawnyd school!
hey ho

so sad

The British Conductor Sir Edward Thomas Downes has died at the age of 85 after travelling to the assisted suicide centre DIGNATAS with his 74 year old wife of 40 years, Joan. She had been suffering from a terminal illness and he was blind and almost deaf..they died peaceful "together" a family member reported.
This story upset me greatly, and not just for the reasons that you may think....as long as a clinical depression is NOT a factor in any decision making, I would like to think that in special cases like this, a centre in Britain could be developed to "help" individuals like the Downes seek a dignified and autonomous death.

The only thing that I do worry about dignatas, and that is I suspect it is only utilised by the more articulate and the informed. ( and perhaps the rich?)...what happens to the poor? or the less informed....humm like all health care provision....they seem to be the last ones "allowed" to access it......

anyhow.....this does not detract from the fact that this is a terribly sad story.

Graveyard Ducks, harvest time and the pleasure of sisters

I have spent the day at the hospital (mandatory training) so thank god for Carol and Ewan from down the lane, who took the dogs (with the obligatory Albert in tow) for the day. They all love galloping around her huge garden, and all act like unruly teenagers at their first drinks party
On my return, some of the birds had typically run amok and I was horrified to find all the ducks in the old graveyard. They hadn't touched any of the floral tributes, concentrating their attentions on sieving snails and slugs out of the grass, but having them anywhere near the Church is totally unacceptable as once they are comfortable , ducks tend to revisit any area which they enjoy a good feast.
I chased the nine of them back to the field and spent an hour or so in a magnificent thunder storm setting up on of my wire netting up against the existing wooden rail fencing. I am now confident that the ducks as well as a few of the more stupid hens will be now confined to my own field.

I got absolutely soaked, yet after a long hour schleping in the mud I couldn't be bothered in getting dry, so like a naughty ten year old, I got even wetter ! I checked the new hens (below) who are all comfortably settling in now, then checked on my onions (above) which are all fattening up very nicely indeed

The sweetcorn is putting on a late spurt of growth (though is not as high as an Elephant's eye as yet) and even the winter cabbage is growing into buxom little knots of green. I now have huge heads of cauliflowers overlooking broccoli florets and and even the beetroot plants that was so decimated by the gang of sparrows have flourished in the late rain.
Ann called around with the surplus strawberries from her allotment when I was in the middle of this childish water romp. I will start jam making tomorrow! She was full of her experience of Ballroom dancing at St George's Hall and it was lovely to hear her excitement and enthusiasm for the night.Both Janet and Ann have revelled in these dance nights and Janet especially has blossomed in the very "old fashioned luxury" and ritual preparation she has to go through to take part in the event.

Even though I am not a dancer, I have taken a great deal of vicarious pleasure in their new pastime and will I think get scrubbed up for the big Christmas ball late in the year, it will give me the chance to see Chris show off too -with his "Jazz hands" at the ready!!! I am so lucky to have my sisters nearby

Janet (left) Friend Janet Jones (centre) and Ann (right) in a cross between Sex and the City and The Colour Purple finale pose!

janet and chris

Not the best quality videos I have ever seen but it shows Chris and Jan in strictly Come Dance mode......

I wish I could dance better.....I was once at a family wedding and was told off by my Mother for daning badly!
"You dance like someone with learning difficulties " (I am paraphrasing here) she hissed......