vaison market

Back to Vaison market for the first time this year. Paddy's stall was a good laugh and various friends turned up there throughout the morning - including Jim and his wife, Breda. Jim appeared with a hat for Paddy...it went very well with his t-shirt :)

Went to Carrie's house after the market to laze about in their pool for the afternoon. Had some lunch there too. Ended up spending a lot of time with Elizabeth who'd been sent home from the centre de loisirs because she was sick. She was loving the fact that Don's a nurse as she was able to ask him lots of questions about what she could and couldn't eat or drink :)

Mum made a really nice chicken dish for dinner that night. In the middle of the meal, however, mum heard one of the chickens making a racket out the side of the house. They live up the back of the house, so to hear her at the side meant there was definitely something up! Dad and I went down on to the road and there was Sophie, the friendliest of the hens - she'd obviously flown down from way up behind the house. She was injured on her back :(

Dad and I walked up the path behind the house and mum and Don came up through the house. We met near the terrace and Trevor, the Angry Cock, was up on the wall of the terrace in a state we've never seen him in before - he'd obviously been defending the hens from whatever had gone for Sophie. The old Griser was down near the chemin (traumatised!) and Bertha and the black hen were still in the coop. Sophie's sister was wandering about outside the coop and, thankfully, wasn't hurt either. We cleaned Sophie's wound on her back and it looked like two incisions in the skin and definitely a few feathers had disappeared! We can't work out if it's been a fox, fouine, bird of prey, cat, or some other predator! It was all a bit crazy though and hopefully Trevor did his last act of heroism by attacking whatever it was that had gone for Sophie. Presumably he must have, because, if not, Sophie would've been dead and gone. The poor hens!

I say Trevor's last act of heroism because he's going back to Carrie's tomorrow - we can't stick him attacking us and doing the hens every five minutes! They need a break!