Challenging – word of the week

This morning I walked out to look at the apple trees. So many blossoms on them. I was slightly concerned that the torrential rain we had early on Thursday morning might knock them off, but they don’t seem to have suffered. A few bruised petals, which wasn’t putting off the hosts of bees buzzing among the branches. The scent is amazing, so I sat down and enjoyed the moment. It’s been a mildly challenging time, this week, and it was good to switch off.

The hens

See how innocent the hens look. They are marginally miffed that they’re in chicken prison at the moment and have only themselves to blame. Not that they know that, of course.

Up to this week, I’ve been letting them wander where ever they liked in the garden. They seemed happy and quite honestly the garden is large enough to keep them entertained. This week, I noticed, after I let them out of the hen house, they’d peck away at their breakfast, then turn tail and make a beeline round the house, down the drive and out under our front gate. They were on a mission.

I don’t know why. One set of neighbours were moving out and maybe they heard their voices. Or had they found another neighbour’s bird feeder? Or maybe someone had fed them something particularly nice and the pea brained birds hadn’t forgotten.

I tried everything to keep them in. In the twenty years that we’ve kept hens, I’ve never had a flock behave like these three do. Hens are not that bright. Out of sight is usually out of mind for them, but for some reason they were in a big hurry to go under the gate towards the lane, each morning.

Not wishing to scrape hens off the tarmac, I shut them in the greenhouses, when I went out, which they really enjoy. It is well ventilated, dry and perfect on rainy days. Dust baths galore, so it must be like a spa day for them. Also eat-all-you-like, due to the plentiful supply of bugs. When home, I’d let then out, but I found myself constantly checking on them. Very distracting when I’m working.

My current solution is to shut my challenging flock in their hen run and move them on to fresh ground each day. Hopefully they will forget in a week or two and I can release them again.

Exercise

Last weekend, Mr TTC and Youngest had a challenging walk. They headed out from home and walked over to a village that we like on the Mendips. It took them almost four hours and they rewarded themselves with a pub lunch. I was meant to join them for lunch, but was busy ticking items off my list so I skipped lunch and picked them up when they finished.  They really enjoyed it and have plans to walk other routes.

While they were walking, the hound and I went for a shorter, more local walk. We spotted a hare that decided to make a run for it, which is the most amazing sight. My favourite wild animal around here.

Not to be left out, I have been exercising too. I’ve completed two weeks at the gym.  We go three times a week and mix lessons and gym sessions up, to keep it fresh.

I tried Barre Fit this week for the first time. This is exercise using ballet movements and it was a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. Ballet was one of my favourite after school activities and I had to give it up when I went to secondary school, so I sprang at the chance to revisit it again. It appears that time has not been kind. Wow, I ached for three solid days. Far more than any other class. Part of the reason I chose to do it is to improve my balance and posture. I’m not giving up. It will get easier. At least, I remember the ballet jargon and I know what I should be doing, even if my body can’t quite keep up yet.

Also tried group cycling for the first time, which was challenging too. I’ll do again but I’m not so sure about it.

Anyway that was my week. Hope you had a good week. I’m joining in Anne’s word of the week with my word challenging.