Wednesday 21st April 2021 Day 343
10.30 Just finished our little slimming group zoom session. We all seem to continue to yo yo with our weight but not by anything significant, just a lb or two up or down, mine was a lb up today which is hardly surprising as I found some treasure in my drinks cupboard in the form of a bar of white chocolate and promised myself just three squares with my cup of evening coffee but the promise was broken and that’s all I have to say about that!
Mostly, chickens are just chickens, they have a strict pecking order which unfortunately they take rather too literally, unless a cockerel rules the roost, and all too often it is very easy to see who is at the bottom of the pecking order by the extent of pecked wounds to the rear end.
My daughter has kept chickens for years and when they get old and die it is a shame but they are not pets and you get over it. Not so with Blue who sadly died yesterday.
Blue didn’t do well in the pecking order and became ill from one of the many complaints that can befall a chicken which usually lead to an early end. Not so Blue and as I have mentioned before, my daughter’s ability to nurse animals back to health, even a rabbit with myxomatosis, is quite remarkable. Blue was removed from her pecking sisters and came to live out her last few days in the garden. That was one year ago; she recovered very well and
frankly she began to act a bit like a spoiled brat, very demanding, preferred to come inside the house if the back door was carelessly left open, or sit on the kitchen windowsill, tapping with her beak until she got some attention either in the form of a cuddle or some food. She was a pest at a barbecue, going round and round begging and of course she left her mark everywhere she went which meant a lot of hosing. A real character and a much loved pet and definitely not just another chicken. RIP Blue.
10.40 I meet up with Sarah in the pub car park to walk in the woods. Very daringly I have put the coat away in favour of my gilet; unfortunately the promise of sunshine this morning has rather deteriorated and there is now quite a cold breeze. The wood anemones are coming out like a snow carpet and the bluebells just beginning to show their leaves and we don’t see another soul which is very often the case these days, surprising really considering how many more dog owners there are since Covid began and people found themselves at home for long enough to be able to own a dog.
My goodness what a molly coddled society we have become. First of all a letter two or three weeks ago, informing us that our electricity would be cut off between 9.30 and 15.30 yesterday. Then a follow up letter to remind us and apologise for inconvenience and assure us it was necessary work, changing power cables etc. Fine, I filled a couple of flasks with boiled water and charged up my phone, no problem. Then yesterday a text message from UKPN to inform us that Christina from customer support would be in the High St to offer us hot and cold drinks and food and free Wi-Fi and welfare support (obviously there are people for whom this would be a difficulty, I appreciate that) but really, these things have to happen and you used to just put up with it, if you were lucky you would get someone knock on the door and say ‘Electric’s going off for a few hours shortly if you want to boil the kettle’. But it didn’t end there, they finished a couple of hours late in the end and this morning, a knock at the door and I was handed a large box of chocolates for the inconvenience. Bonkers, or am I just not keeping up with the times?