The unseasonably fine weather over the last two days has helped us enjoy a busy, but relaxed weekend. It all started on Friday night, when we went to Mark T’s to watch the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest. We giggled at the fashions, gawped in horror at the temperamental scoreboard that kept dropping points, and the hopeless presenter, who appeared to have been one of the TV company’s secretaries by day. (In case you were wondering, our favourites were Belgium, Denmark, and Germany. Bucks Fizz would have come higher in our list had their musical arrangement been better, though their victory was the reason why we were watching the show.) Much fun.
Saturday saw me ride the train back to Ipswich to fetch the tickets for Sunday’s Saint Etienne show in London, and upon arriving home, do the weekly clean chicken clean out. (In other chicken news, they’re still laying. We found two eggs today, suggesting that either Margot or Gerry has joined Barbara, and started to lay, too. One of the eggs was a little darker and was covered in faint brown speckles, which we think may belong to Margot. She is a darker hen you see, and with darker ears than Gerry, who we expect to pop out lighter, almost white eggs.)
Elsewhere in the garden, Nik cleared the plot ready for the onset of winter, collecting 4kg of runner beans in the process. The rest of the summer-like warm afternoon was spent in an inner tube-mending, cycling, milkshake and coffee-drinking blur, before we headed out to the station to hop on a train in order to celebrate Mark P’s birthday in Ingatestone. Once there, we enjoyed a delicious, if noisy, curry.
And today has been both equally busy, but relaxing. An early alarm woke us in time for breakfast in Galleywood, after which I enjoyed tea and cake with a friend at Hylands House (while much hedgerow brambling was being done elsewhere). Arriving home just after lunch, but in time for a couple of computery jobs – while much crab apple jelly-making was going on downstairs – it was soon time for us to pack our bags this afternoon and head out for our night in London.
We don’t really know why the last two days have been as relaxing as they have been action-packed, but we’re not complaining. At least non-stop weekends mean there’s no time for being bored.
Tags: Chicken-keeping, Journal