Watch this space.

We have this week booked off in order to build the back fence. Luke has dug  up the distorted conifer and now I have cleared away the mass of brambles, wood, stones, washing up bowls, old bin and wrought iron planter along with the drain pipe, old wooden posts and two washing line posts we are ready to get out there and build. When I say 'cleared away' I have just moved everything six feet further back in order for Luke to be able to dig the new fence post holes. I was out in my leggings and work tee shirt hoping not to be seen in that state when a chap came meandering along the field. He, like me, was tidying up the back boundary - in his case, cutting down an overgrown shrub that was blocking light from his Mother's garden. Unbelievably it turned out that we had a mutual friend so we chatted away whilst he reminisced about his childhood in this area. He remembered nipping into the field to steal three fat cabbages for the family's Sunday roast then watching the lazy cows graze once the field had been turned over to pasture. Apart from that one day we had traveller horses in there we've never seen the field used for anything but an occasional trespasser walking his excitable spaniels or the lone fox sniffing at the long grass.
Whilst friends fly off to sunnier climes to shake off their winter blues we are staying put and working hard to get the fence erected and the new chicken finally re-homed in a proper hen house (I spent last Saturday scrubbing the entire wooden edifice with Dettol and water before hosing it down and drying it in the sun). To be honest with you I would rather be on a beach or swimming in warm waters but needs must and our tactic of delayed gratification will hopefully pay off when all the jobs are done (one day?)
Here, although we work long and hard so don't have time to properly enjoy it, we have so much to be grateful for that it would be downright churlish to complain. As I often say, I'm a lucky woman.

New beginnings.

Spring is on it's way with these lighter nights and warmer days. The chickens are roaming across our garden and Jack's from the moment they are let out till the sun has dipped behind the hill. Although it's not advised to have chickens in the flower beds I have to say that far from being destructive they have raked over the top layer of the beds and have only broken one small hyacinth. Once the sweet tips of new growth come through we'll have to keep an eye on them.

 

They love every part of one of our favourite plants, Cerinthe, the blue shrimp plant, and will strip that in a matter of minutes; greedily tearing at the leaves and pulling the pendulous beauties from their stalks. We now plant them in the front garden or in pots kept high enough out of their way to avoid total annihilation.

However, these are a few of the plants coming into their own right now.

The hellebores are looking lovely right now although they have again succumbed to the dreaded leaf spot they are susceptible to. Never mind, I just remove the leaves and enjoy the flowers.

Some damage has been done to this blue hyacinth. Still, it will smell as sweet, if only I was heartless enough to cut it for indoor use I could enjoy it's heady scent in the house.

Bonding over yoghurt.

The hens have now come to an understanding. Massive chicken (Lola) and our two bantams (Shakira "Shaksta" & Buck Bucky "Buckster") are all in the greenhouse having a dust bath. The breakthrough came yesterday over a pot of yogurt. Shakira will always ignore everything else when there is food about and so, whilst Buckster had her longed for dust bath (a rare treat now the greenhouse is temporary home to Lola) Shakira chowed down over a pot of yogurt which we give them for good digestion. Lola was given a pot when we first had her but she ignored it and after three days it had a crust of dust on it so I threw it out. She hasn't been used to variety in her diet so studiously ignored the 'treat'. However, seeing Shakira wolfing it down so gluttonously she decided to try it out. In a minute they were like nodding dogs, heads in the pot and then head thrown back to flick the excess all over the deck and themselves. Once Buckster joined them the pot was empty and the girls were nonchalantly ferreting about the garden, looking for young grass tips and bugs.

 Lola wants what Shakira has....., she just doesn't know how good it tastes yet.

 

Look at Shakira's beak, she is such a messy easy!

Chowing down.

Buckster decides she isnt' ready to feel the love yet and has a lone dust bath in the greenhouse.

Where are the others? It's lonely in here!

Here come the girls to join Buckster for a communal bath before a spot of lunch.

 All together in the depleted parsley patch, Lola towers over our bantam girls.

Buckster, who is used to being the boss makes a hasty retreat when Lola encroaches on her space.

Even the cat gets in on the act. Socks, from next door casts a glance in their direction. She's hoping for a fat toad to hop into the undergrowth.