Update on Fondoo

The sun is still shining and there is not much wind so after a first abortive attempt at letting Fondoo go solo a few days ago, I have yet again put him into the air, droopy wing and all.

Things were looking pretty good and as I sat in the lounge watching him pecking at grain on the ground I could not believe my eyes, a bloody Peregrine Falcon landed in the garden close to the well and also took a great interest in all my doos! A couple of years ago I would have been delighted but of course now my views have changed a little. I will admit he was magnificent, just like in the book but NIMBY! Well he set the doos up and all flew, Fondoo only managed to get as far as the guttering on the roof but he was safe as the hawk was after sport today and not just an easy kill and he headed after the others. Well, he was not that good as after a bit all 18 fit doos and one sickie were on the roof looking suitably ruffled.

We have also had two juvenile Common Buzzards at the end of the garden on the posts but I think they may be looking into the field for voles and mice as the corn has been cut and stubble remains. It will be there all winter so good for kite flying and walking and next year we are to have broccoli planted in the two huge fields on either side of the track. Very handy for collecting to check when it is ready, might have been nicer to have had spuds in one and broccoli in the other though. Onions and carrots would not have gone amiss. Must speak to the man who actually own the land!

Harvested some lovely blackberries yesterday from the bushes behind the rhubarb and last night we had a good old Moonzie Apple and Blackberry Crumble. Smashing, to quote himself!

Fondoo remains grounded unlike the Arrows!

The Air Show this year was fabulous, the sun shone for the whole day, it was 22C all day and we were able to be outside, All Day! Quite a record for Fife in September.

We have had to move Fondoo into the Little Hilton Chicken House so that he can exercise his leg and wing and so that hopefully he may be able to fly again. We had a few tosses into the air but he just flew sideways into the bushes and lay there stunned. The Hilton will give him space to stretch and move about and we will try and fly him in a few days. If we cannot then we may have to cull him. I really don't want to but as a grounded doo, life would be grim and probably very short.

I have recently bought a long galvanised grain hopper for the doos so that I don't have to feed them every day. The doo feeding trial started today to see how long a hopper full will last. Of course I will have to take into account the sparrows, blackbirds and hare that also seem to think I feed them.

I harvested the plum on Saturday and we celebrated the somewhat limited harvest with a bottle of champagne courtesy of Mary and Eric, thank you! When I say harvested the plum, it was only one plum, but we are hoping that next year from three trees we may get considerably more!

The apples are great though, the Discovery from the BBC Beechgrove tree looked great, tasted wonderful but have gone off very quickly so definitely not keepers. The Bramleys as ever are superb and today I picked and froze seven batches as stew and apple sauce. I have spotted that the Blackberries behind the compost bins are ready so will make a crumble and freeze it to await the next batch of visitors.

New Stitches

Just a quick picture of the new stitches, the yellow stuff is iodine.

More stitchery

We had a rethink on Fondoos wound and a few days ago Herb and I restitched the wound using blanket stitches, good knots and oversewing the edges to hold it. Fondoo sat very quietly while the op took place and is once again back in our Hugh Doopendancy Unit in the barn and is eating and drinking well. This time we will keep her in until the wound has completely healed over.

I have to say my stitches were very good, no wonder I got my Needlewoman badge in Brownies!

In the garden, today I planted out some red curly kale and also got rid of the last of the courgette plants that had become triffids. Still cropping tomatoes and peppers and the sprouts will be wonderful in due course.