Keeping at it

It is the only way to keep going - a little bit at a time. The last few days have disappeared in another blur of sleeping and eating, and not an awful lot else. I am still drained and lifeless, in many ways, and doing only the bare minimum.

The chicks which hatched from the Orpington eggs have now got to the fully feathered stage and so the mothers have been put back into the main flock. Two of the broods have been amalgamated so that there are now two pens of five chicks, instead of a five, a three and a pair. The mothers understandably squawked their protestations at being removed from their offspring last night, but all of them seem to have settled in again. The chicks are fine too, and huddle together at night for warmth and company. The incubator chicks which hatched on the 1st July are now beginning to get their feathers - and they are not all Light Sussex. One of them is definitely brown, and I am not sure what it is going to turn out to be - it may be a Buff Sussex, but I don't think so at the moment. Perhaps when it has more feathers, it will be clearer.

The baby rabbits born to Bubblegum on 1st July are also doing well. Six of the eight have survived and are thriving. They are very cute and get lots of cuddles!

The FH is taking the girls to Norwich on Thursday so that the EFG can attend a creative writing course at the university. They will be staying overnight in the motorhome on a campsite and then she will attend the second day, after which they will come home. Peace and uninterrupted thoughts for about 44 hours, I think. Such a shame that the time has had to be set aside to do my tax return and tax credits form.

We have been eating our own dwarf/French beans for a couple of days now, and they are very good - lovely straight pods which are very tender. There are a lot to pick, which I will have to do very soon, but for today I just gathered enough for supper. Plot to plate in 25 minutes, and less than 15 feet travelled too - can't be better than that. We also have courgettes, pumpkins, butternut squash and a kind of gourd flourishing in the garden, as well as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in the greenhouse and tomatoes in the troughs. We need a bit more sun to ripen them, though, if You are listening up there, God. Speaking of God, our minister came knocking at the door yesterday to see how we were since we haven't been able to get to church for weeks. Since I was just napping, he didn't get invited in for a cuppa, which was bad of me, but I was in dire need of a sleep. It was very kind of him to call round, though.