DUCKS ARE WILD

They are wild messy thats for sure! This lot arrived as eggs, already pipped and about to hatch, courtesy of a neighbour. We put them under a cross bred hen but she attacked and killed the first hatchling. She must have thought it was a mouse! I then transferred some of the eggs to this White Silkie and the almost hatched ones to the kitchen and a hot water bottle.   As the kitchen ones hatched and gained some strength I put them under Silkie and she didn't seem to mind. We now have these nine cuties. Mum is totally stressed with this brood as all they want to do is eat, poop, sit in their drinking water and then run under her wing, soaking her feathers, something she does NOT like. When they all went for this swim she was madly calling and clucking for them to come out ...... they of coarse ignored her and she almost jumped in but self preservation prevailed and she remained on the edge (do hens have nervous breakdowns?) The proper mummy duck seemed to get confused/bored and swam off with some already hatched ducklings leaving this lot to possibly perish.I hope to return them to one of the  several ponds around here when they are older but meanwhile  ... hey, we are enjoying the messy fun.

Email Gone Walkabout

Some wiseass hacked into my email account over the weekend. What a pain! Spent hours on the phone with BT internet trying to sort things out. I've now got a working email account but have lost all my contacts and old emails, some of which I will have great difficulty finding again. Ohhhhh I wish I could get my hands on some of these sh--s. Apparently they wipe all your mail and redirect the new stuff to an acc they have set up,{this explains the lack of any new correspondance] they then trawl through it to pick up anything useful to them, I guess they want financial details passwords etc. My finances wouldn't make a mouse happy so they have lucked out this time. Must be more careful with spam.

Hospital Appointment

 A wee trip back to the fracture clinic resulted in my having my right hand in a cast. I,m sore miffed! Had this been done when I received the injury I wouldnt have wasted two weeks in silly strapping and my thumb would,ve been more comfy. But what can you do. My brother was telling me about an appointment he had at  Antrim Area Hospital for kidney probs. He was required  to drink two litres of water on the morning of the tests and complied. On reaching his car he discovered the battery was flat so  decided to go on his scooter. One mile down the road it started to rain/pour. I should at this point remind you of the extremely full bladder and the effect running water and road vibration  would have upon it. So here's our chap, racing along on a scooter, in the pouring rain, , feeling every bump in the road, bursting. Needless to say he arrived at the hospital in some considerable  distress whereupon some more distress was encountered in trying to find a parking spot (still in the pouring rain, still bursting). Finally reaching reception, soggy letter in hand, he was told to take a seat in the waiting room. He was sat there doing his best, amid the usual collection of humankind, to keep control of his aching bladder and prevent a catastrophic event when along comes a wee  woman with a large bucket of water and a mop. She begins washing some sticky mess off the floor, sloshing the water around, dunking the mop in and out the bucket, slapping it down, rinsing it out, slapping it down again, you know how it goes. Meanwhile he's sitting there with his legs wrapped round each other, face like a ripe tomato, nearly crying . Finally, tears in his eyes, knees locked tightly together, bent two double, he managed to make his way back to reception and persuade a  sympathetic member of staff that if relief was not found immediately the floor would be requiring  a lot more attention!   I believe things were  expedited  to some extent, but to use his own words anyone who rides a scooter on a mission like that, on a day like that should be certified. My great grannie was fond of saying --your bladder (pronounced bleather) your bleather's near your eye, I guess his was that day.

Watched Dan Snow last night on Dig WWII BBC. Extremely interesting. Looking into the contribution  N.Ireland made to   WWII campaign. Didn"t realise that H&W designed and produced what became the Churchill Tank. Great big lump of a thing--- not very comfy I should imagine and I would think pretty scary during an attack --- respect to those who operated them. The footage of a Spitfire, which crashed at a speed of three hundred mph, being raised from a bog in Donegal was amazing.  Even more amazing was  the Irish Army  cleaning up  and firing one of the machine guns  without renewing any parts, the lack of oxygen in the bog having preserved it. Next installment should be good! They will be at Mallin Head.

Deck/Viewing platform

Being a keen DIY buff I waas constructing/bodgeing together a deck come viewing platform at the rear of my garden. I enjoy a magnificent view of Sleive Gallion and decided to make the most of it (dreams of long sunny days on the deck, laid back in sun lounger,glass of wine in hand, beautiful sunset,you know the sort of thing) All going great until this one piece of timber attacked my thumb, result; a trip to Minor Injuries, chipped bone on thumb knuckle, long cold wet days of boredom,unfinished deck, cheap wine (bought on offer) not such a good idea, rusty saw and a face like a fishermans bait box.