My thoughts

Keeping animals is really good for emotional well being.  Even the chickens can be a real joy, with their funny little ways and their individual personalities.  I appreciate that talking about ones chickens is probably even more boring to others than talking about ones children, but this is my farm blog and so I will (a little).

I have two chickens who constantly jump over the fence from the hen enclosure to roam about in the garden. When the dog goes into the garden, they scuttle around and the yellow one can fly over the fence back into the safety of the hen enclosure, but the slightly fatter one, the grey one, can't.  Jack has had this chicken in his mouth numerous times, he shakes it and the chicken plays dead and goes all floppy. When I see what is happening I rush out into the garden shrieking  "Jack! Put that chicken down!" and he does.  The chicken lies still on the ground for a little while, then gets up, shakes itself off and I open the gate to let it back in the hen enclosure.  I think the chicken must like it.

The cockerel is also amusing, he is still learning all aspects of being a cockerel (if you know what I mean) and is trying to man up to the bossy hens.  He has trouble catching a couple of them and I have seen him once or twice on one of them the wrong way round - i.e. he is facing their tail feathers.  Now I have to admit to not being totally familiar with the whole chicken mating thing, but I'm sure that's not right.  Unless he has read the Kama Sutra.

Not laugh out loud anecdotes I admit, but it brightens my day.  If you have the space in your garden i can really recommend keeping some chickens, they are lovely and it is a real pleasure to see them all happy and scratching away, knowing that you are doing a good job in looking after them.

I caught a news programme the other day, a feature about Spain's struggling economy and it sort of jolted me a little.  There was a time when I thought and also cared about the state of the euro zone, we certainly talked about it a lot when I worked at the Bank of England.  But watching this news programme I realised that for the past few months my horizons have shrunk to the boundary of our land and I have thought and worried about nothing other than (the kids of course), the paddock growing, the cost of fencing, planning permission, riding exams etc etc.  The wide world is still out there, with all its huge problems  and I have been losing sleep over how much weed is growing in the paddock.  Perspective needed :-)

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