Tag Archives: living

What Happened to Amber?

Posted on by

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?

s_DSC0133

A Squirrel in the Hen House

Posted on by

A Squirrel in the Hen House

s_DSC0139

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?

s_DSC0141

Spring is in the Air

Posted on by

Spring is in the Air

s_DSC0134

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.

 

Ozymandias

Posted on by

20RouteDeLaPlage

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear –
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

Remembrance – Poppies

Posted on by

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.

poppies

poppies

Clematis in November survived the first frost

Posted on by

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!

_DSC0077s

The last rose of summer

Posted on by

The last rose of summer – somehow more special because it’s flowering in late October.  I chose this rose for it’s fragrance and every morning when I put sunflower seeds out for the birds I can enjoy its fragile fragrance for a few moments.

the last rose of summer

the last rose of summer

Still picking runner beans

Posted on by

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

runner beans