Vera’s View – The holiday season has started
Vera's View on the Spring Season
A lot has happened since I wrote my last Vera’s View post in the middle of March. The spring holiday season has begun. Michelle and Kevin have left their full-time desk jobs. We’ve had scouts camping and visitors have started arriving in greater numbers. Unfortunately my partner in crime “Cupcake” passed away and Avian Flu is getting closer. Read on to find out more….
Retirement - what's that?
Michelle and Kevin went up to Bristol near the end of March for Michelle’s retirement party. They left Anne (Michelle’s mum) to shut up the coop and let us out again in the morning and she told us all about it.
Then Kevin retired a week later so I’ve been seeing a lot more of them about in the grounds during the day now they are no longer tied to a desk job. That makes my day more interesting as its otherwise pretty dull while we are still in “flockdown”. I’m already in retirement from my previous full-time job as battery hen and only lay eggs when I’m feeling “in the mood”.
Vera's View on Young People
I love meeting people from the very young to the young at heart. At the start of this season we had two weekends where Michelle and Kevin were hosting and running training sessions for some older scouts. The scouts were very brave and camped out. But that’s not for me, in fact every night I make sure that I’m tucked up inside my cosy coop. If for some reason the door is shut when I’m allowed to be free range then I chase after Michelle and Kevin to open it up!
The first scout weekend coincided with the “boy in the tent’s sleep out” (#MaxBigSleepOut). The scouts enjoyed a campfire in the Hay Meadow field and I could just smell the smoke and hear their singing. The second weekend was extremely cold, it went down to -6C overnight. In the morning I watched them all wander indoors for a training session and to warm themselves up in front of the log burner in the guest lounge.
Over Easter some DofE leaders were staying in our Family Room, which I can see from my coop. They were supervising some guides doing their Gold expedition and their guides camped with us on their 3rd night. They looked very tired when they walked in but it seemed that they all enjoyed the hot showers.
Easter Guests
I can see that we’ve had more guests staying in the B&B and campsite and so far the dogs that I’ve seen have all been very well behaved. Last year a few chased me round the garden so now I’m pretty wary and prefer to stay out of their way.
We also had our first international guests stay just before Easter. They were friends of Michelle and Kevin from Iceland, and we have quite a few more international visitors already booked in for the summer which is great news. Our B&B guests do like trying our eggs.
Some Sad News
At the beginning of April Cupcake looked a bit off-colour and not her usual bubbly self and decided to spend the day in the coop. By the end of the day she had developed a condition called leg paralysis. Unfortunately as she was flapping around using her wings she managed to fall over and somehow break her neck. It was very quick and probably for the best, I know Michelle and Kevin were quite upset. They kept a close eye on me but I’m pretty resilient.
So now there is only myself and Flora left. Flora is 6 months older than me and seems to be a bit up and down, its probably a bit of boredom. Michelle and Kevin have promised us some new arrivals if Flockdown ends soon. But there is no end in sight and very recently an outbreak of Avian Flu was reported in Tetburn St Mary which is only just over 10 km away as the migrating bird flies. Will we both make it to the end of Flockdown? Look out for the next issue of Vera’s View in May.
