Country Life

A knock at the door.

'You missing any bantams?'
'Yes, actually, the four of them - the fox got in whilst we were away and that was the end of my Girls'.
'I've got one in my summer house if you'd like to come and collect her'.

Rush down the lane and there in the summerhouse is my Darling Grace - after her miraculous escape she has now become Amazing Grace.

We were away for a few days and the Meerkat Boy moved in to have a break from his father to look after the Girls ... he was sleeping in the spare room at the front of the house and the Girls are in the garden at the back of the house which our bedroom overlooks.  So when the f***ing fox chewed its way through the wire, the Meerkat Boy slept on ... so George, Bessie and Felicity are now in bantam heaven.  The Meerkat Boy was devastated - you look after someone's animals and they die ...

Rang Mr. Bantam who told us that bantams/chickens get lonely and pine away if they are by themselves - or if we didn't want more Bantams the trick was to put a mirror in the garden and con Grace into thinking she wasn't alone.  As Grace had proved herself to be a most smart Bantam, I didn't think she would be taken in by a mirror trick for too long, so three replacement Girls were purchased.  They don't have names - I hate to say that we can't tell the difference between them and perhaps it would be tempting fate to give them names, so now it is just Grace and the Girls.

We now have a fox trap in the garden - so far we have caught three magpies (possibly the same one) and yesterday three of the Girls strolled in and the door shut.  No fox.  After capturing the magpies, we rang round to see if any of the gamekeepers wanted one - apparently they are put in a Larson trap to attract other magpies and the gamekeepers then blast them to smithereens.  Anyway no-one wanted one so we were advised to hit it over the head and be done with it.  Both of us cringed at the idea so the magpies live to fly another day!  Waiting for another rabbit to be delivered to use as bait - if not I will have to go and get some dog food.

We  have an allottment in the village about three minutes from the house - all planted and growing and this is definitely how I like gardening.  I have been waiting for it to rain so that I can plant some things here at the house, but apart from a bit of drizzle we have had no rain for months.  The one advantage is that we don't have to mow the lawn, as there is none left to mow.

Tomorrow we are off to the Royal Cornwall Show to see what goodies are on offer in that far away place on the road to America, and probably go and stroke a few pigs as one does.

My beloved wee Scottish gentleman in his black coat will be here within about 10 days, so I must go and make a Welcome Home banner.