Protecting crops

There is only so much you can do without any sleep. This morning I have walked the dogs, collected feed and straw for the pigs and have wheelbarrowed manure and compost into bags for our old neighbours to collect.
The first vegetable bed has been surrounded with netting (to prevent scraping feet damage to the potato trenches which I planted yesterday) and the first of the onions have been planted out too!
.....Although I am very weary, I couldn't afford the luxury of 40 winks, as I found a rather bedraggled Scotty (the buff cockerel), standing listlessly in his run. It looks as though he has had some diarrhoea and has some discharge from his mouth (but no wheezing or coughing) , so I have isolated the poor bugger and will try to get a vet's appointment for him tomorrow. I am not sure just what the problem may be..
He looks very sorry for himself indeed.

Spoke to my twin sister this morning....she is on holiday at the moment and is planning to have a tattoo like the one my brother had done in Florida......I despair at her gesture of solidarity!

I need a sleep.....................................

The Great Escape

Compared with all of the other field animals the young turkeys seem to possess a modicum of brains and an over abundance of curiosity.

I was working yesterday afternoon, and without my pottering presence in the field, the four poults drove Chris to distraction by planning and implementing several raiding parties into the Churchyard.

Now, I am convinced that the birds understand fully that the Church is a no go area. When I have caught them before ( and I am usually storming noisily around brandishing a bucket or hoe), the four poults raise their beaks into the air, in gestures of acknowledgement, give a series of odd little gobbles and uniformly leg it back to their enclosure like naughty little boys.

They have now been so conditioned by my baleful expression, that all it takes is one glimpse of my dirty wellies and bleach stained trousers to have them galloping back home in thinly disguised hysteria!.

Soon the four of them will be just too heavy to be breaking out of anywhere and the problem will be naturally resolved.

Sunday today, which means Church for Chris, a nice Sunday dinner for me, and work this evening

shit happens

Every picture tells a story, and this photo is absolutely priceless...
Grandma barfing into a rubbish bin...(in a sort of weird way) made my day......
Thanks to Mark, whose blog I nicked this from

Love Happens

We couldn't be bothered going out last night. The weather has closed in and it was cold and rainy last night. We watched half of an awful film Love Happens, which was supposed to be a romantic comedy (in actual fact it is neither romantic or funny) and ate Ben & Jerry's ice cream.
The film was set in Seattle, which looked suitably sweet and wet, and the only fun I had with it, was recognising areas I had in fact visited. (The Space Needle,Pike place fish market Puget sound etc).Seattle, as I recall, was friendly,relaxed and very wet
This morning I have made myself popular by washing Chris' best woollen scarf with my allotment clothes.....it is now six inches long...........................he is not best pleased......good job I am working this afternoon!

Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars

Remembering Finlay

http://disasterfilm.blogspot.com/2007/03/chasing-cars.html

This is an early post but is perhaps one that follows the previous post very well......
(forgive the photo....it was taken when I was very....well FAT!

Domestic trials

Because of the fox threat, I usually don't let the birds out until 8am, but this morning as it was warm, sunny and I had been awake, off and on since 4.30am, I got up early and did all the morning jobs by 7.30.
Chris is to blame for my ungodly morning shenanigans. He was up early, making tea and and probably planning research adventures in his brain ( which is the size of a planet)....unfortunately he has the flat feet of a middle aged dancer (he used to be a dancer in a previous life)...so clomps around the bare floorboards of the cottage like a penguin with clogs on.

As I sit here with the first coffee of the day, warmed by the sun in the window of the living room, I am quietly joined by Maddie. The other dogs and Albert have all retired upstairs to bed, so in the peace and quiet we can enjoy each others company for a short time.

I was thinking about Maddie yesterday. The signs of old age are beginning to show on her just a little now. Her eye sight is failing ( she has a tendency to trip over curbs), there are small rings of white hair around each eye and her tolerance for silly behaviour from the other dogs has diminished considerably, to the extent that she will stop dead any tomfoolery with a bark and a robust chest barge. She has effectively turned into a sort of maiden aunt, who dresses in black and who reads the daily obituary

It seems only yesterday that we brought the tiny ball of hysteria back from Nottinghamshire to our home in Sheffield. She constantly barked, covered every inch of the house with copious amounts of urine and refused point blank to be walked on a lead. Yet from day one of her arrival, Maddie was and remains consistantly loyal. She comes when called, sits when told and never causes us any concerns save for the occasional bout of constipation, to which she is prone .

She will sit within a centimetre of you, yet hates to be cuddled. She loves her food more than any dog we have ever had and loves to relieve herself in a deep cold puddle.......in short she "asks" for very little and gives so very much and is no trouble at all, I just find it a little sad when I remember (as I was reminded by my previously posted Kipling poem), that you never really own a dog for very long..do you?....sigh.............

Anyhow...enough of all this, I am at risk of getting maudlin. Today I am getting stuck in with the clearing of the back garden, tonight we are having our usual Friday night fish and chips and then will be going to theatre Clwyd to see ME AND ORSON WELLES, a film I missed on its first run

Spring Incubation

The girls have started to bang out the eggs now that the days are longer and somewhat warmer. Yesterday I collected two dozen from 30 laying hens, so I have had a small surfeit to sort out.

So the incubator is back in use on the kitchen top. In three weeks a motley group of chicks will hopefully be hatched, and the circle of life will continue quite wonderfully.

Of the original 12 laying hens I bought four years ago, seven old girls remain under the watchful eye of the geriatric Stanley. they are still laying eggs, which I guess is a sign of them being happy contented hens, here's hoping the new chicks will be healthy,happy and ALL FEMALE.....yeah right!