The torrential rain is my fault, sorry. I ordered some garden chairs and a table six weeks ago and the day they arrived in the country the weather turned and today it had to be the heaviest rain yet we have had this summer..and I expect delivery tomorrow. It seemed like a good idea in April during those endless sunshine days.
Glad not at Thames today..but would have liked to have been there yesterday. Nellie came into season this week so it was not to be.
We did manage to get to the coast yesterday to swim. The Purbecks are in some ways an 'island' in that the ridge (in which the castle at Corfe is nestled) does make the weather slightly different there. It has been blazing sun here further inland before now and I have hotfooted it off down there for a swim only to find a thick, damp sea mist enveloping the cliffs. Yesterday the opposite. Sometimes sun, sometimes cloud here but we could see the edge of the blue sky as we looked coastward and sure enough down there that is how it was. Windy - with big waves - but warm and sunny. We had a lovely time!
Nellie came into the veg patch with me while I took advantage of slightly lighter rain (as opposed to the torrential that dominated the day) earlier today. Now she has actually stolen some of my salad from my bowl on the kitchen worktop before so I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised to suddenly notice (as I was planting some more cut and come again salad leaf seeds in a couple of places)that she was grazing the baby rocket leaves quite contentedly!!! The only time Archie was allowed in he peed on one of the honeysuckles I have planted to grow up and into the hedge.....And Pop and Henry thought it was fine to clamber about on the raised beds when my back was turned. So it has for the most part become a dog free zone...
It is also a chicken free zone naturally. Though chickens are known to have squawky flappy moments periodically that land them in new and unforeseen places, they are not usually scheming. They don't usually have a plan; wherever they land is the plan. However they are opportunists and can definitely respond to positive reinforcement should one of those opportunities arise.
Coming back from work one afternoon I found to my horror that Fliss was absent from the gathering by the top gate. I soon discovered she was next door 'helping' Simon clear some ground around a big pile of old bricks. She had apparently eaten about 20 worms, several centipede types, a dozen or so woodlice and a few spiders.....He was quite amused and I actually heard him having a little conversation with her as I reached the part alongside the fence where she and he were...I warned him she could well be back for another happy troughing session before we managed to 'whoosh' her back over the fence with a broom. Chickens, as I say, are not daft.
Sure enough, the next day she was back. Turned out she had found a hole in the fence. We are always finding places where the mesh fence in the hedge has been pushed apart - we believe by badgers going through the gardens. She had found it on two days. Once by accident and the second time most definitely by design!!
As for our veg patch - today I found a nest in amongst the potatoes that have grown quite high in the last couple of weeks. The rain had weighed the stems down and exposed this pile of eggs. I blame Tilly........And a couple of sections of chicken wire are now over the top of the seeds I have planted to keep them safe from marauding claws I hope. Now she has a 'secret' nest she too will be back.
I just leave hearing about the chooks -they sound like they have a wail of a time without a care in the world
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