The Further Adventures of Harvey The Wonder Dog

We had our first episode of "crazy dog" today, which involves running at top speed around the back lawn, closely followed by your New Best Friend, Rosie. They kept running for 7 circuits - that's a new record! There's a certain amount of explaining that has had to be done. For instance, we would rather not have any digging in the garden. Fine in the field, or on a lovely walk (in the rain!) in somebody else's field. But not in the garden. It may take some time to get him to agree with me here. LOL!

Anyway, there follow some pictures - and you should know that the RED bed is Harvey's, the BLUE belongs to Rosie!

The Bloke reads and keeps warm at the same time! Handy!

Harvey finds a use for my 25th Wedding Anniversary present from my Landlady. And there was I, using it as a doorstop - who'd have guessed.

Remember I said Blue for Rosie and Red for Harvey? Apparently, we were all wrong!

The Harvey Has Landed!

Oooh! It's an exciting day today! And a bit sad, too. A new friend of mine has family problems at home that have affected the "pack structure" quite severely leaving poor Harvey in an impossible situation.

I placed an ad in the Ad Trader last week asking for a little boy dog as company for both Rosie and The Bloke. Rosie is definitely my dog. She's not good for a macho image, either, and I have so many animal family-members (as well as those destined for the freezer!!) that it seemed only fair.

Well, to cut a long story short, Harvey came a very long way to stay with us today. He's the most handsome fellow! He's what's known as "broken-coated", black, with an adorable white shirt-front. Think Disney, and you have him! He's only been here for about 5 hours and has settled in beautifully. Rosie thinks he's a hunk! He's a bit bigger than her, being of the Patterdale persuasion, and is still sprinkling anything that he thinks needs telling that he's here, but that will wear off as his confidence builds futher. He's doing the "play bow" to Rosie and she is finally beginning to join in. I'm pleased about this now - let's see how wonderful I think it is when the pair of them launch themselves across the kitchen where there's no traction and knock something flying!!!

He's been for a ride in the car - and really enjoyed it!

He is a stunning little chap and we love him already. I hope this is some comfort to his really lovely previous family and that their problems get sorted out as soon as possible.

Woof Woof!!

Some Sunshine! At Last!

I have a bit of time this afternoon, between feeding people, animals and birds. Before I forget here's a link to Tasha's Blog - she sent me Barbie Pink Clogs for my Birthday next month, so she deserves a "plug" - http://themooreshavelanded.blogspot.com/ Also, thanks are due to David C and the lovely Ms Bunn for the barbeque Birthday Celebration yesterday, lovely food and great company - shame The Bloke had a migraine; ah, well

Right, I thought, let's put some pictures up for the folks who are Hard of Reading, poor things. To this end, I hope to get the caption on or near the picture. No doubt someone will let me know how bad it gets. Anyhoo, here we go!

This is the beautiful Tracey. She is a lovely natured polecat ferret who has only ever shown any agression when I pulled her out of a kitchen cupboard by the tail (she turned round and gave me a nip on the knuckle, understandably!).

Look at her little ferret-y ears! How cute she is!

This is Sharon, Tracey's friend. They live together in this 'hutch' that was once a duck-house.

Yes, long story. AAAaanyway, she is slimmer and more scared than Tracey, so if I was you, I wouldn't poke a finger thru the wire. She's never bitten anybody, but she does worry, poor little girl

This is almost everybody that's left after the Bernard Matthews bloody Avian Flu Fiasco. There was once 21 hens and three cocks. Now there's Roger, here in the grey and fox-red outfit, and Fluffy the little white blob, Nasty the grey one on the right, Pootle's Baby the other grey one and the remaining Welsummer hen, Wierdo.

There are another couple - Scaredy-cat, Black and Brown Spotty and the poor little Wyandotte banty who gets bullied by everyone. Sad.
Looking at this photo, I feel there is room for some tidying up in the field! Anyway, this shows the size of the new enclosure for the piggies. The rest of the field has been "topped" which is a posh, agricultural word for mown - as in lawn - but it's done with a tractor. So all the bit with the long grass is theirs. You should have seen them running around, rolling, grinning and shoving each other. Hog Heaven!

So after all the running around in the rain, a short nap (of about two days) was required. From left, clockwise; Lilly, Daisy and Violet. Winston is under the straw and invisible, not a bad trick for a boar that size!

Lilly snoozing.

Other parts of the homestead are coming along. For instance we have a fine crop of Cow Parsley outside the front hedge. If anyone has a USE for this, please email me - urgently!! LOL!
Somewhere in the middle of this aquilegia there is a Magnolia Stellata that bloomed beautifully in the early spring. Now we have pansies. Pretty, huh?

This is a snap of the road in the opposite direction to the Cow Parsley 'crop'! The constant noise from all this traffic is deafening!!!
It's a bit of a trek if you want to buy a paper in the morning - but the postman collects any outgoing mail from the letterbox and takes it to the sorting room for me, coz it's 4 miles to the nearest shop.

If you look very, very carefully, you can see a house in the distance. It's like a metropolis, isn't it?

That's about everything non-vegetable orientated, apart from this little anecdote. This is our aviary where the canaries live. Yesterday, I was changing the bath water (yes. I know.) and one of the cock-birds flew out. I didn't notice at the time, but when I was filling the feeder on the other side of the wire, I saw him perched in the tree. At one point I actually had him in my net - but he escaped, flying away over the field to freedom or London, or wherever. "Bugger", I said.

About half an hour later, The Bloke called to me. He asked me to guess what he had in his net and then pulled out The Canary! It had come back to the aviary and the food supply and clung to the wire until The Bloke netted him and put him back in! My flabber had never been so ghasted.

So, to Vegetables and food without a face.

Look - somebody pea'd in the veggie patch!

Yellow courgettes coming along in the cruel East Coast Wind

And the green ones are not doing too badly either!

Crop of Broad Beans has expanded to 2.

Given a bit more of this lovely sunshine, we may even have a nice Strawberry Feast! Please keep things crossed!!

OK, I'm done boring people for a day or two!

Please let me know what you think or my dubious musings I would feel really silly talking to myself ... um ... er ... change that to "publically talking to myself", ok?

Absolutely No Comment!

Down Came The Rain!

Greetings! And welcome to the Garden of Earthly Delights! Courgette, Hawthorne, Aquilegia and Clematis all early and beautiful! While the squash "Crown Prince" flourishes on the Pig Poo Pile. Ah, the Romance!

Did you enjoy the Summer? It was lovely while it lasted, wasn't it? However, here we are, back in the English Weather zone. We have a weatherstationette in the garden and it registered an inch of rain last week. You would not believe how long the grass is on the back lawn!

Everything else is doing quite well, now the soil is really damped down things will take off like rockets once the sun comes out again. There is one cabbage that is getting really huge - I'm going to let it set seed and use that for next year because it seems, from more experienced gardeners than I, that particular plant likes our conditions. This means that you can selectively "breed" a cabbage for your own garden! Genetic Modification for the Home!

Chickens are not doing their job very well at the moment. "Wet Legs; No Eggs" is the name of the game. We only have 7 hens and three of those are banties since the blinkin' Bernard Matthews Avian Flu Importation. I'm having to BUY eggs! Saving up now for some POL (Point Of Lay) pullets (young hens) of the Welsummer breed who lay beautiful chocolate-brown eggies.

Piggies are also growing. More pictures follow. Winston a bit hen-pecked, but is fighting back with a well aimed nose at the trough, and seems to own all the best scratching posts. They are moving tomorrow - Hubby is enlarging their enclosure so they can destroy more of the grazing and grow more pork for the freezer! As you will see, there is plenty of mud for a sun-protecting wallow and so they are looking forward to a more grassy few months.

Oh, and, by the way, if there is anything you would like me to post a picture of that's not here today, either leave a comment or drop me an email. 'k?

As you can see, Winston is starting to show an interest in Lilly - Dirty Boy! I think he's just checking out who's scratching at his place. My goodness they've made a mess of the grass!

Anyway, as a PS, I have written to Bob Blizzard, Lab. MP for Waveney (my MP), Bernard Matthews CEO and DEFRA to complain that, although £600,000 is to be paid to the factory that caused the "outbreak" of Avian Flu, those of us who kept to the letter of the law have been offered Zilch, Nada, Nowt, Nothin', Zero, not one iota of compensation for the two-thirds of my flock that I had to destroy due to their greed. I have received a reply from Good Ol' Bob, but, strangely, none from BM! I'll keep you posted!

After the Show!

Well, here we are again. The East Anglian Game and Country Fair is over for another year and some in our party have even got over the hangover caused by a certain 50th Birthday Party! A good time was had by all and much shopping and hat-purchasing was done.




So, it's back to the hard work and watering on the plot. Everything seems to be growing quite well considering the lack of rain (never thought I'd hear myself say that!) and only one of the courgette plants bit the dust over the weekend. We think (that is Our Local Expert) that it might have a virus; so it had to be burned and replaced with a whole new one.




We seem to have been very successful with the ordinary red tomatoes, and the yellow ones all germinated and grew into fine plants. However, the cherry ones and the beefsteak ones haven't grown for so long I think they have each shucked their mortal coil and gone to the great seedtray in the sky, leaving only a mere husk. Sad, but true.




We have had a major bit of work done today on the blinkin' septic tank soakaway - oh, you folks with mains drainage don't know you're born - including, in the end, two diggers and three men at a time. That's two to watch and make helpful noises and the expert driving the diggers.

Oh, and the smell wasn't very nice either!

The piggies are growing by the day and now consume as much stuff as we can carry out there. Over the next few days their out-grown enclosure is going to be enlarged so they can destroy another large patch of grass! Of course, they pay for this by fertilizing everywhere they go and making the soil rich and tasty for new plants next spring - we hope.