Having chickens running around, laying fresh eggs… (nearly all the girls are laying!), fish swimming in the aquaponics greenhouse helping to grow parsley, basil, tomatoes and salad etc… All sounds so idyllic until you have to wake up at 5.30 on a freezing cold, grim, wet morning and have to sort the daily chores.
It’s possibly the coldest March I can recall with higher predictions for snow on Easter than for Christmas and we still haven’t got all our jobs sorted out!
- Plant more seeds!!!
- Hoover fish poo
- Clear up the chicken run to make room for polytunnel
- Remove laurel branches
- Chop wood
- Get horse poo
These are just the main ones. And ones requiring us to be outside in the freezing cold. Damn.
I remind myself that I am blessed to have this opportunity, learning so much about the cycle of nature and then I step ankle deep in squelching mud that envelope my socks and pyjamas with such unrelenting predilection. I mutter through gritted teeth, feed the girls (the hens) , check on the boys (the tilapia) and head inside.
Very soon I’ll be on a train with all the other happy (sarcasm) commuters who ride into London. The weariness daily journey is in stark contrast to my morning start… For those few minutes of grumbling in the cold misery I am living the good life! I have everything to be grateful for and if I don’t recognise that, I’ll lose out.
