Nostalgia is exactly what it used to be


These days I write another blog, but its editing panel links me back to here. It's been a while since I visited, but browsing through old posts, chicks and chickens has just been a source of immense pleasure.


In the three years that have passed since I last wrote anything on here, life has been busy. I suppose, in the context of most of the posts on here, I should begin by saying that many of our chickens laid their last eggs, and that old age and foxes intervened a lot. There have been some sad farewells... Toffee (my beloved Millefleur) died in my arms after a long time of poorliness and lots of veterinary intervention. 2010 - one of the worst years I can remember for all sorts of reasons - ended with a snowy night driving at least one fox into a frenzy of hunger. S/he hammered through a thick wooden henhouse and took Buffy and Titch, their daughter and his other wife (having got a lot older, he was only up to a small harem by then). Very sad...


2010 began - literally, on New Year's Day - with the end of a seven year relationship with MrRainy. I find myself unable to write anything more on that subject, except to say that it was heartbreaking. 
Adventures ensued, some of them fun, none of them heartwarming. Work was hard and demanding (but sometimes challenging in a good way too). 
The tiredness that had started to dog me in 2008/09 got worse and turned into a succession of illnesses that I never quite shook off. In October 2010 I found myself suddenly in hospital and the following month I was told that I had a cancer that couldn't be cured and that would ultimately 'shorten my life'. 


Nine months later and I'm still here, for now. Working hard at staying that way. Cared for by someone kind. Clearer about relationships that actually make a difference and keep you safe when you need them to. It's been hard, but I'm still here. 


And we still have five chickens, in the biggest, heaviest, most fox-proof house and run you ever did see. But that's another story...