Sunday 10th Dec 2017 13:14

Sunrise – 07:30   Sunset – 17:06   Moon – Final Quarter
Extras
07:33   09:06   11:06
14:40   16:23   17:10

On 1st January it was not possible to see our hen house from this standpoint. 
By 8th January we had needed to wrap it in a tarpaulin to protect the birds from snow drifts.
By 15th January the snow had caused enough damage to trees for the hen house in its white tarpaulin to be visible from here.
Since then it has been gradually becoming more and more visible as the green shade netting covering the white tarpaulin has slowly disintegrated.
The howling gale of last week left the green shade netting in tatters and had the white tarpaulin flapping wildly in the wind, so this week we have finally removed those two layers and found alternative means of protecting the hens from wintry weather, assuming that we get any at some stage.

The location of the hen house was originally selected because it was shaded by a huge chestnut tree, but over the years this has become sick and died so last week we felled it in its entirety. When we manage to create enough space in our freezer and the woolly girls no longer require their shed, that will be the point when the sheep-shed gets transformed into the new bird-house and everything will be much more convenient for all inhabitants.

During Summer when there are lots of visitors around to distract us we like to think that we come across as relatively normal, amiable, affable folk; but come wintertime, when we are working together on projects with much less contact with other people, perhaps we become a little more shiny?

F'rinstance, the other day I was describing our four cats as the four main characters in the film “The Witches of Eastwick” and since then we have re-watched the film to make sure each cat has been cast in the correct character. Today I commented that Nanouk (she with Tourettes) reminds me of Father Jack. We then re-cast the cats as characters from “Father Ted” so that when the two cast-lists are compared you get this;
Father Ted = Jack Nicholson
Father Dougal = Susan Sarandon
Father Jack = Michelle Pfeiffer
Mrs Doyle = Cher

Nothing crazy going on here! Nothing at all!