Bad Hair Days and Woolly Jumpers.

Winter has arrived here in Melbourne, and with the first cold snap our poor chooks started moulting. It's an annual happening that has me worrying like an old mother hen every year. The weather turns cold, the nights draw in and right when it's coldest, the chooks drop their feathers and become naked and miserable. They look as ugly as it's possible to look, feathers patchy, naked bits on show, crest fallen (literally). Peaky plumage - bad hair days.

Not looking their best - Selma and Chickpea feeling crest-fallen

The first time it happened, 4 years ago, I was taken by surprise. Selma dropped all her feathers one cold night. When I let her out in the morning she was starkers except for her head. I fought back an urge to rush her straight to the vet, and anxiously Googled instead. Thanks goodness, just the annual moult. I worried that she was cold. She certainly looked chilly and despondent. What could I do to help? I decided to knit. I Googled again and came up with a knitting pattern for hen jumpers from the UK. She didn't like the jumper at all. Ungrateful - like all children who score home knitted jumpers from well-meaning mums and aunties. So I made her another little jacket out of some super soft and rather tasteful grey and black striped velour I had left over from an Edenstar dress. She liked that one better, or disliked it less - not as itchy I think. My neighbour and her little girl came over to feed the hens one afternoon. They had their own key and let themselves in. Surprise! Selma was wearing the same as her daughter.Two stylish chicks.
Well, last week both Selma and Chickpea started moulting simultaneously, and now Saffron is showing the first signs too. Bocconcini is looking the most miserable - sympathy I guess as she seems fully feathered.
I went straight to our local wool shop. They were delighted when they heard about my project, and showed me around enthusiastically. I chose 100% wool with a crepe feel that they assured me was not itchy. Only the best for my girls. The ladies in the shop have insisted that I email photos.
I was inspired by a little jumper I knitted for miss S when she was tiny. It was a multi-coloured striped affair that I sort of made up as I went along. I have employed the same technical precision for this project too. I used the pattern from Little Red Hen rescue but there's also a Penguin Foundation pattern I'd like to customise when I get a moment.

I loved knitting these little jumpers. I do like a bit of craft. The misses S and E prefer to call it witchcraft - sounds so much cooler than knitting.
Well, I've finished 2 jumpers and I couldn't wait to try them on the girls. It was fun and games in the back yard this morning trying to catch suspicious chickens for a modelling assignment. Cue the Benny Hill music. I'm afraid I can't report that they like them any more than the previous ones, but I think they looked very stylish.

Selma models her new jumper. Nice colours for the red head don't you think?

 

"I'm ready for my close-up Mr. De Mille." Bocconcini steps in to save the day when Chick-pea won't have a bar of it.

Scenes from The Dog Park - A Parallel Universe

When everyone has left the house each morning, Annie and I enter another world. It's a secret world unknown to those who have important places to go - our local off-leash dog park. We spend an hour or so in another dimension with a sort of informal dog walking 'club'. Our obedience trainer and her gentle and dignified German Shepherd, Sara, walk here daily. Many of her training 'pupils' and other doggy people she's met over the years, her 'groupies', gather every day for relaxed conversation and rambling about the park whilst the dogs all rush about, socialising and being active. We can meet forty dogs here some days. Joyful chaos.
We've met every type of dog imaginable. Last week we laughed at Monty, a young Bernese Mountain dog, playing with Winston, a Shitzu mix pup. Little and Large, a comedy duo. There are Great Danes and Chihuahuas, pedigree dogs and bitzers like Annie. There's even a Pit Bull terrier who visits occasionally - an awesome presence, but even tempered and well-behaved. A credit to his owner. We once met the most unusual pair, Pharoah hounds, also known as Maltese Rabbit dogs. They look like Anubis, the Egyptian dog headed god. I'm learning a lot about dogs.
It's been great for Annie, who was not well socialised when she came to us. She has grown to be comfortable and confident around other dogs, and has made some firm friends and playmates here. It's been great for me, as a first time dog owner, to hear everyone's doggy experiences and kindly advice.
The other unexpected and delightful outcome of what could be considered a chore, is that I've made friends and acquaintances way outside my usual social circle, and have amusing anecdotes and gossip to tell Mr. B on a daily basis.
People in every stage of life from their 20's to their 80's turn up unfailingly and chat about last night's TV, sport, politics, religion, and of course, dogs, all the subjects off-limits at a dinner party.

See you later - Annie can't wait a moment longer; Chase me, Henry!

A cool guy in his 20's, looking the worse for wear after a night of clubbing, may be talking to a lady in her 80's about the latest political stuff-up. I'm talking to an anaesthetist, about scuba diving in The Galapagos Islands, where he's just been. A couple of ladies of a certain age are chatting about last night's episode of the BBC series Broadchurch. These ladies love a murder mystery - quite bloodthirsty. A particularly lovely lady encouraged me to harvest and preserve my olives. She even brought me her recipe.
Of course everyone's different, and some quite opinionated. There have been heated discussions with passions running high, but it's a bit different here it seems. All is forgiven and forgotten by the next day. Someone said to me last week 'What happens in the dog park stays in the dog park'. He was talking about dog's behaviour, but I see a parallel. There are a lot of kind and clever people here.

Let's rumble - Winston gets Minter on the ground whilst onlookers gather round.

I've breathed a lot of fresh air, learned a lot of things and  met a lot of people in this park. Annie and I turn up every day, and hate missing even one episode. It seems that nothing is off-limits for discussion, and honest opinions can be aired. It must be healthy. Maybe it's this particular setting, slightly apart from real life - a parallel universe.

The park matriarch - the gentle and dignified Sara.

Phew What a Scorcher!

Hot damn! It's been a record week of soaring temperatures here in Melbourne. Apparently the hottest week in 100 years. Monday was 36 degrees, Tuesday 42.8, Wednesday 41.7, Thursday 43.5 and Friday 44 degrees. Quite apart from being truly uncomfortable and not being able to go about my normal daily life, I've been trying to keep all my creatures alive. Luckily we have air conditioning. Only evaporative mind you, which means that if it's 40 degrees outside it will be 34 degrees inside, but it's far better than the alternative.
So we've all been camped out inside the house, sheltering from the extreme heat. The guinea pigs have taken up residence in Miss E's bedroom. They're happy, but Miss E reports that they're party animals and keep waking her up through the night.
The chickens have been daily visitors to our ensuite. Let me tell you there's nothing charming about chooks in the shower. From my point of view they have trashed the place, and they smell terrible in confined quarters. From their point of view they get somewhat flustered upon arrival and departure, and seem quite bored without any ground to scratch or eggs to lay. Better than roast chicken though.
Poor Annie has had enough. Moping about the place and not being allowed to investigate the ensuite. She knows they are in there.
I've been hosing down the worm farm numerous times a day to try to keep the temperature down, and even put ice bricks inside. Unfortunately it wasn't enough and loads of them succumbed on Wednesday. Thursday saw the worm farm move into the kitchen.
As I type this, the much anticipated cool change has finally arrived. It's dropped from the high of 44 degrees at 4pm and is now a comfortable 31.4 degrees at 6pm. Cool even. OK everyone out - I want my house back!

Worm farm in the kitchen - yuck! Chooks in the shower - even yuckier!

Spot the guinea pigs -Buster and Smudge have an ET moment. Hot diggity dog - Annie is fed up.

The Fantastic Four

If scratching and digging, pecking and clucking, and of course, laying eggs, can be classed as super powers, then these girls are the Fantastic Four. Actually, laying eggs can be classed as a super power in my book - if there are no eggs in the fridge and I need one, I go out to the coop and have a look. Sometimes there's one there and sometimes not, but it's only a matter of waiting a while and then there's an egg - see, a super power.

 Meet Chickpea, Selma, Saffron, and Bocconcini, a motley assortment of chickens that have come to live with us over the last few years.
We became accidental chicken owners a little over 3 years ago when we found Selma and her partner in crime, Patty, wandering about at our local park. It was at the end of our lovely annual 'Spring into Gardening' festival. There are seedling giveaways (most important) for the local residents, Jack Russell races, face painting and bouncy castle for the kids, live music and gourmet food, professional advice on gardening, worm farms, compost and bee-keeping.  Everyone feels happy and a bit green and politically correct. As we left this paradise on earth, two big red chooks wandered out of the bushes near the gate. We gathered them up and took them back in to the petting farm who were just packing up. They claimed they did not belong to them, so the kind lady from the 'Save-a-Dog Scheme' stall bundled them into a cat carrier and told us to take them home. They came to live in the flower bed under our bedroom window, and we discovered how charming and hilarious chooks can be. We haven't looked back.
A few more have come and gone since that day - Patty( the original), Nutmeg and Cinnamon (ex-battery hens that lived a happy year or so with us), and Pepper (a Silkie bantam who came with Saffron).
These funny, feathered friends make me unexpectedly happy. Their gentle clucking and cooing is very grounding. They have opened my eyes.




Busy in the garden




Broody