Blue Egg

I have a little black Auracana bantam that I raised from an egg hatched by a broody hen last year.

My little Auracana is called Amy, named for another famous Amy with a black beehive hairdo. She has a photocall tomorrow, meanwhile - here is her first egg, with others laid by her companions for contrast.

Henhouse horror

I keep a few bantam hens in a run at the end of the garden. They lay beautiful little eggs that are so much nicer than shop ones, and they are endearing creatures. They are very much a sociable species, and their interactions and behaviour can be a hoot. Bantam keeping is a good ME hobby, generally requiring no great commitment in time or effort.

But, this last weekend I noticed that the ladies had little visitors in the coop - the dreaded red mite. These tiny bloodsuckers breed very quickly, and affected poultry can weaken and perish in very short order. Much frantic cleaning followed, and an amount of creosote was sloshed onto the house. The creosote had been sitting in the back of my shed for years. Nowadays, creosote cannot be legally sold to householders as it is considered to be carcinogenic. However, whilst householders cannot buy creosote in 5 litre batches, it remains legal to sell the stuff to professional users in quantities greater than 20 litres. Confused? I know that I am.

Creosote kills red mite, so my problem is over, and the legalities really don't bother me.

Chicken maintanance

Well, I just cleaned out my little chicken coop, currently occupied by half a dozen "teenage" chooks, all about 12 weeks old, and very full of themselves. It's the first useful thing I've achieved today - it's been a while since I felt as boisterous as my young birds do!

Bantam keeping is a great PWME activity - it never asks too much of you all at once, and the responsibility for the welfare of the little girls (and three teenage boys) is a good motivator on the "blah" days when I really don't feel up to move at all. The rewards are pretty instant also, it's always a pleasure to find eggs in the nest box.

This hasn't been a great week. Since my day at the Big Tent Festival last Saturday, I have been flat as a fluke - foggy, headachy, utterly without energy, either too hot or too cold, and constantly perspiring. We have a wedding reception to attend in Edinburgh tomorrow, I really wonder if I will be up to it, although it will be nice to see both our friends at the wedding, and also the friends who have offered to put us up for the night in Morningside.

Housing issues lumber on. We've been offered the lease on a great old house in the country - hurrah! But - the buyer-to-be of our house has just had the sale of her property fall through, so we remain in limbo. This is not good.

As ever - we shall just have to wait and see...

Simple pleasure found

There's a heap of five bantams sunbathing on our back door mat, looking deeply contented with life. On their sides, with a wing extended, eyes closed, soaking up the sun. The Good Life!

Introduction and some recommendations

A year of M. E. has left me without a job, and with some choices to make. I don't think I'd want to return to the stress, risk and hurly-burly of Social Work even if I was well enough to do so, which I'm not. So I'm looking for a new direction, if not an absolute target destination, remembering Robert Louis Stephenson's dictum that "It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive".

I've gone pretty much for the old hippy self-sufficiency line. The plan is to sell the house, clear off all our owings, and rent a place in rural Fife with a bit of land for hen houses, a polytunnel, fruit and vegetables, beehives; all with Permaculture very much in mind. Translating all this into action is still hanging on the sale of our house. We've found a potentially ideal place to move to, so fingers are tightly crossed. Watch this space

I've made some basic steps already, and am the proud owner of a small flock of bantam hens. The ladies in question provide us with a steady supply of small tasty eggs, and a fair amount of amusement and distraction. Chickens live in tightly ordered hierarchies, involving intrigues and struggles for power from time to time. The Top Hen rules with a beak of iron, but might be deposed at a moments notice if, as an example, she is careless enough to become broody. The other hens then have to re-establish the pecking order, an aptly named phenomenon.

But - chooks are ME friendly creatures - they don't take a lot of looking after, and the reward of glorious fresh eggs is good for PWME (Person with ME) self-esteem. If you are tempted to learn more - look here.

Nasim Marie Jafrey - The State of Me

If you are looking for a great read, look here

Nasim Jafrey's first novel, it took her nine years to write. She is a PWME, and uses her great skill as a writer to include in her novel a deeply accurate description of how M.E. feels. Unconditionally recommended.