More drama than the Bristol Old Vic!

Yesterday after breakfast I only spotted 3 doves in the garden and as the day wore on began to worry that someone had gone.Anyway I eventually convinced myself that as it was Hindoo, she had gone to build a nest after her marathon bonking session. She never came down for tea and I did begin to worry , this morning as I was getting ready to leave for court I heard a strange noise coming from the sitting room fireplace. A few white feathers fluttered down and I realized now that Hindoo had not gone but in fact was nearer than ever, up the chimney!

I could hear fluttering and in fact it made me think that yesterday I had heard a similar noise but thought it was a wood pigeon that was flapping at the dining room window in a demented fashion.

I called the SSPCA after looking at various " How to get doves out of a fireplace" websites and was very impressed when a lovely man appeared on my doorstep within 30 minutes. He advised me that doves will only fly down again and not up and as the flue consists of a series of ledges and steps we will have to play the waiting game. I have shone a light up the chimney in the hope of luring her down and have netted the front of the fireplace just in case she gets down and decides to spread soot liberally over the carpet, who decided on a cream carpet I have no idea. He said it can take two to three days or as long as two weeks for them to reappear.

I am doubtful about how alive she would be after two weeks as all the dove books say that doves must have fresh water every day or dire things happen. Meanwhile it is a case of watch and wait. It is a horrible feeling knowing that your lovely pristine white dove is now a grotty shade of grey and is most likely terrified and pretty pissed off to boot. Fingers crossed for a quick and happy resolution.

Baby Doos???

Well, for once the Doo Blog starts with news of doos. The picture shows them being very bold and foraging around on the grass a fair way from the cote but even more exciting have been the goings on in the cote. When I got back from France I saw for the first time that the doves had started using the top floor of the cote, they were in and out and checking the available nest holes and a few days later I discovered why. I was out filling the feed container when Huffy and Hindoo, bold as brass started bonking on top of the doo cote! There had been a lot of amorous goings on for a while but now they are at it like rabbits. I think it may be too soon for them to lay eggs and also too cold but as there are not too many books on the subject we are waiting to see what transpires. This morning I was quite worried as when I went to feed them, only Bully and Lily came to feed and it was not until nearly lunchtime that the other two appeared. They all seem to have settled down now but I don't know where the other two have been, maybe just off for a bit of peace and quiet and privacy!

Herb has got on really well with the log store and it is almost finished, he got the last line of pantiles on this morning and it looks really good, you will see from one of the attached pictures why Sam thinks it should be an outdoor bar. It is the Leuchars Air Show this weekend so the Moonzie Millers are having a combined Beer Tasting Festival and Air Show Bash up by the big trees, we get a great view of the aerobatics and all from the comfort of a cosy marquee with lots of food and drink to keep us happy.

The hens have settled down after the demise of Daisy, Poppy still seems a bit anxious but we will be getting her some youngsters to boss around as soon as I can source them and she can again be Top of the Red Hen Gang!

Back from France

I got the news that Daisy had died the after I landed in France, however the sun and pool and copious quantities of great food and lovely wine helped me with the bereavement and pretty soon I was relaxed to the point of stupor! Jacki and Chris are great hosts and I had a splendid holiday. I was met by Chris at Nice and arriving with the temperature still in the high twenties, was handed a flask of ice cold Singapore Sling to drink on the drive back to Valescure. My holiday was marred only by the fact that one morning in St Tropez after breakfasting at La Senequier, I almost entered one of the million pound yachts uninvited and head first after failing to negotiate a small green bollard on the quay side. My bruised ankle though is worthy of mention and has a designer green and purple hue about it. We had cruised to St Tropez in glorious sunshine that morning and had hoped to snap a few 'names', although we never spotted any celebs we could actually name, some of the outlandish outfits could only have been donned by the likes of Paris Hilton or VB ( as we call her). It was good to get away from the noise and doom and gloom at Moonzie but while I was away things have improved and we no longer have the QE2 engine room going in the background. We have dried out well and are just awaiting the carpet cleaners to arrive and then will be getting quotes for a new floor, the byre should be back in a usable state again by the end of next month, Inshallah.

Herb has been very busy with the new woodshed and pretty soon we will be having opening drinks in it, well, we open everything else here with a drink so why not a woodshed when it is going to be so magnificent. Sam is so taken with it he thinks it should be a bar anyway with inside seating for two and a smoking area to the outside!

I have only been away a week but with our monsoon rains the weeds have made an overwhelming attack on my raised beds, the mice have continued to chew my newly planted brassicas and the whole place needs a good sort out. The tomatoes despite having virtually no sun this summer continue to produce masses of trusses of tomatoes of every colour.

The doos seem fine, in fact too well, there is certainly romance in the air and Huffy is courting Hindoo like mad even on the finial of the doo cote, no mean feat. The hens are fine, Poppy seems to be missing Daisy, Herb said she is clucking round his legs when he has been going in egg collecting and is desperate to follow him out. When I went in today to say hello she was right up to me and crouched down so she got a cuddle! I will get a couple of new hens when some are available, probably two little red hens but who knows, the hybrids though are the best layers, less nervy and great pets.

Back to auld claes and mince as they say up here, after the excesses of the South of France. I did manage at last to spot a celeb on my way out of France, Cheryl Cole was flying out to Heathrow and I saw her as she queued to board. Got a wedding to go to tomorrow but after that have no plans for a few weeks at least. This summer has been pretty hectic and it is time to relax before the apple harvest and the manic Bramble Jeely Boil Up!

Lest I get more rude comments from Stupot, I should mention him, he is still at sea fighting with Giant Squid , tussling with mermaids and earning an honest bob. No doubt after ten weeks away is by now sporting a huge unruly red beard looking more like a character from Blackadder than any son of mine.

The new woodshed and other stuff

It has been a couple of weeks since I last blogged but we have been very busy with the drying out and also took the chance to go to the West Coast to see how Jouster had fared after all the rain we had . On the Friday when we arrived the weather was lovely and we took a leisurely sail down the Loch to a spot just short of Crinan where we had a picnic at anchor while gazing at the Paps of Jura in the bright sunshine. On our way back to the marina we were passed by a lovely old Clyde Puffer belching black smoke everywhere. Jouster was fine but the weather was not kind after that and we spent only two days at Ardfern, the heavens opened once again on Saturday, combined with Force Eight winds and we ran away bravely back to Fife on Sunday morning in time to see the Grand Prix on TV.

The byre sitting room is drying out gradually but it is still like living with the worlds largest and noisiest air conditioner in your sitting room. The only plus side I can see from being flooded is that our lovely neighbours have brought chocolates, flowers and wine to dull the impact of the chaos!

Herb has made a start to the wood shed in the cattle court, it is going to be a truly magnificent structure complete with a reclaimed pantiled roof.

The doves have started being much more adventurous and a great deal more amorous too. They are spending longer and longer on the doocote which is nice and also a fair bit of time on the ground, bathing in the shallow pan of water I placed for them. Young Potter the baby hare joins them most days foraging under the cote. The doves are flying in ever widening circles and the other day performed some great aerobatics for Diane and Paula up the track.

The chickens now have another new house, named the Little Hilton. It has an integral covered run so will be brilliant for the worst of the winter weather and will keep the girls dry if I shut them in. Sadly today it is being used as the Hospice Hut for Daisy. When we got back on Sunday we noticed Daisy was looking very poorly indeed, she was very hunched, her legs were splayed well apart and she just sat with her head hanging low. Her behind looked all dirty too so yesterday I bathed her rear end in Tea Tree shampoo and saw that she has a huge saggy and very swollen underbelly. Through the skin it is a very strange colour and looks like she has a lump the size of a melon in there. After looking at the Omelet Forum I think she has Peritonitis. She has not laid an egg for months as far as I am aware and I think that the Peritonitis may have been around for a while. When she had the dreadful louse infestation it was suggested that to get so bad she maybe had an underlying problem as well. Peritonitis occurs where the yolk fluid remains in the abdomen and slowly starts accumulating. Peritonitis can be caused by a number of things, most often by yolks missing the "funnel" and falling directly from her ovary into her abdomen. Other types of infections and sometimes cancer can also cause peritonitis. Whatever is the cause she is an extremely poorly hen . Last night I put her into the nest box in the Little Hilton and this morning she has not moved at all, her wattles have turned a horrible shade of bluey gray and I think the kindest thing we can do is let her go gently. When I stroked her head this morning her eyes closed and she never moved. She was a great chicken, we have had her nearly three years now and she was a lovely character, always in the thick of things and being the boss.

Sad times then for the chicken family.

Update on the flood damage

Just a quick note, the damage in the byre was far greater than we first thought. The drying out team sent by the insurers were brilliant and ripped out all of Herbs perfectly laid floor in three hours. The water was under the full length of the floor, the soaked carpet is currently being blown dry by a huge noisy machine that will be in situ for the next two to four weeks along with a big industrial dehumidifier. The carpets should dry out and not be too damaged. We are awaiting the arrival of the insurance assessor to see how much they will be giving us to redo the floor. Luckily it was not sewage or really dirty water, they called it black water.

On a brighter note, the council have given us some pick up your own sandbags so we have blocked the barn door and helped the neighbours to make their house a bit more watertight, they too had water in on Wednesday night. We are forecast for more of the same this weekend

The bridge is fine and withstood a second submerge in three days! Yesterday evening some lovely neighbours came down with a bottle or two to help us drown our sorrows.

It's only water, it is going to dry, but meanwhile the byre stinks, the machines are noisy and the house looks a tip with furniture and stuff everywhere.

Rain, rain and more rain

After all the fun of the birthday celebrations we have come down to earth with a bump, overnight on Saturday we had in excess of 35 mm of rain and last night even more. We awoke to find the burn had overflowed yet again, this time taking in the fire pit, tables and chairs and making a move on the hen run and raised beds. Upon checking round the house we also found that water had come up through the floor and into the byre at the fireplace end of the room. The large and expensive Persian carpet is soaked and the laminate wood flooring has become somewhat spongy. At present I am awaiting the arrival of the Drying Out firm appointed by the insurers plus an assessor to gauge what damage has been done to the floor itself.

The bridge has withstood the floods even though after the first night of the Great Floods of 2008 a large tree trunk had been deposited on it making a wonderful white water rapid effect over it. Today we have yet to see if the bridge is still there but are hopeful it will remain when the water recedes.

The chickens don't seem to mind a bit of rain though and are happy enough fishing for worms. The doves are totally unperturbed by it all and remain tucked up by the electricity supply quite happily waiting for it all to subside.

Yesterday before the rain I was able to plant some Charlotte Potatoes for Christmas eating and also four varieties of broccoli and kale for the winter. This morning some bugger had eaten half of the broccoli. It is all now covered on fleece and I will hunt out the cloches to protect it further when the rain stops.

The Wattson is having the desired effect and we now turn everything off religiously, at this rate it will have paid for itself in a couple of weeks. Herb loves it, I hate it, especially when I am told every ten minutes how much it costs to watch a soap!

The Harvesting Begins

As you can see from the picture I tipped the first of the tub grown spuds today. They were the variety 'Orla' planted back on the 6th of April. From 3 seed potatoes I got just over 3.5 kilos of wonderful looking spuds. We will be eating some tonight to see how they taste, but they are blemish free and look brilliant. I have also started tearing out the strawberries, the ones we had were really tasty but not really a big enough crop to warrant the space they have taken up in the raised bed. I harvested the shallots today too, they look really good and are laid out to dry in the barn prior to storing. They went in at the end of March and have done really well as have the Red Baron Onions. I have taken some out of the ground as they seemed to want to come out themselves but have put them in to the barn to dry off for storage, I think they would just rot if I left them on the top of the soil as advised. Still picking masses of courgettes in three colours, and have today made courgette pickle as sold in a famous San Fransisco Burger Bar!

I checked the hens yesterday and all the lice have gone, they all got another session with the louse powder and the house got another deep clean. After a week on extra protein feeds and liquid poultry tonic drink they all look better and Daisy is back to her previous form. She is single handedly ensuring that Trinny and Susannah never get any good treats, except when I sneak some in for them. This will all calm down soon, it is just good to see Daisy back to her usual bossy self.

The doves are spending longer and longer in and around the cote, it is lovely to see them looking so relaxed. Lily is still a home bird and after she has fed gets into the comfortable surroundings of the cote and sleeps! I had been wondering where they spent the night and discovered that they roost at the gable end of the house away from the weather just under the eaves on the electricity apparatus and wires.

Other than that all quiet here, Sam gets back from the Dunlin Field Oil Rig on Monday, the rig is some 150 miles North of Orkney. He rang the other day to say that as he was swinging on a rope high above the sea, two enormous whales swam by. Next weekend is someones 60th birthday so as we have friends coming from Germany I may not be blogging. What to get a 60 year old who claims he has everything? Well don't tell him but I have got him a Wattson!

A Wattson is a wonderful device, as stylish as an iPod and as useful as a, well as a jolly useful thing. It recently won an award in Stuff Magazine Top Ten Cool Stuff of the Year. It is a state of the art device for telling you how much power you are using and how much it is costing, it even lights up red if you are using too much but stays a nice gentle blue if things are OK. It claims to be able to reduce bills by 25% as you begin to get obsessive about switching things off, my Ganga would have loved one. I have an awful feeling that I am going to be sitting watching TV when the Wattson appears to tell me just how much it is costing to watch rubbish. Perhaps a bad move on my part but socks did not seem to cut the mustard for this particular birthday!

No rain today and after the deluge yesterday when we had 10mm in 15 minutes that is a blessing, off to do more digging!