Still picking runner beans and it’s nearly November. There’s no more room for beans in the freezer so I’m just picking enough for two days – preparing them and leaving half in the fridge in a plastic bag for tomorrow. I pick from one section so I still get some young beans – once beans get full size they stop producing more. The other section I leave and pick when the pods are fully grown then I pod them and use the beans in chilli con carne. I made a three bean chilli yesterday from dried red and black beans, and podded runner beans – and I also cooked some sliced runner beans to go with it. We all like meat so I added some mince as well but I needed a lot less mince than usual as beans are a good form of protein. There was none left – sure sign of success!
runner beans
Some of the hens are still laying eggs – but two of them have gone broody. Mrs Brown is really good-natured and lets me move her anywhere but Honey is very bad-tempered and pecks me when I go near her. I have moved them to a rabbit cage so the other hens don’t bother them. Once the chicks are all hatched and big enough to hop about I move them to a bigger pen but with a shallow water bowl. Baby ducklings can also drown if they can’t get out of a water bowl.
When there are young chicks about I always put a brick in the big water bowl so little ones can get out. Dane was helping me just after Christmas last year. We had a chick that hatched on Christmas Day so we called him Jesus (he later turned out to be a girl!). Dane asked me why there was a brick in the water bowl and I answered: “It’s so Jesus doesn’t drown.” Dane replied: “I thought Jesus could walk on water!”
(L to R) Snowflake, Doris and Dillon
It wasn’t the magpies, it was a crow eating the hen eggs – I found it in the hen house, shut the door so it was trapped – and John came and shot it with the garden gun. I inherited this garden gun from my Dad, it is ideal for shooting at close range and you can use it in confined spaces as it doesn’t blow a hole in the wall! You still need a shotgun licence for it.
Anyway, we put the dead crow on the hen-house roof and it does seem to have worked keeping other crows away as I’ve not had any trouble since. Magpies are still around and I did find a dead one in the duck pond and put that on the roof alongside the crow. That didn’t however, keep the magpies away. The crow is still there but the magpie has gone – maybe they are more palatable than crows! So, fingers crossed our chukkies are safe from egg-thieves.
Hens use the pen for sleeping in and as a nest box for laying their eggs
In the meantime, we have been hen-sitting – some friends have gone to Cuba and we’re looking after their hens for two weeks. They’ve settled in well in the front garden with Cocky Rocky, they lay lovely big eggs but they have voracious appetites, they eat much more than my smaller hens. They are also very tame and come when you call them.
Hens on holiday with Cocky Rocky
“Today is the first day of the rest of your life, be careful how you use it.”
When I’ve had really bad days – and everyone gets them sometimes – there’s always something that you can enjoy for just a moment – the scent of a wild rose, the wings of a butterfly, the liquid notes of a blackbird singing at the top of the tallest tree – and that’s what life is all about – those moments. Treasure them and remember them when you need strength to get you through.
Each day is special and my blog is intended to help everyone find a special moment in every day, celebrate high days and holidays with simple things – lighting a candle on Candlemas day, making a Yule log on 1st December and watching the stars on Midsummer night.
Today, 24th June is Midsummer, let’s share a little Moominsummer Madness:
Moominvalley is flooded by a wave caused by a nearby volcano. While escaping the flood the Moomin family and their friends find a building floating past, and take up residence there. They believe it is a deserted house until they realise someone else lives there, Emma, who explains that it is not a house but a theatre. The Moomins start to understand about the scenery, props, and costumes they have found. The theatre drifts aground and Moomintroll and the Snork Maiden decide to go and sleep in a tree. When they wake next morning the theatre has floated away again and they are alone.
Meanwhile, Little My accidentally falls overboard, and by some strange coincidence is rescued by Moomintroll’s adventurous friend Snufkin who is setting off to seek revenge on a grumpy Park Keeper. He tears down all the “Do not walk on the grass” notices, fills the lawns with electric Hattifatteners and sets free twenty-four small woodies who immediately adopt him as their father. The coincidences continue as Moonmintroll and the Snork Maiden meet Emma’s deceased husband’s niece, the Fillyjonk, and all three get arrested burning the signs that Snufkin tore up.
Meanwhile in the theatre, Emma helps Moominpappa write a play and the family decide to stage it. The woodies find a playbill for the play and cajole Snufkin into taking them to the theatre. The Hemulen who has arrested Fillyjonk, Moomintroll, and the Snork Maiden also finds a playbill and leaves his cousin to guard the prisoners while he heads off to see the play. The cousin is persuaded of their innocence and lets them out to go to the play too, where everyone is reunited and ends up on stage, the play itself collapsing into a big reunion party. When the floods recede everyone gets to go home.
The author, Tove Jansson, found her treasured moments in writing the Moomin stories. Her life was quite difficult at times and Moomintroll and Snufkin, and all the other incredible characters she created, helped her through.
