Our guest is doing well – eating, taking meds, and healing. I wasn’t sure we had a male or female, so I brought Brenda in from the aviary to see if new bird would react. A male pigeon would immediately begin to dance, spin, and call out to a female, but so far that hasn’t…
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Today I wrote to an eBay seller about hatching eggs. My nesting pair of rescue pigeons are busy preparing for more eggs, so I thought it might be fun to give them an old German owl pigeon egg to hatch. Two hours later, my husband called me to the window to see a beautiful pigeon…
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I saw an interesting article in The Guardian this morning about a majority of voters wanting closer ties with the EU. The highest percentage of these voters come from areas where the majority voted for Brexit. I’m not kidding when I say I laughed. I can’t count the number of times I was shouted down,…
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Humans baffle me. They act in illogical ways, often against their own self interest. For instance, it makes no sense than someone would speed and drive erratically, literally risking their life and the lives of others to save a few seconds, but I see it every time I’m on the motorway. I’ve written about my…
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Last year, I wrote about my attempts to disentangle myself from capitalism and listed a few things I found helpful. It’s an ongoing project, and I have more tips to share. As I stated in my previous blog post, I am coming at this from a position of privilege. I have no mortgage, no debts,…
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Leaving social media behind was weird at first. If I had a thought I didn’t share, did I really have it? Could small life events simply come and go without the posting of photographic evidence? Were music, film, and TV able to be enjoyed without my tweeting out a critical review? I’d been in the…
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Solidarity with the peaceful protestors who were arrested for the crime of holding an opinion in London this morning. Throwing a tax-payer-funded party for a billionaire while people go hungry and public services collapse is beyond disgusting. Those peacefully carrying ‘Not My King’ placards are not criminals.
Read MoreYesterday, a car I didn’t recognise parked across the street from my house. I didn’t see it arrive, but I looked out the window as soon as I heard a loud bang and a man screaming. I can only assume he’d slammed his car door before yelling and gesticulating at a young woman who had…
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At the end of last summer, we made the decision to no longer keep hens as we just couldn’t offer them the quality of life they deserved. Mandatory lockdowns due to bird flu were becoming more frequent and lasting longer, and the hens were confined to a run for months at a time. We’d always…
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Yesterday, I was excited to discover three tiny volunteers in one of my vegetable beds. They’re definitely some kind of squash, but the rest of their identity is a mystery, so I’ll need to wait until they’ve produced fruit to know for sure. I am looking forward to the surprise. Volunteer plants are one of…
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After a disappointing experience on Mastodon a few days ago, I’ve deleted the the app from my devices, which means I no longer am creating any content for any social media platform. Going forward, I’ll stick to my blog (and utilise Jetpack for Twitter to drive traffic toward it – chew on that, Elon). Here…
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It occurred to me this morning that I’d not shared the news about our kitten Toby. He came to live with us just after new year, and we are all out of our minds with his cuteness and sweetness. He’s half British shorthair and half ragdoll.
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My mama raised a quitter. If she were still alive, she’d probably be horrified at my admission, but I’m not ashamed. Sticking with a bad situation just to be sticking with it is stupid. It’s a trick of capitalism: the powers that be don’t want people cutting and running at the first sign of unhappiness,…
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My south-facing kitchen window is packed with seedlings, and I’m bracing for the cold snap that’s arriving tonight. It should last the week, which means there will be very little garden progress for the next few days. I’ve saved up a couple of episodes of Gardner’s World to tide me over. I’ve been growing vegetables…
Read MoreDear Steve,Can I call you Steve? I mean, I do feel like I know you, having heard from a friend-of-a-friend all about your aptitude for laziness, ineffectuality and taking credit for the work of others. Maybe I don’t know you personally, but I definitely know your type: quick to play the hero while you’re riding…
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Fig and Pen 