Still no fixed collection date from the British Hen Welfare Trust lady, so we are still working on the assumption of 'late April' meaning the week the children go back to school after the Easter hols....so in true Windy Acre fashion, preparations are continuing with the usual thorough research slowing down all decision making and purchasing...well, why change the psychological habits of a lifetime.
Accommodation having been delivered last Friday and dutifully constructed on Saturday, I am pleased to announce that decoration is underway (first coat of Ronseal spring green is on!) and inspiration has struck with regard to a suitable name for the ladies' new quarters:
CLUCKINGHAM PALACE
Given the thought, time, and energy being devoted to this project, I feel this name conveys the correct ambience being created. I did toy with 'Le Palais des Poulets' but rejected this on the grounds of excessive pretentiousness (!).
Electrician visited today to price up the provision of exterior power supply socket for the 'security arrangements', and work booked to be carried out next Wednesday. Now we need to finalise the actual electric fencing kit and get it ordered. Difficult as A seems to be on a particularly bad run of early starts and late returns, punctuated only by evening hours in front of his work laptop preparing for the next day's excitement so it seems to be down to yours truly to do all the technical groundwork (ha!) and present final options for review to the technical panel (him). All this is extremely time consuming, resulting inevitably in a complete failure of all hoovering/tidying/ironing routines to add to the already 'home recently burgled and liberally scattered with half full cardboard moving boxes still' overall look. Not sure Windy Acres likely to make it into the hallowed pages of Country Living anytime soon...
So, I think we all need a photo to cheer us all up:
Complete with E mid-bounce, both enjoy their current fave after tea game of trampoline basketball, invented by E. Ideal on a full stomach and a naturally relaxing wind-down activity before bedtime (!).
Meanwhile in other news...
I think I might finally have identified the most suitable candidate/location for the siting of the 'new' treehouse den, the lack of which is causing much consternation amongst the smallest fry in particular (we have, after all, been here for a whole 6 weeks now and obviously haven't had ANYTHING else to do).
Having ruled out the largest tree in the garden, the remaining horse chestnut, which would have been perfect had it not involved completely upsetting our elderly (oooo she'd hate that) and definitely grumpy if aroused next door neighbour, as attaching a tree house there would result in commanding magnificent views straight over the fence into her garden...I have decided upon this one:
The tree nearest the camera, that is. It's an ash, I think, and looks pretty sturdy, and more importantly is far enough away from the fence to enable being encircled by a tree house type construction but which will actually be supported from the ground so no need to attach anything to the actual tree trunk. Exact details of design are still sketchy, but are to include a rope ladder to give that real jungle feel and also high enough to give a feeling of being up in the leaf canopy, I think. A concerned about anything too high being noticeable from the footpath on the other side of the fence and subsequently being reported for lack of planning permission, my plan is to allow the existing hedging conifers there to grow up a bit taller this year to make this less obvious as well as better hiding the school buildings behind, which although these can't be seen from this part of the garden, can be seen when you are standing further up near the house as the hedge just needs to be a couple more feet.
This decision has been relayed to the Engineer-in-charge of Works, with the previso that he is just to start thinking up design ideas at the moment, but in no way should he allow his mind to be distracted by this doubtless more exciting project, from the dull but infinitely more pressing concern of the rabbit proof fencing for the veggie patch!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment