How to be Truly Happy

How to be Truly Happy

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If someone asked me what common  theme my Twitter account has then it would have to be ‘Things that make me Happy’.  My glass is always half full – there’s absolutely no point in looking at life any other way.  I collect beautiful pictures, bluebirds and daffodils, great sayings: “There’s no point looking back ‘cos that’s not the way you’re going.”  Funny video clips and happy tunes – I absolutely love ‘Room without a Roof’ because everyone dances to it and I love sharing happiness.

John is the same – and has finally published a book which is full of happy pictures and inspirational words – you can download it from:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00V6Z5PYE?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

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I have had bad times, days when I just couldn’t face getting out of bed, mornings when just the thought of cleaning my teeth was too much effort – but I’ve always found something to focus on, some reason to carry on, something I love – and on those days I have found if I can just get outside and feel the sun on my face and the breeze on my skin, the scent of primroses and a robin singing, life is suddenly wonderful again – even if it’s just for a moment when ‘a chaffinch sings on the orchard bough’ or ‘a crowd of golden daffodils’, and you stop and immerse yourself in nature and forget everything else.

Many people find meditation helps – and is often much better therapy than drugs for lots of stress-related conditions, like headaches, insomnia, IBS, indigestion and phobias.  Sleeping and eating are a vital part of every day and our bodies need a regular balance of both or they start to complain.  www.meditationalstate.com has some beautiful music and images.

Running a business, working for yourself, can be really hard sometimes – but if you love what you do then it’s like having a hobby 7 days a week – and if you do have a bad day where everything seems to go wrong – it’s just one bad day – and you know you’ll be doing something you love doing tomorrow.

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Rabbits – ear mites

One of my rabbits got ear mites.  When she first arrived and I checked her over it looked like there was dirt in one of her ears – so I looked it up and discovered she probably had ear mites so I put oil in her ears for a week and thought no more about it.  Then, last week, I noticed one of her ears looked black and, sure enough, her ear was all scabby and the ear mites were back with a vengeance.

So I’m treating both ears with oil every day – any oil is fine but I find sunflower oil flows better than olive oil and I use a medicine tube to administer it.  It’s quite easy and I massage the base of her ears afterwards which she seems to enjoy.

The rabbit ear mite, Psoroptes Cuniculi, is a parasite and has 4 different life stages – egg, larva, protonymph and adult mite with eggs hatching after 4 days.  The oil stops the mites being able to move, mate and lay eggs and eventually they die, but you need to persevere as the cycle can take as long as a month.

There’s no need to bathe the ears as the scabs will just fall off once the mites are destroyed and the ears usually heal quickly.

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It’s really easy to administer the oil with a medicine tube as you can do it one-handed and hold the rabbit still with the other hand.

I shall be treating all my rabbits weekly with oil until I’m sure we’ve got rid of the ear mites altogether and then it’s probably as well to treat them once a month – and that way I can keep a check on them.  My rabbits are kept in cages so there’s less chance of ear mites spreading but it’s still a good idea to move rabbits occasionally and thoroughly clean their living quarters with disinfectant.

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The days are getting longer

The days are getting longer, Spring is in the air, with the promise of summer to come, there’s a great sense of excitement in the garden, you can almost feel the grass growing and the daffodils bursting into brilliant yellow splashes of sunshine.

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Here is Charlie with his foster-mum – Mrs Grey – and I’ve called the other chick Ebony – I think he (or she) is a pure  is a pure Vorwerk.  If so (s)he’ll look like one of these when (s)he grows up:

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This is Captain Von Vorwerk with Violet, they are quite impressive hens and they lay little white eggs.

What Happened to Amber?

What Happened to Amber?

After the squirrel episode yesterday, when I went to let the hens out, I looked for Amber, half expecting a squirrel to be in her pen again – and all I found was a pile of feathers!  The door of the pen was open and the protective wire had been ripped off the bottom of the pen.  Amazingly Charlie chick was OK but cheeping pitifully.

I put him in with the other broody hen who has two chicks and watched with my heart in my mouth to see if she would accept him – quite often hens will not have anything to do with chicks they haven’t hatched themselves – but thankfully she let him snuggle down with the others under her feathers and he stopped cheeping.

So what had eaten Amber?  I’ve seen foxes rip open wire pens and get through really small gaps but foxes generally carry off their prey and eat it somewhere else.  A polecat maybe?  I know that I didn’t leave the door open because there’s a picture of the pen on this website that I posted yesterday – so what opened the door?

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A Squirrel in the Hen House

A Squirrel in the Hen House

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This morning when I went out to feed the hens, Amber was making such a commotion, so Betsy and I went over to see what all the fuss was about.  Amber is in a pen on her own as she has just hatched one chick and it’s only two days old.  I couldn’t see the chick anywhere and Amber was squawking like mad.  When I opened the door of the pen, there was a squirrel inside!  Betsy soon saw him off and shortly afterwards the chick came out of hiding and calm was restored.  But how did the squirrel get in?

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Spring is in the Air

Spring is in the Air

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It was a beautiful frosty morning, the sun glinting off thawing raindrops.  I love this time of year when it’s just warm enough – and hopefully dry enough – to get out in the garden but not much is growing yet, so you can catch up with clearing up the vegetable patch.

It’s a rare ‘window of opportunity’;  time to get rid of all the perennial weeds like docks, nettles, buttercups and the perennial grasses.  I give the weeds to the hens – they love scratching though them looking for worms.  By the beginning of February there’s a sort of hopefulness in the air, the birds are singing, showing off their bright spring feathers and busily looking for nesting places and the air is alive with the promise of things to come.  It’s exhilarating just getting outside and living and breathing – and becoming part of – Spring.

 

Remembrance – Poppies

Remembrance – Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins drop and are ever dropping, but mine in my ear is safe, just a little white with the dust.

Break of day in the trenches (1916)

Isaac Rosenberg

So many people died so that we could live in freedom.  We can look at poppies now with peace and hope, not war and fear, treasure these sunny British poppy fields and enjoy their tranquility.

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Clematis in November survived the first frost

This clematis survived last night’s frost but won’t be here much longer – looking at the forecast.  It was planted last year and I’d forgotten about it, then suddenly  a few wispy tendrils appeared climbing up the hen house.  I thought it was much too late to flower but then a few days ago it produced this beautiful bloom, just in time for the frosts!  So need to make the most of it, treasure it, whilst the sun shines!

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