A Lazy Sunday…
After emerging from a reasonably late evening the night before with a slight pain behind the eyes, we managed to launch ourselves into several pressing tasks.
Urgent noises from the chicken coop prompted urgent action to be taken on one of our male bantams. The little bugger had continually been raiding our veg. patches and needed his wings clipping. A few weeks previously, we had clipped one of his wings to promote lop-sided flight, and yet the little git had managed to improvise and was still free to wreak havoc.
The final straw arrived when he started repeatedly molesting our hens, well any hen within reach. “Enough” cried Jennifer and we had to take him in hand. He is of an intelligent breed, and managed to evade capture by hiding inside the hen houses. We managed to catch him, and clipped both sets of flight feathers. He cut a slightly forlorn figure, hopping around and flapping two feather-free arms, but at least he has stopped ‘bothering’ the hens quite so much.
We spent a part of the day battening down various hatches before the onslaught of 50mph winds forecast to arrive later in the day. The goat’s shelter has now been completed – tick. All bins and bottles that could be had been secured – tick. We shall have forgotten something though, and will find it halfway down the mountain by tomorrow.
It has been a pottering sort of day, marking time until 5.10pm when United visit Spurs and we can enjoy the stop-start nature of streaming a football game over the internet. Will light what will hopefully be one of the last fires in the house this winter, as it is certainly becoming warmer (and lighter) in the evenings.
Monday morning update.
3-1 win over Spurs, having been battered for most of the game – good. Keep looking over your shoulder, noisy neighbours. Wind arrived and we only forgot a few things. The goats decided to studiously ignore the shelter and are currently basking in the sun, in the lee of a stone wall. We will be continuing the process of inducting them into the madness that is life here – I am sure they will fit in…
The damned wind
We have suffered low temperatures these last 10 days or so, suffered being the correct word, as they have been accompanied with the dreadful Mistral.
‘Mistral’ – sounds French – nice warm soothing breeze that gently ruffles the treetops, and causes the sweat to evaporate faster from your body cooling you down.
Not a bit of it.
This b@stard hurls itself about the place, coming roughly from the North, and changes it’s angle of attack every second. It is no pleasure to be outside at times like this, and is to be avoided at all costs. It is especially comical when you ‘have’ to be outside, together, and it becomes increasingly difficult to hear the instructions from your beloved as to where the cat food is, or the answer to which arcane place she has left the axe.
Believe me when I tell you than it is not conducive to marital bliss, especially when you are only trying to ‘help’.
Tonight, after some 10 days of this dreadful French import, we had a remission – it may not last, but for the moment we can enjoy a measure of tranquility. No more are the kennels being pushed sideways, with dogs still inside! We can carry on with a conversation over a cooling ‘sundowner’ without fear of the bottle being whisked sideways and out of the finca.
It is sure not to last, but enjoy it we will – someone has to!
All is well just now – dogs fed, cats fed, kids soon to be. I have a monster of a lasagne gently bubbling in the oven which has many ‘homegrown’ ingredients within. The tomato frito, the oregano, the onions and garlic, the bayleaves for the bechamel are all ‘home-harvested’.
<smug></smug>
it has been a good day, now the wind has gone. It is incredible what a difference it can make to your overall sense of well-being. Sometimes I can relate to the man who wore shoes two sizes too small just for the feeling of relief when he could finally take them off at the end of the day.
<open bottle of red>