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!

Chicken run.

I do feel for our little girls. True, they do have a much richer life than many hens in those tiny runs but how they adore to scratch around in the dirt or leg it over to Jack's garden where the grass is longer and they sometimes find cat food or cake thrown out for them. So when we can we free them from their chicken runs and let them loose. Today was my early finish so I got home about 4.15. First job was to open the doors of the pens and watch them go, the second was to scrape the droppings board clean and then it was indoors to make a cup of tea. Sadly with the winter days getting shorter they only came out for thirty minutes before trundling off to bed. There was still a little time for the new chicks to scratch about in the veg patch.