Allotment Lady is feeling poorly - So posts might be a bit thin on the ground for a few days.

Wednesday was a ‘washout’

Allotment and chicken news may be a bit thin on the ground for a few days.

I have been feeling really poorly lately, and yesterday was crunch time! Off to the dentist in the morning for an emergency appointment – to replace a filling – but I could hardly walk, and breathing was so painful – even the dentist asked me if I was o.k. LOL Had to have the chair tilted and some towels rolled into sausage shapes to support me LOL - Not like me to be crook!

On the way home, I asked OH to take me to the doctors to see if I could get an appointment that evening. They were so sweet they fitted me in an appointment there and then.

I just wanted a bit of advice about managing the pain which I thought that was due to the old bones or strain – turns out that I have got Shingles! The doc thought I looked too young to get it LOL – that cream I made a few weeks ago sure must have worked then.

I hate taking any drugs for any reason, but I am under strict instructions to take things easy, take all the pills and potions and pain killers, and to ‘not be a martyr and fight it, but to rest and give in to it’ – Doctors orders.

So yesterday was a non starter - I have to admit to having to lie down in the afternoon. Probably the shock of the cost of have a filling - gone up from £4.20 to £46.20 or was it £42.60 OH paid, I had sit down! New NHS charges. I was feeling to ill to be miffed about it, even though I had had my check up a month ago before the prices went up.

The there were the prescription charges for all the drugs - that was shock, as I don't usually 'do drug' preferring lavender oil for headaches, and such like. Must be getting 'tight' in my old age.

Today, Thursday.

A gloriously sunny day. I decided to gingerly take a drive up to the allotment – I figured that I would much rather be out side in the sunshine feeling ill than stuck indoors.

So that is precisely what I did.

I walked down to the bottom of the lottie and let the chooks out – then sat and rested for half an hour watching them. It was a good tonic – out in the fresh air, watching the girls scratching around and fight over worms, listening to the geese and cockerels in the distance, with the sun on my face and wind in my hair.

Ginger, Adelaide and KoKKo had laid three eggs again – big ones as usual – and the girls have never looked better – in their prime.

I read somewhere that chickens do not like long grass - but they seem to seek it out at the edges and get quite excited at what lurks there.


Probably me humanising them, but they really do seem to enjoy it up there, running around the meadow, tucking into dock weeds, and rolling around in the grass – yes Adelaide was actually rolling around in the grass today! Having a make believe dust bath in the long grass at the edge!

KoKKo and Adelaide onto a good thing.

The pain killers haven’t kicked in yet, and I feel rather washed out at the moment, but I walked up the other end with the intention of sowing a couple of rows of tomato seeds.

It took me one and a half hours – would you believe – to sow 2 x 25 feet rows of carrot seeds! I did have to sit down on the grass and rest quite a bit! It was such a lovely day though.

I picked another basket of broccoli which is really looking wonderful – and tasting that way too. It is now in the freezer!

Home for eggs and bacon and home made wedges – perfect.

Dilly is still in fighting mode and goes at me like a woodpecker every time I open the door to the nest box. She makes really weird noises – nothing that I have ever heard a bird make before!

She did come out for a bit of sunshine and a drink and some food, so I got a chance to grab the egg that was in the nest.

Poor thing was so very cross with me, and I felt so sorry for her.

I have read that you should dunk a broody hen’s rear end in a bucket of cold water – to literally cool her off! I don’t know if I could do that though, it seems a bit drastic.

Anyone got any suggestions? It seems such a shame that she is spending hours and hours on the nest box and not enjoying the sunshine outside.

I have put some tubs in their pen, three of them with lavender, and one huge one with mint in it.

Tonight when I put them away, the mint was stripped bare. It was a very tall pot so they must have had to fly up onto the top to eat the leaves I didn’t think that they would bother. But they did – maybe they have a sense of smell? I know that Ginger, Adelaide and KoKKo loved the mint, so I should not have been surprised that Dilly, Pumpkin, and Freckles would love it too.

I have removed the pot to give it a chance to grow again – mint is as tough as old boots so will soon recover.

Only one bantie egg today – and I don’t have a clue who laid it. When I went to put the banties to bed, Dilly was on the nest already and shrieked when I opened the door to look. Freckles was on the roosting bars and complaining, and Pumpkin was outside walking up and down complaining – so I had to gently encourage Pumpkin into the run and now she had gone to roost with the others.

Off to bed. If I miss a day or two or the posts are short you will know why.

Soon be bouncing back like my old self though - I am a tough old bird.

Enjoy the sunshine - and a Bank Holiday coming up too this weekend.