It’s a month today to the blog party and I’m starting to think about food.  That is, I spend much of my life thinking about food, but party food.  If anyone has any thoughts on the subject, do let me know.

Ben got out this evening, we’re not sure how.  That is, we do know that the side door was found to be open, but we don’t know how come.  I grabbed a handful of biscuits and his lead and headed out, asking R to stay home in case anyone phoned.  He goes straight up to the first person he sees, confident of a welcome, and they phone us from the number on his name tag.

However, I called as I went down the drive, just in case he was on the field, and he bounded up to me happily.  So I greeted him in a cheerfully relaxed voice and threw him a biscuit, and then told him to go for a run – my idea is that he needs to know he won’t be grabbed every time he comes to me, and it was working nicely until he saw someone on the road a few weeks ago and followed them.  After that, he went out every time he was let loose, until I couldn’t risk it any more.  He has no road sense.  All the same, I really do want to be able to trust him off the lead.

Today, however, he went off and found the chickens in their new run and was very interested.  They squawked a bit, understandably, though he was pretty good.  It’s well secured and he can’t possibly get in (nor can they get out).  So I followed, gave him another biscuit or two, then put him on his lead and stayed there for a few minutes until they and he calmed down and they started pecking around again.  They turned the patch of grass into a quagmire within a couple of days, but we had some grass cut today, so put the clippings in there and they had a great time scratching through it.  Russell scattered their corn there so they had to search, which all adds to the entertainment.  I’ve a feeling we’ll have wheat seedlings in the compost heap when we gather up the remains for disposal.

Edweena and the Tots ate for the first time for a few days – they stay under cover when it’s raining, at least when it’s chilly.  I found that they like fleshy sedum leaves, so that’s another thing to add to their diet.  In fact, I’ll plant some in Edweena’s run, as well as hebe and other shrubs she can nibble at.  I’m growing more clover too, to plant out in a few weeks.

The other news of the day is that a Common Going came up for auction.  The local common is very unusual, in that it’s privately owned and shares ‘ goings – can be bought and sold by individuals.  There are 400 acres and 300 goings, each of an undetermined area.  Part of the Common is let to the golf club and part is let for grazing, it’s managed by volunteer owners (Common Reeves) and the profit is shared among the owners, annually.  Anyway, the single Going went for £14,200 (I think, it might have been £100 more, in which case I’ll change it tomorrow), which was a remarkably high price. But it’s rarity value – one hardly ever comes on the open market, and it’s prized among locals.