Friends on the Mill Stream Walk, Seeds, Cockerels and Hens

My friends, Lesley and Roy, arrived with me on Sunday for supper, bed and breakfast. It was a flying visit, packed in amongst other visits, so far too short, but lovely to see them. The weather was glorious for this time of year and we went for a walk by the mill in St Nicolas du Pélem.

I returned to the car after about 20 minutes to read my next book club project, Stone’s Fall, and parked again so that I could open the door and be in the sunshine as I read. They continued their walk and returned a little later.  The path was really busy, with lots of familes out - it was Grandmothers' Day in France yesterday and most of the familes were of three generations, walking, cycling, with dogs and pushchairs - it was lovely to see so many people enjoying the fine weather.

The bullrushes in the mill stream were bursting with seeds, the catkins were turning brown and the celandines were like little drops of gold in the grass.

After they left on Sunday morning, I went down to the field with some of my seeds to plant up in the polytunnel. 

I put in broad beans and butternut squash to start and later transplant.  The butternut squash were very successful last year - I love them in soup and all the family love them roasted. 

I still can’t do much at a time, so after planting those seeds, I sat in the hen/duck run and took photos of some of the cockerels. The colours of their plumage were brilliant in the sunshine of another beautiful day.

And here are some of the hens in my kitchen - you can just see them on top of the cupboards.  The yellow box on the left is the incubator where I am hopefully hatching some chicks.

Tomorrow I have my hyperparathyroid tests at Yves Le Foll Hospital in St Brieuc.  I have an ultrasound booked for 10.00am and then at 11.00am I go to the Nuclear Medicine Department for the scintigraph.  It's a three hour wait after that before I am allowed to drive back home, so I shall have the chance to get through quite a bit of my book.

Lastly, another photo of Daisy.

As I was finishing this post, a great tit flew into my windowpane and stunned himself.

I brought him in and held him gently for about ten minutes while he recovered and then released him back into the world outside again.

New Fish, New ducks, Sheep and Josselin Chateau and other buildings

I’ve had a week which has concentrated on the animals here.

There were angel fish advertised on the local expat website and I exchanged some of my Kribensis, born in October last year, for two lovely angel fish.

The new fish have a knack of swimming off just as I am taking a shot of them, so the photographs aren't brilliant and don't really show they're lovely yellowy orange colours.

Later in the week,  I collected four Indian Runners. I haven’t had this breed of duck since I was living in Cornwall and I love them. I got a white pair and a black pair – they’re so funny to watch. Then the following day the same sellers advertised some Khaki Campbells, a breed I also had in Cornwall and I couldn’t resist and went back to collect them, plus another black Indian Runner drake who had always lived with them. They have settled in well and aren’t interested in the separate house I had made ready for them, but rush in with the hens each evening and sleep in the hen house.

That was the good news.  Now the horrid news.  Bramwell, my ram lamb from last year, died overnight and this morning was found in a shelter near the barn.  His mother, Mary, died this afternoon.  Neither of them had a mark on them, so I have no idea what happened but am thinking that it might be poisoning of some sort.   I spent about half an hour up with the animals yesterday after bringing the second lots of ducks back and they both seemed lively and absolutely fine.   It's very sad.

 

Yesterday, I had time to waste before I collected the Khaki Campbells, so I drove on down to Josselin, a place I had never visited. It’s a lovely town. I parked by the river and watched the fast flowing current and the dog walkers and joggers using the bank, while eating a scrumptiously moist leek and lardon quiche I had bought from my favourite Mur de Bretagne bakery. The sun was out and I opened the car window and enjoyed the warmth of it.

 

 
The spring flowers are out in profusion here now and I took these photographs of part of a bank of daffodils near St Caradec and forsythia near Josselin.
 

 

 

I can't wait to get on with sowing seeds in the polytunnels.  On Friday, we washed off the inside and outside of the polythene and tomorrow we should dig some of our homemade compost into the polytunnel beds and then I can start in earnest.  I bought in some batavia lettuce plants yesterday which I shall be planting too, and they should be ready for the Easter holidays when my daughter and grandson will be here.

 

I have the potatoes chitting in the gym and when the potato bed has had compost added too, then I shall plant them out at the beginning of April.  I've bought Charlotte which I find a good potato, and have been given some others free by the garden shop but have already lost the label, so they will be a surprise!

 

The eggs in the incubator are now on Day 13 and if they  are fertile, then hatching should begin on 7 March.  Fingers crossed!     

 

The hens are laying well now, and the eggs from the older hens are really large in contrast with the eggs layed by the chicks hatched in the early Autumn.  

My first year here, I had two pigs.  They were Gloucester Old Spots crossed with Saddlebacks and were lovely animals.  I spent ages up on the field with them as they were so friendly.  If you scratched them behind the ears they lay down on their backs to have their tummies tickled.  After the awful time I have had with the sheep, I am now thinking of having a couple of piglets to grow on instead of going the sheep route again.  The pig shed is still on the field and it will ony need a dozen posts and some pig fencing to extend the existing fencing to make a secure and good area for them.     I'll just have to find someone who's selling the sort of piglets that I would like to look after.

Right - to end on good news, my daughter who finished College last week with a Triple Distinction, had her first interview on Friday and got the job!  I'm so proud.

Alfie, Daisy and baby Brown

Sometimes it seems as if all your luck disappears. This has been a bad week. On Tuesday night my mummy sheep, Mary (who's photo is just above this posting on the right) gave birth to two little lambs in the barn, but they didn't make it and were both dead when I went down to the field in the morning. They looked so perfect - life's not fair sometimes.

Then yesterday late afternoon, Alfie was on my lap. He is my fourteen year old cat and came with me from Cornwall when I moved in 2006. I suddenly noticed that his right eye had no detail, just a dark green colour over the whole eye.

The photograph doesn't show it correctly, I think something to do with the light reflecting from the retina while he has this condition. The vet this morning didn't seem to know what it was exactly, but was thinking perhaps glaucoma. She gave me two lots of drops to administer and asked me to return on Wednesday morning. Poor Alfie - he is the most placid cat with the best character of any cat I've ever owned - the vet was amazed at how easy it was to do quite a long examination with him.

Daisie gave him a lovely welcome when he got back from the vet journey and didn't leave his side for quite a while.  When she finally settled somewhere else, it was on my table with her paws on my laptop so that I couldn't open it.

I have also had some bad news for myself.  My calcium levels are much too high and this seems to indicate that I have a tumour on one of my four parathyroid glands (nothing to do with the thyroid in spite of the name).  I am waiting for the results of urine tests and then have to have an ultrasound and a scintigraph before seeing the Endocrinologist on 21 April.  It is almost certainly benign, but would need removing as it means that I produce too much calcium which would lead to possibly malignant tumours elsewhere.  Unfortunately, my doctor has said that she wants this to be sorted out before my mini gastric by pass, so that will not now be taking place next month. 

Right - so that's three horrible things this week, which is more than enough.  Time for some good news.

Some friends of mine in Cornwall had a little boy prematurely on 19 December weighing around 730g - less than 2 lbs.  He has been in intensive care for so long, but is gaining weight and here is a photograph where he seems to be laughing.

No-one knew if he would survive, but he's obviously a little fighter and has surprised us all.

Fingers crossed for a better luck for us all next week.

Writers' Group, New Hens and Daisy

This morning saw me lying in bed far too long. My friend, who comes in on Mondays to sort out the house was already downstairs, with the woodburner going and hoovering done. I just couldn’t seem to get out from under my duvet. It was a cold night and frost was on the tops of the wall and had frozen the bird table water. Finally, I did emerge to shower and wash my hair. My fringe needs cutting – it is overlapping my glasses - and I am peering out from beneath it a bit like a Dulux sheepdog.

Just before midday the first of the Writers’ Group started to arrive. We are slightly depleted this month. One of our members sadly lost her daughter to double pneumonia two weeks ago and she is still back in Wales where the funeral was held. I feel so sorry for her. I can’t imagine what it must be like to lose a child, although I now have several friends who have been through this awful experience.

We had a happy meeting, as usual, with some good pieces of work being read. We always have lunch first, which we bring to who’s ever house is being used for the meeting. Luckily, it has been at mine for January and February, so I don’t have to drive anywhere, everyone comes to me. One of the girls, who drives for about an hour to get here, had picked up some hens for me which I had bought from the village next to hers. She also brought six eggs from the seller to show me what their eggs will be like.  A friend has just set up my incubator and I am going to try to hatch these freebie eggs.  They may, of course, not be fertilised, but fingers crossed.  They are various shades of bluey/green and look very attractive. 

I clipped one wing on each hen and shut them into the hen house for the rest of the day, so they should be easier to get in tomorrow evening as they will be used to where they are supposed to be.

At the January meeting I took photographs and sent them to all members of the Group. One of the other members sent them back to me with witty captions – all good clean fun.  We all look very serious in this one and the caption she sent for it was:

"Sue quickly realizes she’s failed to make a good impression on the interview panel."

 

Daisy is spending her days looking longingly out of the window at the birds. Yesterday afternoon she went out to the other side of the pane and reached up to the window feeder. I think she finds it exciting and frustrating at the same time.

 
I think she has the look of a young polar bear up on her back feet at full stretch, not at all like my gentle Daisy.