Much needed rain meant that only two of us walked. We met at the garden triangle near the church where a dastardly crime was committed in the early hours of Sunday morning

On our walk we met this lovely dog

Back at The Gables the cats are annoyed with me as they have to wear collar and bells until the blue tits nesting in the pergola have safely finished hatching and fledging their young. Instead the cats find moles to kill. Oh dear!

As a treat I allowed Nigel to lie on grandson’s bed with all his “soft toy” friends

The rain is great for all the plants and I didn’t have to water the pots and hanging baskets today

Some weeks ago, when we moved the three Silkie hens and their twelve chicks from the nursery runs to the quail barn, one of the chicks escaped. It took all day for the chick to re-emerge from the laurel bushes and return to the nursery run ( we had left the door open just in case).

The chick had lost feathers on the back of its neck. Was Nigel the culprit? Anyway said chick settled back in with the others until yesterday when we moved the three mothers with the three Silkie chicks to the Silkie enclose. We moved the other nine chicks to the paddock run.

I put the birds to bed in their new house, resigned to the loss of that one chick.

This evening, as we went to put the polytunnel birds to bed, I counted nine and not eight birds. The ninth was small with feathers missing from the back of its neck. We cornered and caught the “escape artist”, trimmed its wings and I took it back to the paddock to be reunited with the others

It takes 21 days for a chicken egg to hatch and 28 for a duck egg. The duck who laid those eggs was herself taken, we think, by a stoat. She had laid 6 eggs in the duck enclosure and was sitting on them day and night. Perhaps we should have moved her into one of the houses but we thought she was well hidden in the tall grass and nettles. We couldn’t find her for several days. We were mistaken. She and her eggs were all taken. The two eggs that the hen kindly incubated were earlier eggs that she laid and that we had saved to put under a broody hen. So this little duckling won’t have much company (if it survives) just three drakes and a disabled goose. Click below

Last night I prepared the fruit and covered it in sugar. This morning it was ready to jam

Last night a tiny, wet duckling hatched under one of the Maran hens. This morning it is beginning to look fluffy

I drove into Bedford for a dental appointment. I’m one of the lucky ones who can afford private dental care and am actually registered with a practice. I can’t imagine the misery of living with toothache and pain and being unable to find a dentist in Britain 2022.

On the way home I stopped at the wonderful Pells farm shop snd plant nursery. I saw bundles of English asparagus for sale, about six sticks per bundle priced at £2.75. By that reckoning we are “asparagus millionaires” at The Gables for about 6 weeks a year

Daughter and grandson arrived this morning with a jar of daughter’s homemade pickled peppers