Bonjour,
Hope you had a good week.
This morning I got up at my usual time of 06.00, I’ve always been an early riser and I find writing in the quiet hours before everyone starts their day really suits me. I truly envy those who can sleep in though as sometimes I’d just like to curl up in the duvet and zzzz. My 10 new chicken chicks have no such problems.
Before I start writing, I have an animal routine. No. 1 – cats. Open the front door and Shadow runs in screeching. She has to be picked up and cuddled before she will eat. No. 2 – cats. Open the back door and Loulou zooms past me to the food bowls. She is followed by Winston the biggest cat in the village. He is neurotic, if you were kind you’d say coy. He hangs back for a while, I have to tempt him, shaking bags of treats and blowing kisses, then I have to stroke him for a few minutes while he eats. Fat Cat wants her food on her own in her bowl outside.
No. 3 – Wild birds. As soon as I open the back door there is frantic activity in the hedges and trees as chaffinches, sparrows, robins, finches, blue tits, large tits and birds of all kinds get ready to swoop. I hang fat balls and fill the seed trays up. Later doves and pigeons arrive – dozens of them but first they wait for me in the chicken pens.
No. 4 – Let the dogs out into their part of the garden. They have their own room at the back of the house. Frank Bruno sleeps on his own and likes his space. Churchill and Ella Fitzgerald can’t bear to be apart so they sleep together. I tried leaving them to roam free at night but they ate the sofa and the TV remote control and howled all night until they went into cages where they feel safe and secure.
No. 5 – Big birds. Down to the pen with a tub of food for the chickens, ducks and geese. The male ducks are in one pen on their own as I have too many but no one wants them and I can’t do more babies, 52 ducklings last year nearly finished me off! Then into the chicken pen that’s shared with the female ducks. We had a new chicken join two weeks ago so I have to spread the food about so that she can pick and choose as there’s still a bit of sorting out to do in the pecking order. Then the geese. Flo is nesting so they are very vocal when I go in their pen.
No. 6 – The escapees. Kendo Nagasaki, Barbie, Belinda and Beatrice are chickens who refuse to conform. They won’t stay in the pen and demand to be fed in the garden which they freely roam digging holes for dirt baths, which I regularly fall over in.
No. 7 – “Royal chicks”, named after the senior lady members of the royal family as they arrived on the day of Harry and Meghan’s wedding. You would think all the cacophony of noise and the bright morning light would wake them up but no, these fluffy little chickens love their sleep. I do their water and food and they sleep right through! One or two might jump up to look out the window of their little coop at their servant, but normally they don’t get up before 9.00 – typical kids!
Then it’s time to write…
Wishing you a very bon weekend,
Bisous from France,
Janine
Editor
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