RIP Connie

This afternoon, my husband and I pottered down to the allotment. There has been almost no let up with the rain over the past week and it’s made it very difficult to get down to the plot and work on it. Armed with the ladder from home, our task today was to prune the tops of the willow screen and arch. Willow is a water hungry plant and I think having it has helped a little in our endless battle against flooding. But it grows like a weed and needs cutting back every 2-3 weeks during the summer. Now, I am perfectly able to prune along the front and back of the willow – it’s a big job and usually takes me half a day.

The top of the willow however, is another matter! Even on a ladder, I struggle to reach the full width of the willow. Fortunately, I married someone taller with longer arms who foolishly volunteered to help. Between us, we took turns cutting back the willow and holding the ladder. It might not be the neatest hedge trimming ever seen but it’s finally made the top look more respectable!

After a quick break, we headed over to check on the chickens. Flora’s eye issue continues despite regularly giving her antiseptic eye drops, there hasn’t been much of an improvement however, it certainly hasn’t got any worse (something to be grateful for!). We threw out treats and watched the girls carefully. They were all enjoying scratching and hogging the corn. A job that will need doing over the next few weeks is replacing some of the roof panels on the main coop. One of two have bulged badly due to the rain and another has actually ripped open. It’s frustrating as we haven’t had the roof panels that long but if we add some more roof supports and buy another four panels, it should be relatively straightforward to repair the roof ready for the winter.

Leaving my husband to sort out the water in the main coop, I headed across to the new coop. Upon opening the door, I spotted Connie lying on the floor on her back. I dashed over to find that she had passed away. It was a shock as she appeared her usual bossy and sassy self only yesterday afternoon. She showed no signs of illness whatsoever. Connie had the most beautiful strange little chirrup when she spotted you walking towards the coop. This chirrup would increase in volume and frequency as you opened the coop door, only pausing as she calculated whether she could make a dash out the door. She was a very friendly chicken with a wicked ability to sneak past you silently and peg it out the coop door. Queen of the coop until Mavis moved it, she rapidly became Mavis’s right hand enforcer, bossing the other girls around and ensuring her share of the treats. Some might argue, more than her fair share of the treats.

It was rather a sad note to end our afternoon on the plot. The weeds are coming back with a vengeance so the plan is to pop down (weather permitting) a couple of evenings after work to try and sort it before it becomes a jungle again!