Yes, I know, it's June. Things have been rather traumatic around here of late, and with one thing and another, I've never quite gotten round to writing a post. Still, can't put it off forever. There might be a flurry of catch-up posts before I try to get back into posting more regularly. So, April. The chickens April was a dreadful month. I mentioned in my March update that Sunshine Chicken hadn't been well. It looked like she was on the mend and then she died on the way home from seeing the vet. A couple of weeks later, Budgie Chicken got ill - different symptoms, so we don't think anything contagious. She didn't respond to medicine, and we had to have her put to sleep. I'll do proper memorial posts for them later, but in the meantime, here they all are, enjoying some freedom after the avian flu housing order was finally lifted. By the end of April, we were just left with Bessie, and the two youngsters we'd rescued in January -Skippy and Daisy. We were heartbroken at losing Sunshine and Budgie in such quick succession, and weren't sure how much more we could take. Bessie was almost six years old, a vast age for a rescue hen, and we knew we didn't have that much longer with her. We made the difficult decision that, once we lost Bessie, we'd rehome the younger two. It wasn't something we wanted to do, but we didn't want to ever be in the position of only having one chicken, as they do much prefer to be in a flock. Anyway, maybe you can imagine where this sorry tale is going... but I'll keep the rest of the story for May's post. The garden The garden was largely neglected in April, between a flurry of chicken illness, several work trips away, and various other life happenings. One thing I did do was clear out the greenhouse - a much-needed task. What a mess! I turfed everything out, and dismantled the shelves, which were originally part of our old plastic greenhouse, and which didn't really fit properly into this one. Then I started building new shelves from an old pile of pallets. It was a good plan, but the first one was difficult to get through the door, and I realised I wasn't going to have to start building them inside the greenhouse. Tricky. I didn't quite finish in April, and therefore I also didn't sow any seeds. The rest of the garden was ignored, although the apple trees put on a good show of blossom, and the willow dome started to fill out. Christmas Two Er, yes. We celebrated Christmas in April, having largely ignored it the first time round given various illnesses. The Christmas tree was still up, as I refused to take it down until something more cheerful happened, and we invited some friends round for Christmas dinner. They gamely turned up with a chocolate chicken and some festive Easter eggs, and a jolly time was had by all. All told, I was pretty glad to see the back of April this year. Still, amidst all the turmoil, the weather turned, it started to feel like spring, and everyone had at least one good dust bath.
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Hello!Sit down and make yourself comfortable. I'm Jenni, and I write here about our new foray into country living, which includes growing food, knitting, baking, wandering around the fields, and seeing which local cafe serves the best cake. Categories
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