Sorry there has been no update for 2 weeks - I had to go on a work trip to our offices in China, so missed 9 days (inc 2 weekends) around the place, although the OH has been hard at work on a whole bunch of stuff. The trip was useful, but has put a big dent in my plans to cut my carbon footprint this year. DOH!

So - now the good stuff. Came home to find that the OH and The Lodger have been laying the new patio - it looks fantastic. Will be lighting the BBQ up at the weekend to to give it some use.

Took a walk round the place and was completely amazed at how much everything has changed - everything has masses of leaves, the strawberrys and logonberry are in flower, and the cabbage, peas and lettuce in the raised beds have doubled in size. Its great - i missed being here but coming back to such a great transformation is fantastic.

And Finally - it seems no update is complete at the moment without an update on the chooks. Things have improved and i feel confident that the 5 will learn to live together - the bad news is that the new 2 ones still spend most of thier day hiding. They have taken to perching on the chook house door and jumping down to quickly get food and water. Only one of the original 3 is still interested in bullying them but that is causing new problems. One of the newbies has started laying - however to avoid getting attacked, she lays from her perch on the door - which means the eggs have a 4 foot drop to the ground. Not good - I have smashed eggs, chooks that are starting to like the taste of the smashed eggs, 2 chooks that spend all day terrified, and 1 chook who is a really evil bully. If they were pets I would just leave them to it and enjoy them for what they, BUT, their not - we need those eggs, so i need to stop the bully chook, stop the new ones from being so scared and get them to start using the nest boxes.

The alternative is to either, a) kill and eat the 2 newbies which will return us to our original situation, or b) kill and eat the bully and hope the new 2 will adapt better without her around.

HO HUM. its all fun isnt it.