ink marks on a blank page Sunday 18th January

So, chickens don't know when it's Sunday. That might just come as a surprise to some folk, as I know it did and sort of didn't to me. Perhaps a fuller explanation would be in order. Since leaving the farm , building a new home in that hills village and then subsequently moving down here we have kept up the farming facade by having chickens in the back yard. She says it is so I can have some(one)thing to talk to during the days when she is off ministering to the sick etc. Actually how the chickens manage room and board at Chez robbi is by supplying the household with fresh eggs on a daily basis. Therein is my little epiphany about chickens not knowing it is Sunday.
More background information is as follows; when on the farm we had up to 20 chickens all running about the place laying furiously so what the crows didn't pinch I used to pick up each day.In all those years what with the crows swiping eggs and new chickens coming in there was never any need to know who laid what or when. Eggs just appeared, were gathered either by crows or self and life just tumbled on.

The shift to the village changed all that as it took a while to get a hen house going and then we sold that house to move and build here. Of course in between all that there was a sort of limp career to consolidate after being on the farm for so long, life was at that time a tad odd and mixed up for a goodly while. Once here and the garden done , hen house built ,two chickens were installed. two seemed to be an optimum number as we were unsure how the neighbours would react to hens bawking about the place early on a frosty morn. They appeared to be placated with the odd egg or three and also some nice plums or nectarines from the fruit trees.

You may or not know that chickens do not lay every day,even when as well cosseted as they are at Chezrobbi. These two lovely red hens laid two brown eggs everyday except, wait for it ,Sunday. This went on for some three years and when we had several trips to the UK for 3months at a time the folk who looked after the feeding and care reported that two eggs rolled in every day except Sunday. Some Sundays there would be one egg but most Sundays were eggless. That lot of chickens eventually had to go to a friends farm out in the sticks , a sort of old chickens home in the hills, where they could live out the rest of their days in peace,(or the pot) we hoped.What we didn't know wouldn't hurt , so to speak. Another two chickens joined the happy band here and they soon settled into the same routine, as did their main carer, me. Oh heck no, I don't lay the eggs, it's the chickens stupid!Two eggs a day excepting of course Sunday. Last year off we went to the UK for another couple of months so those red hens had an early retirement trip to Mt Pleasant. On return we off to the red hen shop for two more, but once they started laying, shock and horror the routine changed. Now , some of you might think and say, so what, do I really care diddly what day his chickens lay or didn't?

Perhaps it is retirement, or sloth, or just a general loss of neurons that stopped me from realising until last week that these hens didn't not lay an egg on any specific day( such as Sunday) but their particular habit was not to lay on alternate days.Are you confused, what I mean is one week they didn't lay on Monday, next week it was the Wednesday and so on. But there was always two eggs on a Sunday. I know , I checked on the calendar where all the egg production is marked down in a very efficient manner, as befits a well regulated household(she says I should get out more). There you have it, a conundrum Miss Marple would love to crack. Worrisome to a small degree and you dear folk can be rest assured that the matter has been discussed at length with the two red hens but as yet there is no actual consensus in sight.

Of course I'm not batty Hortense, the good folk know that I don't really talk to chickens at great length, just short little asides about the weather and such is all.
I should stick to rubbish I make up instead Horty old girl, is that a question old love or a demand? Maybe you are right perhaps a little comment on current affairs.Is it okay to say that word when one talks about an American president?. Tuesday the good folk in the US are going to do that thing they do so well, install a new one. What a cracker he looks as well Hortense, damn but he looks the goods. This is just one of the really great thing the Americans do isn't it, oh heck Horty it is far far better than inventing liquid white out. You were joking? write me a note next time Hortense. He is rather sweet and seems to be quite bright but he has a big job to do. Methinks Hamas might just be escalating the situation just to make it hot for the young fellow, and don't they look like a bunch of losers . As this is being written they have just sent five rockets into Israel,pathetic isn't it. There are always two ways of looking at any perplexing situation,so lets hope the chickens settle down into a better routine or a higher authority might just answer the call.

Missed out on Sunday Gelato this week Hortense, shame about that but it was all down to those pesky red hens y'see. Next week I promise.