Snowy, squally, sleety, slippery, skiddy.
I bring you last week’s weather courtesy of the letter ‘S’. Please do feel free to add to this list with any other words that might pop into your head.
Apparently we have had the coldest March in fifty years. You heard correctly… FIFTY YEARS! And it’s not altogether very funny. Could we have a quick word with whoever’s looking after the weather: “Lay off the wise cracks, and send us some of the bright stuff please”.
I nipped down to the chickens at the weekend to make sure they had plenty of fresh, not frozen water. Replenishing the water supply with a fresh container, I hoped they wouldn’t rumble me and realize this had worming drops in it. I decided to start the year as I meant to go on and worm the girls regularly. Worms can live in the digestive tract of the birds, and if they take hold, they can be pretty tricky to get rid of. And obviously a dose of worms can be fairly unpleasant for the birds.
As the garden was covered in snow, I decided to let the girls out for a run around. Since they scoffed the green manure I planted last year, and demolished the entire crop of runner beans the last time they were out, I figured that they couldn’t really do much more damage. Flinging open the coop door with a flourish, I tried to tempt them out with a handful of corn. I know that they love corn, as I made the mistake of mixing it with the layers pellets – just once – a couple of weeks back. Since then, the girls are on the constant lookout for the stuff, flinging all the pellets out all over the run in their quest for it. It became apparent that not even corn would to do the trick this time though.
Winnie, Mildred and Maud came to the doorway, looked at the snow then looked at each other. I swear they all then collectively looked at me, with an expression that simply said, “Are you crazy?”, before retreating back to the coop.
Mildred is not impressed with the snow
Leaving the door open in case they had a change of heart, I then had a quick check on the greenhouse. Remarkably, everything seems to be surviving the cold in there. Don’t ask me how, but the celery seeds began popping up in the week. I covered the pots on the bench with bubble wrap, to keep any impending frost off them, and trudged back up to the house.
A short while later, I was impressed to see the girls slowly but surely making their way up the garden. They weren’t exactly skipping around with glee, but they did have a bit of a mooch and a scratch around before taking themselves off to bed for an early night.
The Hinckley Times 28 March 2013