We had to have Cynthia put to sleep this afternoon. My poor baby was just giving up the fight. Her crop had filled up again, so much so that she’d aspirated some of the fluid into her lungs and air sacs. The danger was not from drowning, but from infections from the bacteria and fungi in her crop. She’d lost so much weight that they could feel her gizzards and they thought that the growth was making her so weak that she couldn’t fight it anymore. Everything pointed to lymphoid leukosis, a retroviral that she was born with but didn’t start to become apparent until she started getting all the sour crop. Two vets agreed that the instances of sour crop were due to another underlying cause.

We had the option to flush out her crop, stuff her full of more antibiotics, have her x-rayed and put under a general and then possibly an operation. But we didn’t want to put her through more suffering when we basically knew that it was her time. She was so tired all the time, she just wanted to sleep but everytime she would drift off she’d have to wake herself up to swallow. She was so tired, so we knew it was time to say goodbye. I cried my eyes out and gave her a little kiss and stroke, she was shutting her eyes and just wanting to go to sleep. So our vet took her away, gave her an anaesthetic before putting her into her last big long sleep.  I know it was the best thing to do for her, but I just feel so sad.

Goodbye Cynthia, you were a beautiful little brown hen. I hope you enjoyed your retirement time here, we certainly loved having you. You spent more time out of a cage free ranging then you did in the battery house, and I gave you everything I possible could. I’ll miss you sweetie, you were such a character and will never be forgotten. Hope to see you again some time. Rest in Peace Cynthia xxxx

Well after last night’s appalling display of self-pity, I’ve had things (as I suspected) shunted into some sort of perspective.

Cynthia has been ill again recently. She had a swelling underneath and the vet had detected a ‘mass’ inside of her. However, a couple of days ago I found a slightly odd rubbery thing under the hedge. It was pretty tough and we ended up having to investigate by cutting it in half with a plasterboard saw! It stank. It was an old inside-out-back-to-front egg. Possibly Cynthia’s ‘mass’. We took it to the vet and she confirmed that it was about the same size and shape as the mass that she had felt. Cyn had been put on a course of oral baytril to help combat the ‘mass’ (oral baytril works on contact, so by going directly through the system rather than injection there was more chance it would come into contact with the ‘mass’).

However, last night I noticed she was getting more lethargic, so again I brought her in for the night. But before I went to bed, I noticed she was gurgling a bit, and when I moved her to get a better look she regurgitated some fluid from her beak. Her crop had ballooned and it was clear that she wasn’t very well. So I stayed up until 3am making sure she was coping with swallowing whatever fluid would come up, then got up at 5am and again just before 7am to check on her. By 9:40am we were at the vet. She had 100ml fluid drained from her crop, and a culture sent off to try and find out what it is. We picked up her course of anti-fungal Nystatin, and gave her a dose as soon as we got home. Then we tucked her up in bed (small dog carrier with straw, food and water with CCF in it in close proximity). We drew the curtains and left her to rest up.

However, after sorting Cyn out, I went outside to check on the other girls. Yoko was sitting in the nest box laying her internal egg yolk. All part and parcel of her sterile EYP. She’s still doing well, yesterday we cleaned her bottom up and she looks lovely and fluffy now.

But I noticed Maureen was sitting down under a hedge. I couldn’t see Pattie at first, but then I noticed her standing on top of the hedgehog house with her stuck in the hedge. I called her over, and she strolled over. Pattie is a runner, she usually zooms everywhere. I heard a gurgle, so I picked her up. Then fluid came pouring out of her beak.

I think Pattie is a bit more robust than Cynthia. If you read about it, last time she was ill I only had to give her some biolive yoghurt and she was as right as rain in a few days. But she didn’t have this problem last time I don’t think. I’ve noticed she’s been all over the compost heap lately. We’re going out today to get the wood to secure it all to keep them off. There’s also some old bird food (sunflower husks and grainy bits) that I’ve cleared up. I just don’t know where else they could be getting ill from. Maureen is a tough old bird, she seems fine thus far. They all, bar Cyn, ate some round lettuce yesterday…could that have caused problems?

So for now I’ve isolated them in the extension run with access to the henhouse. They’re not too happy about that, as they’re so used to completely free ranging. But I don’t want to risk them getting anything else. Pattie has had some bio live yoghurt, she drank loads of water with avipro in (we had to take the water away because she was actually drinking too much and starting to regurgitate again) and had some layers mash. Pattie has seemed to be drinking a fair amount over the past few days. I didn’t think much of it until now. She’s still fairly talkative, but not completely herself. Her crop is pretty big…I’m keeping an eye on her and if absolutely necessary she’ll have to see the emergency vet tomorrow. I’m hoping she’ll improve tomorrow and then perhaps we’ll have to consult our vet on Monday when normal practice hours resume. I bet she’s sick of the sight of me. I am praying for some divine intervention to end my chicken woes. Poor babies.

Urgh, I hate going on Facebook. Yet somehow I can’t stop myself.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my hens, my cats, I love being with Rich. I have fun in my own way, but living the way I live has sort of isolated me amongst my peers, and I’ve gradually been pushed out of the loop. Facebook just shoves in my face just how far out I’ve gone.

I hate finding out that I’m not invited to parties, that I’m still plumper than my old friends and that I’m one of only a handful of people that are still living in the town that they grew up in. I somehow feel that by not living in London, working in events management, PR or media (like my old chums) I’m missing out on something, but not sure what it is. I long to write for magazines and online media, but can’t quite find a way to progress my career. I systematically doubt my own abilities and stall, then realise how far behind in my career development I am. I’m 25 and about as far from achingly hip as you can get. I don’t live in a flat overlooking the Thames and I don’t know how to dress to impress. I spend ages food shopping because I don’t want to eat anything with battery eggs in it. I earn a pittance working from home, and 9 out of 10 times, I’m the one who has to ask people if they want to meet up.

But if I’m in London for more than a day, I long for fresh air. I like to be able to look up and see the sky and stars.  What am I really missing?

I’ve never been ‘cool’ or trendy, and I’m finding out that I never will be.  I’m not *too* worried about that though. I’m anti-cool.

I don’t go snowboarding three times a year and I don’t have fancy dress parties to attend. Due to having animals, being a poor student and then scraping a living together, I haven’t been on holiday in 6 years. Facebook reminds me that I don’t have a close circle of friends to meet up with weekly. As much as I love Rich and share my life with him, I miss not having a best female friend anymore. I wonder why an old friend still won’t add me as a friend on Facebook, and think I’ve done something wrong when they don’t reply to my texts or emails.

I know I shouldn’t care about it. But sometimes I really do feel like a complete social failure.

Facebook is REALLY bad for my health.

Thursday was too good an opportunity to miss. Weatherwise I mean. I had a mountain of work to get through before this weekend, yet despite my looming deadline, I found myself loading my tools into the car boot and trundling down to the allotment.

I don’t understand why I put it off. Well, I do actually, it’s the weather. There’s no protecting down at the allotment so I avoid  going on days where it’s windy or drizzling. And there’s been a lot of those recently. But as I sat furiously typing away in the conservatory on Thurs, I looked up at the clear blue skies and thought “sod it!”. And so I did, for a couple of hours.

I resumed the digging, and after about ten minutes my back started hurting and I was horribly bored. I threw down my spade and trudged up to the other as yet untouched end of my plot, armed with my secateurs and hand fork. I was delighted to find what few raspberries are left had started to bud. They’re a bit straggly as I didn’t get a chance to prune them in time, but I’ll leave them be and see what happens. I should have enough at least for some sort of raspberry pudding come summer - maybe a rhubarb (also springing up on my plot) and raspberry crumble, or apple and raspberry pie? We’ll see, definitely something to look forward to.

I managed to clear out some of the top section, taking care not to disturb the shallow roots of the irises that still remain at the end. I think it used to be some sort of flower section. Although I did manage to dig up the mind-boggling selection of gladioli bulbs (or are they corms?) alongside great clumps of jerusalem artichoke tubery things (what an interesting display that must have made!). At least, that’s what I think they are. I’m all too aware of how prolific jerusalem artichokes can be, so I might have a go at planting them in a big tub at home. My aunt has volunteered to take a few off my hands too. I don’t like to see anything go to waste, and I’m always up for growing new things.

I also found a half-sunken pot of Pinks that I’ve brought back home along with the gladi bulbs. We have quite sandy free-draining soil here, so I think the Pinks should do very well here.

In my absence, the Christmas tree that was on the border between mine and my neighbour’s plot has also been cut down, which I’m actually quite sad about. I don’t know why, it just seemed quite happy, growing away there, being a bit rebellious.

Anyhow, as the sun was going down, Mum appeared to have a look at my findings, and what work I’d done. We measured out a path and cut in some borders, and I finished digging over (light and easy work) the top half of the allotment inbetween the border of irises down to the raspberry twigs (I’m at pains to call them bushes, because they’re clearly not that robust).  It doesn’t look like much work, but it’s a start at least. I just couldn’t face anymore bloody digging down the other end.

But by the time I left it started raining again. I don’t think it’s really stopped since. The water butts are full to overflowing and the hens aren’t venturing out from the greenhouse much. And being the wimp I am, looking at the weather forecast I think sadly it’ll be a few days before I get down to my allotment again.

I don’t really understand what’s going on. Everything seems to be going in slow motion. Plodding along. Sleeping.

Maybe I’m just thrown off because Easter was so early this year (got another 150 years before it comes around this early again, I think it’s safe to assume that I won’t be around), but I can’t help feeling that everything is growing at a snail’s pace this year. No, scrub that, nothing is growing. Nothing is even *germinating* yet.

I’m hideously behind schedule with all my planting and sowing - good grief, I still haven’t got the broadbeans in yet! But I just figured that with all the wind, rain and snow we’ve had recently there was no point. As I’ve said before, I’m propagator-less and the greenhouse is not heated (and currently a dayroom to 4 little brown hens) and without staging (next week though… mark my words!). So I’ve only done a tiny amount of sowing. I’ve either left the seed trays outside with the hardy stuff in them, or just got them out in our (unheated) conservatory. I keep willing the little seedling heads to pop up through the soil, but alas, nothing as yet.

Got loads of work to finish for Fri, then I’ll be down at the allotment, around the Smallest Smallholding, and tackling my other website projects for a while. Perhaps then I’ll have something actually interesting to blog about, rather than filling my posts with my plans, instead of documenting actions.

So in the meantime, I’ve provided you all with a fab pic that Rich, my other half, took recently of some lichen. Amazing when you actually look at it - no camera or photoshop trickery here!

Urgh, well - the kitchen is almost done thank goodness. For the past three days I have been able to actually see what I’m cooking, the dust is all but gone, I’m not hopping and skirting around containers and pots, and all in all, it looks pretty good. I have my kitchen back. YESsss!

I have a little bit of work to finish, and then I’ve got a very long list of things to do at the allotment and Smallest Smallholding, some of which include:

1. Putting the Early Potatoes in the ground

2. Putting in more of my Hercules, Stuttgarter Giant and Red Baron onion sets

3. Putting my tent cloche up and sowing my Gladiator parsnip seeds

4. Getting the rest of the Aquadulce Broadbeans in (better late than never)

5. Sowing my Mussleburgh and Porvite Leeks and Snowball Turnips

6. Collecting up some more loo rolls (last lot got put in the recycling by accident) to sow my Heirloom sweet pea seeds that I collected from the plants last year

7. Sow my Nantes Carrots and Golden Bell Peppers

8. Buy some wood and get Rich to build my greenhouse staging (I’ve done a very scientific diagram for him to follow)

9. Buy some wood and get the compost compartments built

10. Do a big ‘poo run’ and stick on compost.

11. More digging (and back pain, and general boredom)

12. Getting the borders sorted on one side for the flower bed.

13. Buy another passion flower to trail up the trellis to disguise the chicken wire.

14. Some general landscaping in the ‘eating area’.

15. Find pots and sow my millions of herb seeds!

I could go on but I imagine you’re starting to get bored now.

In other news - we took Yoko and Cyn to the vets. Yoko had a check up and it was decided that she’s doing fine as she is, so no need to drain her thus far. I really hope she can make it through the summer, because when she stopped laying over the Winter she shrunk back down to a ‘normal’ size.

Cynthia on the other hand, is still unwell. She tends to go in cycles of being ok for about 3 weeks, then gets a problem with her crop, as well as the lack of egg laying and swelling underneath. So we took her in, and it turns out she has a ‘mass’ inside her, just where the eggs pass down. She did a funny egg a few months ago, and we think it may be another one that’s lodged itself there and it may be ‘walled off’ like an abscess. The vet thought that she was a bit young to have a tumour, but didn’t discount it. She said that problems elsewhere can cause problems with the crop too, which is perhaps why Cyn keeps having this reoccuring sour crop problem. It always seems to clear up with the Nystatin though. So at the moment, she’s having 1ml oral baytril a day (baytril works on contact, so getting it to pass through her system is the best way to attack this ‘mass), and we’re waiting a month to see whether the mass has grown or shrunk. If it’s grown, then there’s the option of an exploratory op, and depending on what that finds, surgery. All of which carry risks of course. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

In the meantime, I’m trying to keep her well fed and comfortable. She’s not lethargic as such, just a little bit withdrawn and not gobbling her food. I think the sour crop is returning, so today I’m zipping up to the vet (10 miles away) to get some Avipro and see whether we should start another course of Nystatin or not. Apparently if a hen has a fungal infection, baytril can actually compound the problem so we really need to keep a close eye on her. She’s up and about, she seems happy enough outside so I’m hoping and praying that in a month we’ll not be facing a really difficult decision.

Aside from our hen troubles, we got through Easter fine, had a lovely visit from Rich’s parents, and we’re both now on a healthy eating kick. We have a wedding and my school reunion that I’m organising (am I mad?) in May, and I don’t want to look like a spotty beached whale for either event. Plus, there’s the summer, and being plump during the hot summer is not fun. I’ve got loads of gardening, smallest smallholding and allotmenteering to do, as well as swimming, so hopefully that should get me back in shape. And of course, with my kitchen back (not that it went away as such), I am looking forward to a heck of a lot of baking and cooking, especially with my own home-grown produce.

Here’s a little quickie for you from RD.com

“12 ways to become an environmentalist and increase home energy savings without changing your lazy lifestyle”

 1. Skip A Trip

2. Hire Someone To Seal Up Your House

3. Work from Home (check!)

4. Drive a Fuel-Efficient Car

5. Use Cruise Control

6. Cool Your Water Heating Bills

7. Don’t Wash the Dishes- use a dishwasher (check!)

8. Use a Laptop, Let it Nap (check!)

9. Drink Tap Water (check!)

10. Stay Married - live together (check! sort of!)

11. Consider Carbon Offsets, but Be Careful

12. Support Carbon Taxes

I woke up just an hour or so ago to a fine dusting of snow. It’s still coming down in a steady flurry, tiny criss crossing flakes that are settling everywhere. I’m sitting here on top of the world (or so it feels) on the second floor looking out across the Smallest Smallholding. My cat Mindu is curled up with me, headbutting me at every opportunity and quietly purring. The other cats are all dotted about the house curled up fast asleep. Rich is tucked up in bed quietly snoozing away. Now that I’ve come in, the birds are coming in to land in the fruit frees where the bird seed is. Like a squadron of spitfires, they circle and dive down with sweeping yet precise movements. I topped the feeders up this morning, well aware that after such a cold night and with the prospect of snow they’d need extras today. I must have counted at least 50 finches (greenfinches, chaffinches, goldfinches and some bramblings), as well as a collection of collared doves and woodpigeons. Our resident blackbirds tend to skirt around the edges in the hedges and trees, darting in and out of the pyracantha or coming down onto the lawned area to hoover up the sunflower hearts.

The hens are totally non-plussed with the snow. I let their ladder down this morning, only for them to come down, one by one and gather underneath the house, not wanting to venture out. With some coaxing, they formed an orderly line and marched quickly into the relative warmth and dry of the greenhouse where I’d put down extra straw yesterday evening. There are currently two summer chairs acting as makeshift covers, and they huddle underneath in the straw bedding and settle down. The greenhouse door is only just open enough so that they can get in and out, to try and keep as much warmth in as possible. They’ve got their drinking water and food in there too, so they’ll only come out to get to the nestbox in the henhouse to lay.

I left what little seeds I’ve sown outside - my Kilaxy cabbages, tendersnax carrots in pots, some broadbeans and a mystery seed tray (can’t remember what I sowed - could be tomatoes? In which case, they’re probably going to be buggered now) under the henhouse extension run, away from the mice, birds and Cynthia who likes to tip everything up in order to get a good look. My new plot is still just a third dug so far, I have not been tempted to venture outside for at least a week, as I’m rubbish with cold weather and I don’t like getting cold and damp (who does?!). The allotment has been neglected for about 2 weeks, owing in part to strong winds - it’s like a wind tunnel down there - Nannie’s return from the rehabilitation unit at the hospital, work, and redecorating the kitchen. Mum and I are resolute in our pledge to get down there ASAP and start getting things ready for planting.

I did manage to get some Hercules onion sets in - goodness knows how they’re doing to fare with this snow as I took the fleece tunnels down during the windy weather. I have 150 more sets so if they turn out to be a disappointment, it’s not a complete disaster if they don’t ‘work’ properly. My super early Radar onions are slowly making progress though, which is encouraging. I’m going to get the rest of my broadbeans in, now it seems the windy weather has all but passed I’ll get some canes up and put them straight in the ground.

I think the wee wee chitting potatoes are actually ok - which is really surprising. It seems the tubers are tougher than I first anticipated. Whether or not they’ll grow mutant potatoes as a result of their exposure to the near-radioactive quality of cat wee remains to be seen. I’m regarding it as an accidental yet quite interesting little Smallest Smallholding experiment. I’ve also got a plethora of herbs to sow - probably about 8 or 10 different types, but not sure where they’re going to go yet. I think I might have to buy some pots and then grab some of the pot holding trays from the garden centre. They pile them up at the exit and you can take as many as you need - really handy for keeping everything together and makes moving things around much easier. And of course, a great recycling initiative.

Intermission: - the snow flakes are gathering pace, and getting larger. A squadron of starlings has just arrived too. There are a few slightly resigned-looking doves and pigeons sitting in the tall tree. Hens are not venturing outside, they’re staying snuggled in the straw in the greenhouse. Bramblings are going potty around the feeders.

End of Intermission.

Yup, still got loads of sowing to do. The thing is, from my very limited experience I’ve decided that it’s best not to rush these things. On the one hand, you have the opportunity to sow, and as with my onion sets, if they fail, you can sow again. However, I think if you try and push things too early then you end up with leggy, weak seedlings that don’t do as well. I don’t use propagators, but then I can pop to the shops if I need something to eat at the mo, so I can afford to take my time. The plan is to not rely on shops (especially supermarkets), to master the art of storing veg, achieve successive planting for continuous crops etc, but at the moment I’m just concentrating on growing good sized quality vegetables. I think propagators are an exact science and I’m a) not tempted and not impressed by other family member’s attempts to use them and b) can’t afford one anyway.

Rich’s parents came to visit yesterday, and they said they’re trying to grow vegetables from the plug trays this year. Apparently Suttons are doing a special offer whereby for around £25 you receive about 175 plugs, with 20 of a different vegetable. I may have got the particulars completely wrong, but the figures I’m giving are being served up by my memory which believes itself to be accurate at this present time. I think plugs are a great way to get growing if you have limited space, facilities or have difficulty raising seeds, either because your soil is poor (Rich’s parents’ soil is chalky and stony, although they’re trying raised beds too to try and improve it) or you don’t have enough window space or a greenhouse to start everything off in. I think anything that gets and keeps people growing veggies is good, I think the more people that learn about the way things grow and the nurturing of their plants and veg will have a greater appreciation for food, its taste and where it comes from. I would love to see Primary Schools (or if you’re Bedfordshire folk, Lower and Middle Schools) investing more time in teaching children these skills, and perhaps starting them off with plug vegetables would be great. Then they could progress to growing from seed. I remember as a child at school we would have egg shells with drawn on faces, stuffed with damp tissue paper and cress seeds. That was my first experience of growing something.

Speaking of eggs, I’m not sure how all the Easter Egg hunts are going to go down today in the snow. I expect there will be a lot of excited children waking up to the snow. I’m not sure there’s going to be enough to sledge on here, but it’ll still be nice for them to wake up to it. Even better is that a lot of adults will be able to enjoy it too, being a Sunday and a bank holiday weekend. And then of course there’ll be those that will have a nice walk to Church for the Easter service. Mum is coming around a little later to deliver a little Easter present for us - she says it’s not an egg but it’s baked, so can’t wait for that. I have a lot of work to catch up on, but I’ll be snuggled up on the sofa with my cats and duvet. And next week when the snow has melted, I’m going to do another sowing session.

Happy Easter all x

Pics coming soon!

Inbetween working and getting half of the kitchen into a functioning state again (and acheiving, SO happy I have my kitchen back to a workable space), I’ve been a bit lacking in my blog posting. Just wanted to say I shall be posting v. soon when I have a spare moment (hopefully tomorrow!).

Also got a reply back from the council re: the development of the allotments,

“Thank you for taking the time to submit such comprehensive comments.

I have logged these and will submit them to MBDC as part of my
consultation report in May.

If you would like to discuss your concerns in more detail then please
do not hesitate to call me on ….”

I’m not holding my breath.

I met with my aunt, mother and grandmother today for a spot of afternoon tea. As you can imagine, all the recent planning proposals were just about the only topic of conversation (we like a good rant). My aunt brought to my attention a proposed change to the Planning Bill that basically gives us - as in local communities - less say in what gets built around us. You can imagine the torrent of ‘bad’ (I think it’s rather appropriate) language tumbled out of my mouth - imagine a future where we have next to no say about big businesses and governments building what they want, where they want?

She said Friends of the Earth are pushing to reject the proposed changes, and so I had a look on their website dedicated to the issue:

http://www.yourplanningrights.co.uk

and more specifically this page, which outlines the problems with the proposed bill:

from http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/local/planning/news/planning_bill.html

“What’s wrong with the Planning Bill

The Planning Bill contains the Government’s proposals for reform of the planning system. These proposals will mean:

• Less say
  No meaningful right to be heard in person at inquiries.
• Less democracy
  No ministerial accountability for decisions.
• More dangerous climate change
  Major new developments like power stations don’t have to consider climate change.

Government wants to push through nuclear power stations and airports, by stripping you of your rights to a say in what gets built in your neighbourhood.

You can still improve the Bill by writing to your MP, the Secretary of State and a relevant member of the House of Lords, asking them to support amendments to ensure the Bill considers climate change and includes a right to have a say in public inquiries on major projects.”

I’m a bit behind with this, but if you’re like me and interested in quashing the changes involving local communities, then you can get more information from Friends of the Earth’s Planning Bill - Campaigner’s Briefing and their Community Rights Resource Pack

Let me know what you think.

Oh, and just as a little update - my arm that was involved in the cat brawl is now a lovely yellow colour, underneath the big red marks!