Where's the Ark?

Although the hens have been dusting themselves today in the greenhouse nothing else has been much out and about. A blitz of brown alerted us to the arrival of the Sparrowhawk this morning as it flashed past our bedroom window in hot pursuit of breakfast. The tiny bird evaded capture by flying into a dense shrub in Jack's garden which foiled it's pursuer and there was a flapping of wings as it untangled itself and, looking slightly ruffled, flew onto the fence so it could preen itself again before taking off on another hunt.

Once up and dressed we nipped into the local DIY store to get some coal for the stove. Despite it being a  fairly recently built building the weather was proving the victor and the staff's low tech solution was to place buckets to catch the drips, right next to the electrical and lighting aisle.
As yesterday saw us driving gingerly through a huge flood not once, but twice, I didn't really fancy having anymore wet weather situations. So today I've been indoors all day apart from opening and closing the chicken's pop holes.
Time to get the wellies out!

Lovely weather for ducks.

Well, the weather warning was correct. We're still experiencing the torrential downpour that has lasted for hours now. The hens took one look at the rain and hot footed it up the ramp to the dryness of their perch. The babies didn't fare so well, with one of them being blown off their ramp by the strength of the wind.Only the unseen rat in the compost bin is dry and warm, hiding in the bin with copious amounts of food.
This year we've seen such a lot of rain and so little sun. Now we are being told to brace ourselves for a freezing winter. Oh dear.

Remember me?

It's been wetter than I can remember for a long time, hence the no show on my blog. What can I tell you? We have filled the water butt in just two days, the ground is too wet to stand on and the girls have been 'holidaying' in the greenhouse to prevent trench foot!
However, with a break in the downpour today I hopped outdoors and pulled up the summer bedding from my barrel and two pots and replaced them with tulip and allium bulbs. I roughly pushed my fingers into the compost to make little beds for some iris bulbs too and then, as the first fat drops warned me of more rain, I planted the last of my tulips in double quick time. I'll be glad of those come the springtime.
A weather warning email has even sent to all council workers for tomorrow so I guess we have more rain to come! Roll on 2013 and maybe an actual summer! It seems a very long way off yet.
Sorry I've been away so long!