Chickens don't like Harleys!

Yesterday Bob did the oil change on his Harley and as soon as he wheeled it out of the barn the chickens started making a terrible hullabaloo.  When he started it up they ran a mile . . . . well, little Elvis didn't - she ran and hid behind the wheelie bin and wouldn't come out all afternoon!  Even when Bob tried to coax her out with treats she was very reluctant and wouldn't talk to him for ages!  It's strange because the day before he'd been using the angle grinder which does make an awful noise, but they just carried on pecking away at the grass nearby without a worry.

Today I did the grout in the bathroom.  Looks as though I'm on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor doesn't it - poor Cinders can't go to the ball!  I had to put the Marigolds on because the day before I'd been doing a top coat on the lime plaster and some got in through a hole in my gloves and dissolved a hole in my finger!  Usually it doesn't irritate me, but maybe it was a particularly caustic particle that got trapped.  It certainly makes a very sore sore I can tell you.  How the men who worked in the lime kilns must have felt I can't imagine - they must have been in agony. 

While I was doing the grout, Bob built the front of the step from the hall into the kitchen.  It just looks so much better and more finished with the lovely old bricks instead of concrete and pipes.  We'll probably top it with a piece of wood and have a split door (so it opens within the width of the wall instead of sticking out into the hall or kitchen).

It was such a lovely day that we took our lunch up to the woods and sat on the wall looking at the flowers.  It's at times like this that we realise just how lucky we are.  It was so lovely with birds singing away at the tops of their voices (just like the background track to an RSPB advert), a buzzard circling lazily just above the trees against a clear blue sky and a carpet of wild flowers at our feet.

Oh, I must update you on the woodpecker front!  There's going to be trouble you know.  The brief history is that in Spring 2009 a pair of greater spotted woodpeckers (the black, white and red ones) pecked out a hole in the beech tree trunk behind the caravan and raised a brood of very noisy chicks.  In 2010 a pair of nuthatches took it over and made it to fit by bringing mud and shaping the hole to their liking and they raised some very cute chicks.  This year, as I told you a green woodpecker has been taking an interest and pecking away for a couple of days.  Then yesterday we looked out to see a greater spotted pecking away at it.  We also saw the green one sitting very still just staring at the hole.  It must have been thinking 'I'm sure I didn't make it that shape' .  Now, today the nuthatches are back and have been busy back and forth doing something!  On closer inspection, one or the other of the woodpeckers has started a new hole, but either way it'll be a bit overcrowded if they all move in!  Watch this space.


Wood anenomes