A Blast of Winter

Today was freezing. I delayed going down to the allotment, hoping it would warm up later in the day. It didn’t. Wrapping up as warmly as I could, I headed down to the allotment mid-afternoon.

By the time I had arrived and unlocked the gate, my hands were freezing. Metal seems almost cruelly cold and the padlock relishes being difficult in these conditions. Eventually, I made it work and headed down to the shed. My first job was to feed the girls in the greenhouse and the Omlet. To my surprise, I discovered an egg in each coop! Cold weather and short days are the death knell to eggs and it was quite cold yesterday too. Congratulating Leia and Foxy on their eggs, I headed down to the main coop.

Everyone crowded around, expectantly waiting for their treats. Rolling my eyes, I threw out their sunflower seeds knowing that this would buy me a few minutes peace to refill the food bowl. Next, I cleared out the poo in the Nest House. I had planned to clean out the Nest House today but with my hands now blue with cold, the idea of plunging them repeatedly into a bucket of cold water was unbearable. Shuddering at the mere thought of how cold the water would be, I apologised to Tommy and his girls and promised I would clean them out tomorrow!

Over in the new coop, Gordon and his girls were waiting at the run door, impatient for their treats. Judging from the new burrow in the corner of the run, the rat was back. So I put their treats in their bowl. This confused them initially, but once one had worked it out, the others followed. I reminded the girls that their job was to lay eggs when the weather warms up. For good measure, I also reminded them that the nest box was where they should be laying. The last thing I want is another idiotic bird like Flora who likes laying her eggs in the poo bucket!

Now absolutely frozen to the core, I headed up to the shed, closed it up and was heading towards the gate when I bumped into Phil. We stopped and had a chat before jointly deciding it was bitterly cold and I headed home to try and warm up!