The Hen In The Head Saga

I was hit in the head with a chicken a week ago. Seriously. Kept finding smashed eggs on the concrete floor of the wash house and then a tallish friend discovered Gabriella the Black Hen sitting on one lone egg up on the top of a built out wall. When she tried to reach past her to collect six rotten eggs that had rolled under a shelf said bantam took fright, flew to the window before making a target of my head. Not that I got any sympathy from my friend "Just another day of excitement at the Little House On The Prairie" was her comment.

The unplanned pregnancies of the past year have resulted in a surplus of roosters. This causes terrified hens who are sometimes cornered by young cockerels with gang rape on their mind. So far have put adverts in local free trader magazines and the school newsletter but apparently "Gorgeous colourful bantam roosters" are in plentiful supply as I haven't had any replies.

Meanwhile Stig is mortified at the appearance of firewood in "his" shed so during the daytime I have been tethering him to the fence along the driveway so he can mow the lawn and the trees and make rude faces at the chickens. He still bawls like a stuck pig when he sees his Mummy but otherwise we go minutes at a time without even a maaaah so he is growing up at last. However there is some resentment simmering there as when I am busy undoing his chain from the fence he usually sneaks around behind me and butts me up my backside.

After a few days of 36oC weather in Tikokino the garden looks pretty sad. However there are two new additions. I finally managed to find an upright rosemary bush for just $3, in part due to extreme woodiness. I've planted it between the Margaret Merrill bush rose my friend Jacqueline gave me and the thyme bush plonked on top of Sarah the gray bantam hen. My friend Glenys is forsaking Central Hawkes Bay for Cromwell down Otago way and last Friday her husband and brother delivered a large green container filled with waterlilies which now graces the patio outside the dining room window. Despite its size the cats have managed to completely ignore it until this morning when Peaches decided it made a great drinking bowl. She is nothing if not practically minded.