Z is despondent

It’s a bit dismal here in two respects. One is the lame chicken, Hop. It was the end of last year when she started to have difficulty walking and I put here into a coop, hoping she’d be better after a few days. When she was still limping, I brought Polly, the old black bantam and they spent the winter in the coop in the porch. This was good for Polly, who is showing her age and struggles in the cold weather. Once spring arrived, I put the coop outside and have moved it regularly on to fresh grass. They were pleased when I put it near the chicken run, they seemed to enjoy seeing and hearing the others.

However, a few days ago, Hop lost the use of her legs. When I picked her up, she had laid an egg, bless her, but couldn’t support her weight and now the legs seem completely paralysed. She’s still eating and drinking and I can’t bring myself to cull her, but I see no hope that she will recover. She’s thin, half the weight of Polly, who is being very sweet and stays close to her most of the time. I can see nothing wrong. Her legs are smooth and undamaged, her eyes are bright and she can use her wings, but she can’t do anything with her legs.

Sad in a different way, the Virginia creeper on the western front of the house, that had grown all the way round across the end and the other side, died over the winter. There’s still a smaller vine on the front which is okay, but the big one is dead. It looks awful, all the dead branches and twigs covering the house. I’ve no idea why that happened either. 30 years ago, the one on the east side died and, when we dug it up, we found a wet white rot on the root, which crept across the drive to two trees over the next few years, so I suppose it’s possible that it’s the same thing. The remaining creeper had grown all the way round to replace the one we’d lost.

The deadline is today to do online Safeguarding/Prevent training for school. I suppose it’s actually tomorrow morning, but that would just be irresponsible. I also have to do online Safeguarding training for the church, three modules of it. Church and schools could not care less about getting their act together and combining forces. A teacher friend, who does work in a few schools regularly, tells me that she has to do in-school training at every school she works at. I said, at least she’s paid.

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