December

I didn't do the autumn cutback in the end.  But I've done most of it now.  I can see what I'm doing again!  And what I need to be doing is weeding. There are buttercups and grass growing everywhere, not to mention tenacious little alpine strawberry plants.

We've had quite a lot of stormy weather lately - but yesterday was glorious.  So we went to the allotment and pottered about in the garden.  It's stormy again now though

Click on the allotment to reach the album

 Poor Gyoza woke up dead on Saturday morning.  She had become progressively less and less mobile and spent most of her time sitting in her run watching the world go by. But she hadn't shown any sign of dropping off her perch. She was eating happily and pottering about.  Still, that's chooks for you.  Mind you, we haven't had much luck with this year's load of chooks.  That's three of six gone now. One of each type.  Curry and Dimsim are laying beautifully.  Udon, though, has gone into moult and stopped laying.  An unusual time of year for moulting and she's unusually young.

We'll get some more chicks and ducklings in the spring.  Maybe this time our ducklings will be girls!!  (It's just as well that the boys are very cute - they're not much use apart from that)