Perfect, and I can’t wait

Just in case you were worried, I thought I would let you know that the chic-e-chicks are just fine in their new home. We have taken a lot of time to settle them in with all the knowledge we have gained over the past four years of keeping hens. One of our little secrets is to create a border of boulders so they can’t scratch their way out under the fence. Chickens are great escape artists and we have both double checked all possible exit plans and are quite sure they are secure. Whilst giving HOSS his Sunday run at the sea side  today we also stole sand and shell off our beach to put in the sand pit so short of a bit of grass they are, sorted. It did occur to me this morning as I lay in bed listening to the crooning tones of a our young cockerel that he is now much closer to our bedroom window so panic attacks at the sight of the alarm clock reading nine in the morning are all a thing of the past, probably a good thing. I have often thought about why a cockerel crows whilst it is still dark and Mike and I have, quite sadly, pondered the quandary and my favourite notion is that a cockerel in the deep south of France wakes up to the sun and his call starts them all off up and across the nation until it reaches us before the sun has actually risen. We have another notion about churches in France. Every village has a church and we have wondered where in France you could possibly be the furthest from a church. I recon you could  climb up to the top of every church tower in France and see the next one, it is on our walks on the beach that we start this talk of notions and theory but at least we are chatting and at least we are still capable of a notion or two.

So now the work begins on the new patio. Mike lifted some fence posts that were in place before we came and scoffed and poo poo’d the quality of the installation with remarks like “ how was that little amount of concrete going to keep a fence post up…..well it did, and has for as long as we have been here. Mike then needed to lift two posts that he had installed a couple of years ago and by ‘eck we were there for the morning digging and pushing and pulling  before the post gave way with a chunk of concrete that we could have built a house with. To be faire to Mike he did mention that he may have gone over board but I praise his belts and braces approach to anything he does and that is why stuff stays in place and we rarely get a fall-over disaster to deal with.

If you are a long term blogger you will know that we bought a pallet of coping stones a couple of years ago and have used them to make the surround to the Boule park and made paths and stuff around the garden. Today, however,  we decided that we had enough left to make a boarder around our new patio so all we now have to find is the dosh to buy a lorry full of gravel to finish the job. I love the way one job leads onto the next, we need gravel to finish the mobile home terraces and now we have the patio to do, so a lorry load will be plenty and more economical. We are having a bon fire party here on the 5^th of November and I had decided that I wanted a fire in the garden but Mike was unsure about having people grovelling about in the dark and suggested a oil drum fire on the drive…I was not excited about that  but yesterday he announced that we could have a fire on the space that will be the new patio. There is light, space and it is closer to the house, ………Perfect, and I can’t wait