the animal hotel

When I was a child I created an animal hotel in the old chicken house down in the pit at the bottom of the garden. This was my domain - my parents had no idea what I was doing down there - I could have been keeping a baboon for all they knew. As it was I had a couple of mice (later rather a lot of mice as they were not of the same sex) and a few stick insects. And a snail.

It crossed my mind now, as I was cleaning out the crow with white feathers and putting in a fresh towel at the bottom of his house, that not much has changed. As I tucked the towel in I found myself saying "there we are clean sheets." Indeed - Not much has changed. 

Above are the three amigos - two crows and a jackdaw who have palled up with each other in the shade tunnel. I've taught them to feed themselves, to fly and soon they'll be off after the naughty magpie who left last week without paying his bill. The crow with the white feathers which came from the wildlife hospital like all the others looks very like a magpie - for some reason most of his wing feathers are white. Hopefully when he grows new ones they'll be black - otherwise out in the wild sadly he will be attacked for being odd. This could happen to any of us at any time.

Actually if you walked into the porch of our house you'd think I was running a subsidiary to Boots the chemist. Scout the dog (above right) takes three different sorts of pills and sometimes a fourth each day and Harry the horse is on drugs. Every day I crush twenty paracetamol and give them for his sore leg and I have hundreds of packets. Shops will only sell you two packs at a time which only does the day so every time I go into a shop I pick up a couple of packets. I think the village shop are growing suspicious and I'll have to wear a wig or a false beard next time I go in. Someone told me they thought they'd seen Harry smoking a joint behind the bike shed which is ridiculous. There isn't a bike shed.

I love it when there are babies at the hospital - here's one rolling over to give itself a good lick.

And dear three pills a day Scout wearing her crown of leaves

I have purposely left a strip of grass in the lawn to encourage wild life which you can see has worked very well.

Pocket said he'd been busy writing television series. Oh really? I asked -what are they then? He told me he'd written something called Holby Kitty. Don't you mean Holby City set in a hospital? No he glared at me it's about cats in a hospital. Anything else? I asked. He looked a bit shifty and said Downton Tabby.

You mean Downton Abbey and you nicked that from a cartoon on facebook. He told me he wasn't saying any more until he had a solicitor present or better still a barista. Don't you mean a barrister I said.  No he snapped. I want a coffee with cream without the coffee.

I have over 78 different varieties of roses in the garden - and here is one of them - the beautiful climber Awakening. When we first moved into the cottage all those years ago the garden was just part of a field and over the years I've collected all these roses - some of which I can't distinguish from each other. A lot of the pink ones although they have different names look remarkably similar. Still, I'm not expecting to do an open garden and have people quiz me on them.

 

Our neighbourhood runs ads for help in the community. I have strung some of them together and not changed any of the wording.

Help Page

Dementia man missing.

My father broke out of the house

during the night.

Please can you check your gardens.

Has anyone lost a sheep?

Dog found.

Wanted a ladies bicycle.

I need a piano removed.

I am looking for someone to strim my edges.

Found - a key in the roadside.

Plumber wanted to fit W.C.

Has anyone picked up £30 this morning?

The window cleaner has just announced

he's no longer cleaning windows.

Missing - heavily pregnant Jack Russell.

Do you want a bungalow?