When a cock gets his spurs caught

We’ve made a very simple run. A six foot board, two four foot boards, four uprights, all screwed together into a rectangle, wire netting staple-gunned onto three sides, then the whole thing attached to the coop, with easily undone wires, and netting over the top. We moved the coop to fresh grass and then let the chicks and their mother out. They’ve had a lovely day, with plenty of room to run around. When I went out to shut them back in the coop at about 7 o’clock, one was still outside but she ran behind the door, so I could easily pick her up and pop her back with the others. The only small flaw in the plan was, because the netting draped on the ground all around, when Jenga the cock went to inspect his offspring, he got caught up. I picked him up and untangled him, and covered the netting on the ground with extra boards. He took it all in good part and didn’t panic, fortunately.

Otherwise, apart from usual stuff, we’ve taken some time out. We went out for lunch yesterday and had a delicious “innkeeper’s platter” which comprised several fish oddments, several meat oddments, salad and two sorts of cheeses, with hummus, homemade chutney and nice bread. We had a small portion of chips too, which were good but probably too much food. As a result, we couldn’t eat all our dinner and it’s forming the basis of tonight’s meal, which LT is cooking.

What happened was, when we saw the specials board, we were both drawn to the crab salad. We were also drawn to the shared board. So I suggested that we have the latter and pop into the fishmonger next door for a couple of crabs for dinner. Tim was mightily impressed, as well he might be, and that’s what we did. We also called into Simon the greengrocer, because we knew via Facebook that he’d got the first Kentish cherries in. I value and appreciate local/English/British food in season and I know how chancy it is to grow cherries, so I buy them in quantity when they’re available. We bought salad things from the local Care Farm too, which is a great place that really helps vulnerable people whilst providing truly excellent food too. Anyway, when it came to dinnertime, we should really have shared one of the crabs because we each left at least half of ours. And Tim has done a pasta dish with tomatoes and crab tonight. I also bought more cherries and a punnet of local raspberries, most of which I ate in front of Wimbledon this afternoon.

The only fly in our ointment is that I haven’t seen Betty, the outdoor girl cat, since we arrived home. But Rose said that she turned up sometimes, not all the time, when we were away. So I am reasonably confident that she simply is catching her own food. I do like the cats to touch base with me though. Mother cat and Zain have found their own families and they deserve that, they’re sweet and lovely cats that wanted homes, but the others are friendly but definitely feral; though Betty is the friendliest of the three remaining kittens.

It turned cold this afternoon. I had to put on a cardigan. What’s that about, hey?

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