The Garden Fence - proper Old Style support and chat!

Onebrokelady

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I love names people give their chickens, when we had chooks the first three were Geraldine, Margery and Florence (known as Floppy) and the last trio were Sylvia, Barbara and Edwina, the first three were warren browns and the last Columbian blacktails, little characters each one of them and like people all 6 completely different. Margery thought she was a hawk of some kind and loved being carried round the garden on He Who Knows arm, Geraldine thought she was super chicken and even when I trimmed their flight feathers could still manage to fly on to the fence round their scratching enclosure and off the other side. They were all egg laying hybrids and gave us many beautiful brown eggs in their short lives, and I was sad to lose them one at a time. I think that digging with chickens as opposed to swimming with dolphins is one of the nicest things I've ever done, I'd put the fork into the earth and lift and when I looked down there were always 3 hopeful hens balanced on bits of it peering hopefully into the turned earth and making their happy 'Brrrrrrrkk' noise, dear old things!

Sadly there are far too many urban foxes in the village now to even contemplate chickens a friend has some including a bantam cockerel called Larry and I saw her chicken run in the back garden when I delivered something to her, concrete base, double wall mesh both mesh walls cemented into the ground and a solid roof, a sort of chicken fort knox, and it worked as she's had Larry for some time and you can't even get cross at the foxes as we are building on all the green spaces they've dwelt on for years and they are in an ever decreasing area and the housing stock locally goes up and up, also very sad!

Love your chicken names,I've remembered a couple more this afternoon, we have had Sybil,Perdita and Clementine
My Chicken house and run is on my patio at the moment,it was on soil further up the garden but I had an invasion of rats so I had to move it onto concrete,I'm going to move it back but it will be on slabs,it's a shame because they like digging in the dirt, I do however put all my garden sweeping in the run plus the old sawdust when I clean them out and they love digging in that,in the autumn when all the leaves drop they go in the run as well to be broken down into leafmould which then goes back on my plants
We have several foxes here but my run is foxproof,I do let the hens free range in the garden when I'm at home and have been lucky so far,my garden backs into woodland so there's foxes and badgers around,we also have a school next to that and I think the noise from there possibly keeps them away in the daytime,I let the dog out the night before last and I could hear a fox screeching at the top of the road,it's a really eirie sound

Forgot to say Sybil......or Lady Sybil to give her her full title was a Colombian black tail

Onebrokelady

The chickens are done......I repeat the chickens are done,they have gone to bed without muttering at me tonight so I must have done a good job,they have been roosting out in the run for the last few nights and I thought there might be red mite in the coop but thankfully there was no sign,the hens live in a large plastic house so it's easy to keep clean,it also doesn't have lots of nooks and crannies for things to hide in so hopefully redmite won't stand much chance,they love this hot weather though,I have sprinkled in plenty of anti mite powder so they should be ok

I also managed to clean my bedroom at last,it looks lovely now,I'm hoping I will sleep better now I've tidied it up as I the clutter was annoying me

Softstuff

I love the chicken talk, it makes me think again of having some, they would be beloved pets, not really a practical homesteading situation!

Slinky, that's a ridiculous situation at the pool for your OH. I've seen many situations here where the "old contingent" are protective of their status quo to the exclusion of all others. Line dancing was one of them, I had to have balls of steel for that, first I was stood in the wrong place and told so, then I sat in the wrong seat at break (they're not labelled!), then I was glared at for not knowing everything instantly.... It's no surprise new folk come, attend a session or 2 and !!!!!! off. I enjoyed it so much though I thought screw'em and carried on, now some of the old guard are downright friendly. That said, I never did make it to bingo at the club here, I love bingo, but simply they were so unwelcoming I never even found a seat.

FairyPrincessk

Morning all,

Slinky would it be worth writing a letter to explain the situation and ask for a bit of an 'appeal' now that calmer heads have hopefully prevailed?

Bilberry picking yesterday did not result in bilberries--it has clearly been too dry for them. It was still a lovely walk with a friend though. I have a very light day planned today as it is forecast to be much warmer. I'll cut more herbs for drying and then set up under the tree with a blanket and a book and a jug of something cool. There is cold lentil salad for lunch and I'll have to decide what to do for tea. I think both recipes involve putting the oven on so we'll definitely be eating outside :eek:

Hugs to all who need them.x

greenbee

I've just been swimming, and faced the perennial problem of being too fast for one lane but too slow for the next. That's usually OK, but there are a couple of people who NEVER stop at the end to let people pass and the lanes are too narrow to overtake. Really pools need to put up clear rules on pool etiquette and tell people when they're in the wrong lane.

Slinky

Unfortunately the town is a bit distant from anywhere else he could realistically reach, he's working long hours. The pool is a 10 minutes walk from where he's staying.


He certainly wouldn't go cap in hand asking to be reconsidered, as far as he was concerned he did nothing wrong. He's been dodging other swimmers for years, it was just an unfortunate accident and an unpleasant person it occured with. It's rare for pool staff to ever try to organise the lane swimmers better, they just don't want to get involved. I've seen it myself when I go swimming with him. I'm in the very slow lane, he's in the medium/fast depending on who else is in there. Some pools are better than others, it has to be said.



I think he'll look for a gym next week, which will make a change anyway.

greenbee

No one EVER tells people they're in the wrong lane sadly (personally I think lifeguards should police this, but that's not actually their job!) or that it's good manners to let people past when you get to the end if they're clearly going faster than you. After all, there aren't enough lanes for us all to swim at our own speed! I'm either in the medium or slow lane depending on who else is here.... fast lane was busy today, so it all cascades down. Actually I was probably faster than the slowest person in the middle lane, but she was causing problems there. And there was someone faster than me in the slow lane. We could probably do with one more lane, as the middle lane is very wide, but that would then make the middle two very small. Can't win really... just need people to be considerate!

FairyPrincessk

Slinky wrote: »

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He certainly wouldn't go cap in hand asking to be reconsidered, as far as he was concerned he did nothing wrong. He's been dodging other swimmers for years, it was just an unfortunate accident and an unpleasant person it occured with. It's rare for pool staff to ever try to organise the lane swimmers better, they just don't want to get involved. I've seen it myself when I go swimming with him. I'm in the very slow lane, he's in the medium/fast depending on who else is in there. Some pools are better than others, it has to be said.



I think he'll look for a gym next week, which will make a change anyway.

I wasn't suggesting he apologize or 'go cap in hand', merely that putting it in writing and presenting it without the other party present may allow a fairer outcome. When I said 'reconsidered' I meant the staff may see they'd made an error of judgement in the heat of the moment.

monnagran

Morning all. Although I feel that we are halfway through the day. I was fed up with the heat last night, in spite of the aircon and the fan on all night it was an uncomfortable and sleepless one. At about 6.00 I threw in the towel and got up. I had breakfast, showered (again) and was up at the village shop before 8. Got back, tidied up the kitchen, filled dog bowls and bird baths and did a few minor jobs. Made coffee and here we are.

I can't join in any discussion about swimming as I can't even swim a width, although I can swim a pretty good depth.
One school I taught in was the first primary school in the county to build a swimming pool in its grounds, or should that be ' dug ' a swimming pool? Anyway, I had the reception class in that school and it was my proud boast that not one 5yearold ever left my class without learning to swim. Of course it couldn't happen today with health and safety, risk assessment, tick the right box, have the right credentials, demands. And probably a good thing too. We had a gung-ho attitude to this swimming pool. One teacher was obsessed with veruccas and poured so much Jeyes Fluid into the foot bath that the children's feet turned yellow. Another time the chlorinating plant failed, so another enterprising teacher filled a watering can with chlorine and sprinkled it into the pool. Then he took a broom and swished it around to mix it up, the man who came periodically to test the water nearly passed out! Unfortunately, this teacher had spilled some drops of chlorine on to the small wall surrounding the pool, one of my little girls sat in it and her dress disappeared in holes. Another child started walking in the shallow end and didn't stop when she got to the deep end. Presumably she didn't stop when every one was yelling at her because by the time the water was several inches above her head I had to jump in, fully clothed, to fish her out and pump the water out of her.
Do you know, no one sued.
The mother of the child who nearly drowned simply sent me a message as we got on the coach for a visit to the zoo, saying, "Dont worry Mrs C. There's no water there."

That's me and swimming wrapped up.

Chicken naming fascinates me. As a lot of you know, mine were Hinge and Bracket, Gert and Daisy, French and Saunders. Having exhausted pairs of comediennes I went on with flower names, Fuchsia, Aster, Sweet pea, Orchid and Cosmos come to mind.
My Mum was ace with hens names. The family story goes that when I was a small girl the boy next door asked me the names of our 3 white hens. " Jemimah, Kezia and Keren-Happuch," I reeled off. "Them's funny names," he ventured. "They," I retorted smartly, "are the daughters of Job." What a smarty-pants.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures.

nursemaggie

DD and DGS are gone back to Berwick. Shortly after she got here on Tuesday her solicitor called her and ask if they could go sign the contract on the house they have bought so she has had to go back today. They are moving into their new house on Monday. SiL started his new job at Newcastle Uni on Monday.



Yesterday we went to Salford to the Imperial War Museum North. GDS really enjoyed it. We also went to The Lowry gallery but GDS did not like Lowry so I will have to go back on my own to see them a bit better on my own. I will go in the Outlet Mall while I am there, now I know there is an M & S outlet there.