Tim had been going to return on Sunday or Monday, but decided on the earlier day. Evidently, he missed me terribly…and I’m glad he did.
He’d bought a quiche from Waitrose for his lunch, so we shared it with a tomato salad. Then, I went straight to bed. I was exhausted. I slept heavily for at least an hour and a half and just about surfaced in time for tea. Then I did the watering and went to shut up the chickens and feed the cats. A chicken greeted me at the gate. Surprised, I invited her in and she came to join her sisters and cousins. Having treated them to mealworms as usual (they adore them, it’s tamed them completely), I went out of the other door to feed the cats. Two more chickens there. They both came in with no problem and I investigated the outdoor run. I soon found the escape route – they’d dug their way out. I filled the hole with a brick and went to the cat barn…..two more chickens hanging about there. They were a lot more trouble to get in and I had to ask Tim for help. I’m not sure if I’d have been able to manage on my own. They couldn’t understand the idea of leaving the run but returning by the door and we had to pull out the run to leave a gap and inveigle them in there, which was easy with one and very tricky with the other. But we succeeded. That parable about the good shepherd, searching for the lost sheep, yeah. Rings true.
Third thing was after I came back into the house. I’d missed a call from Wink, so I rang her back. She should have returned today, but the exhaust fell off her car. She’s evidently protected now by the Sprake Luck (this is permitted superstition because it’s real, or at any rate we all believe it) because it happened as she drove into the yard of the house where she’s staying. Where she had been ten minutes before, there was no phone signal and there were no houses. If you’re going to be unlucky, that was the best place for it to happen.
The RAC guy reattached it for long enough for her to drive to the garage – this was a bit hairy as the village street is shut for resurfacing, so she had to do a five mile detour on the main road. Still, she left it there and walked home and will pick it up in the morning. Crab salad planned for dinner tomorrow night.
So, things don’t really come in threes, but they did. Disaster averted in each case. And today was a good day, but that’s another story.