Almost the moment I got in through Mum’s front door she asked me to help her put her kitchen back where it was, as she hated what had been done by my siblings without asking how she felt and how she wanted her kitchen to be! Accordingly, I’ve moved the freezer, recycling, rubbish bin, shredder, glass bottle crate and spare shopping bag box back into the places they were in before, retrieved the biscuit box from a shelf she couldn’t reach and put it back in the usual spot on a lower shelf, did the same with the cooking oil and squash, brought the outside bins back from the front of the house to the side between two sets of gates and generally tidied stuff back where she told me she wanted it.
After that she had a look through a paint catalogue with me and has chosen the colour of paint for her room. She wants to check it in daylight against the yellow velvet curtains she thinks she wants (they’re an old pair she’s had for years but still perfectly good) and then I’ll go get the paint and a curtain rail. Her room should be ready to paint at the end of the week when the plaster’s properly dry – with application, I hope to have it all ready for her over the weekend.
With luck on the removals people having free time, we could have her settling into the Croft towards the end of next week!
I found Dancer hanging out with Rhapsody in the field this morning – and even when I fed them, Rhapsody came over and muscled into Dancer’s breakfast, so they ended up with both noses in the bucket! I moved Rhapsody’s meal closer so they shared that for dessert.
Poppy ate in solitary splendour in the barn, while Abe and George ate on opposite sides of the yard. It all seems to work for them, so who I am to quibble?
I’m taking on another half dozen hens in the New Year – a friend’s parents are moving to France and were looking to rehome rather than eat their chickens, so I’ll be getting a little mixed flock – an Araucana crossed Pencilled Hamburg cockerel with 6 hens – one black Araucana, one Gold Pencilled Hamburg, one Blackrock and three crossbreds. Apparently they lay a mix of white, green, blue and brown eggs, which will add some nice variety to my flock’s brown eggs.
I shall have my fingers crossed the cockerels all get on, but hopefully they’ll each establish their own territory and not pick fights.
Snowball has decided to move on from asserting his male authority by pulling the hens’ tails and stamping at the ducks, he’s now trying to mate with the hens. I’m not sure how effective he is yet – the hens are taller and he has to jump onto their backs, but he’s trying! Charlie is restricting his attention to the black silkie hen, who has become known as Angel. They’re staying firmly in the sheds and refusing to come out again!
Cairnorchies Chronicles 