Things happened over the weekend that I haven’t felt quite ready to talk about until now.
Much easier to bury myself in celebrity fluff.
Like the moment my dog Charlie trotted inside from the garden and dropped a piece of one of my murdered chooks at my feet … bone, flesh, feathers …
That wasn’t much fun.
And going to New Leaf Nursery to buy poor, shattered Henny Penny a new friend.
New Leaf is a gorgeous place, well worth a visit. There are roosters wandering among the plants for sale and it has the loveliest feel to it.
Here’s how it describes itself on its website:
We are an exciting new nursery on the Northern Beaches of Sydney specialising in sustainable living that is fun for the whole family.
Come and see our great range of backyard chickens, dwarf rabbits, quails and guinea pigs, plus lots of coops and hutches to go.
They had the cutest week-old guinea pigs there on Sunday, fluffy baby bunnies and broody chooks sitting in planter boxes on their eggs.
I wandered through the beautiful aisles of plants and animals and simultaneously felt joy at the beauty and the sadness at what I’ve lost.
We settled on a Australorp pullet for Henny to preserve the pecking order. It’s a brutal world in the coop and Google tells me that the new feathers Henny is growing are blood rich, which may incite attacks from other birds. I figured a little pullet would be too in awe of Henny to take her on.
We took a dog carrier along to transport our new pullet home, but the eldest insisted our new feathered friend sit on her lap instead.
The youngest came up with the name for our latest addition as we drove – Martha.
She initially suggested Pepper, which the eldest immediately shot down as “too boring”, but Martha was universally embraced.
We arrived home and pondered how to do our introductions. It was decided Husband and I would park ourselves on chairs outside the coop – cups of tea in hand – to supervise the meeting.
Henny spends her days perched in the corner of the coop, barely moving, eating or drinking. She didn’t ruffle a feather when I placed Martha inside.
At one point, Charlie frightened Martha and she jumped up beside Henny, trying to huddle into her side.
Henny gave her a swift peck, as if to say: “It’s a tough world out there, sister, harden up.”
But aside from that they seem to be ignoring each other just fine.
Oh … and something else has happened. But I’m still not ready to talk about that.
For now I’m focussing on a lovely message a friend I’ve made through the blog sent me …
Thank you, Geoff.
PS HouseGoesHome now has a Facebook page. Please click here and like it so I can feel all Sally Field getting her Academy Award: “I can’t deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!” And spread the word …
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