Away from home.

We have been home three weeks now and still we haven't put all the photos onto Luke's Flickr account so although it's nothing to do with gardening, I'm very aware I haven't put any photos online for you for weeks and who wants to listen to my warbling so here are two pics from The Maldives - those 30 degree temperatures are so missed!
The first photograph is the 'Ray feeding man' scooping up a guitar fish, a half ray/half shark creation. The second one is our last minute on the island and I am spending that time feeling the sand between my toes.... happy days.

Another day dawns.

What to do...,

Another mixed summer. Today is the village summer fête yet so far the rain has lashed down and the promised sun is merely peeking out from behind grey clouds every so often to raise our hopes. I have loaded up the washing machine, believing that the warmth of the sun is only an hour or two away and then everything will be basked in it's light. Here's hoping anyway.

So what can be done when the garden is boggy from days of rain? Well, I have been able to thin out the carrots and marvel at how badly my peas have done (although to be fair I did have to move them to make way for the fence although seeing how long that is going to take I am not sure we couldn't have left them where they were).

Although Shakira is broody and needs to be placed in the broody box we are loath to do that as the dog next door is still coming into our garden on an almost daily rate and will only alarm her. So we are just plucking her out of the nesting box every time she goes in there and hunkers down. There's no cruelty in taking her out as she will not lay any eggs whilst broody and her sitting on an empty nest is pointless. She does cluck away when Buck Bucky comes near her but as Buckster (Buck Bucky's other name, whilst we shorten Shakira to Shaksta or Fattie) is the top of the pecking order she takes little notice and soon Shakira gives up and gets on with her life (which consists of eating and brooding). Although we still miss Sweetie it is very easy having just our two original girls as they know their roles and Shakira can't pick on any other chicken. She's always been second in the pecking order, much to her chagrin as she would love to be 'top dog'. Buckster was the oldest chicken of the original four and because the others were so little she automatically became the boss although as she is such a calm bird it's always worked well. Shaksta though is a bit of a bully and weirdly enough always clashed with any silver pencilled chickens we owned. Sweetie and Pom Pom were both small birds in relation to the others but had such brave and audacious characters that they were happy to scrap with Shakira who, like the cowardly lion in The Wizard of Oz is mainly bluffing it. Because the two remaining chickens live harmoniously together we have decided to keep just the two for now. If we introduce new ones there will be the usual argy bargy and I'm enjoying the peace and quiet (remember last year we had to split the chicks because the fighting got very serious between the outmatched Shakira and Sweetie. I did admire Sweetie's tenacity but she was so much smaller than Shakira and so it was always an unfair fight (not that I like any fighting of any sort). Sweetie's hydrangea is starting to bloom and the sunflowers which didn't get eaten are building up fat flower heads.

It's gorgeous seeing all the young birds feeding on the nuts and seed and there is always colour and movement in that corner of the garden. I haven't seen or heard the wrens since but I'm sure they are out there, just waiting to tell me off for straying too near to them.

I hope the sun comes out ; our summers seem to only last days nowadays rather than weeks or months and who remembers that glorious Queen's silver Jubilee year of 1977 when the sun seemed to shine non stop? If and when it does appear I so want to get in the hammock and feel the sun on my face.

What a racket

I'm babysitting Jack's cat, Socks this week and so am often found hopping over the border between our gardens. I like that we just have shrubs between us as it gives a natural look to the garden. Shame we can't do the same the other side but as Milo, the dog, has been in our gardens five times in four days, much to the general alarm of the hens who scuttle off to the safety of their elevated hen house at the mere sight of him and who can blame them, we have no choice but to fence it off.
Yesterday morning I went to feed Socks when I heard a loud, excitable whirring noise. I knew what it was, Luke had chanced upon the perpetrator earlier when he opened up the chicken house. It was a tiny wren, a little brown mouse of a bird with it's upright tail and downturned beak. In case I didn't know what was making the noise it flew in front of me and landed in another shrub where it again started it's high drum roll of a noise.
I have seen a pair of wrens up behind our shed so am guessing there is a nest there too. One of the pair came very close to me, three feet away, clinging to the ivy on the shed before perching on the corner of the shed's roof and making it's racket as if to scare me off. I have been bullied into submission and am now hiding in the house because I don't want to disturb the pair of them. Chased indoors by one of the smallest birds known to man!