Far Lands

Some of you will know about my (fairly mad, admittedly) plan for underground drainage in the orchard. The idea in principle at least is that the water is piped through the orchard and into a duck pond (an old bath already in situ) and then away. Well, I have hit a bit of a design flaw, but that's another story. My ulterior motive has always been ducks. And yesterday, maybe because I have been eating all my crusts recently, a duckling suddenly turned up in the garden. It just appeared next to the veg garden. All alone, and making a pitiful squeaking. I caught it (not difficult) and have now put it in the turkey house (no turkeys at the moment). I keep checking on it (I think it's drinking) and I have been researching manically on google. Apparently, they can get lonely, so I have added a mate! It's soooooo sweet!

The chicks were 11 weeks old at the weekend, and we decided that it was time they were moved, along with their surrogate mother, the white bantam, into the main chicken house . . . . . . and into hell - as the 2nd photo suggests. So, on Saturday afternoon we caged the three of them in the main house, alone, and let them explore, and hopefully roost. Then at dusk we let Flash and the 5 hens back into their house. Chaos ensued. Bloody chaos. And ever since; Flash has been patrolling up and down, the (larger) white sussex hens have been pecking and baying (almost wolf-like) and skirmishing has been breaking out all over the place. Two days later, it is still not much better. One hen has a facial injury, the two chicks roost as soon as there is any trouble and egg-laying is becoming a case of  'drop-it-anywhere, quickly and run'. The only bright note is that the black bantam has laid her first egg for 18 months. (I half-expected an ostrich-sized egg after a

Not here in Hayfield. But, in Scotland. We are just back from a week's munro-bagging around Braemar; first we wild-camped for 4 nights, and then we took a cottage for the rest of the week. Midges did not exceed double figures and we had rain only on our first two days. Fuelled with our good fortune, we sweated up 17 munros. Even had to crack open the sun cream.  Of course, now we are home, it's back to weeding and mowing and scything and weeding. Did I mention weeding? However, things are growing at last, and the chickens had laid us 49 eggs! And what's more, the black bantam who has not laid an egg for 18 months has started laying.

At least one of my readership has been clamouring for update photos of the chicks, so . . . Remember this? Well, now, after 7 weeks they look like this . . . They are all roosting and the white chick is now bigger than its surrogate mother, our white bantam. But, not to be outdone by her 'offspring', she has started laying again. And, furthermore, Sarah now thinks that both of the chicks are looking like hens. So, all in all, it is a good news story in the turkey house. Elsewhere in the garden the Autumnal weather is taking a toll. Yesterday at 4pm I saw my breath as I walked across the lawn. As a result nothing is really growing, and everything, me included, is feeling and looking windswept. Better weather, like jam, always seems to be tomorrow.