Right, aspersions have been cast. My good name has been slurred. So I would just like to put the record straight, especially as most people read the comment box.


Her from across the water said:

And how come you went pilfering in my email box for MY present from Scally? I don't know; they pass Rollos to each other, I'm the last to get a business card, miss the in jokes - a girl could get a complex.


Around here we believe people are innocent until proven guilty (This is probably the only time innocence can be associated with my name – I may as well get my money’s worth out of it). So I have the right to reply to the accusation. Hence:


I would just like to state VERY firmly that I haven't touch your bloody email box and have never pilfered anything in my life! To coin a phrase that is being branded around at the moment. How. Very. Dare You. If you actually looked you'd have noticed that I was included in the c.c. from Scally.

*Glares at Scally for not mentioning this fact and sticking up for me.*

Oi. You. Numpty. This being the very email that the three of US have been using to talk to each other for the last two days. Not only that, (I'm on a roll now – the virtuous have spoken), but it was in that email that I said the card should appear on the blog and YOU AGREED. You even said that you knew a woman who could do it, as you'd made a mess of it the last time. That woman being me.

The defence rests her case, knowing full well that I am now The Good Girl.

++++

I’m not cut out for this looking after newly hatched chicks lark. My nerves can’t take it.

I got up this morning and went to check on the quails. Without a shadow of a doubt, the runt of the hatching has suicidal tenderise – it was lay stretched flat out in the feeding dish, coated in the now very dry food mash which due to the heat from the bulb had made it set hard.

At first I thought it was dead, it certainly didn’t look well. But on closer inspection I could see it trying to breath. I got it out of the box and wondered what the hell I should do. Honestly, it couldn’t move. It was 'Baked Quail a la Mash'. In the end I decided that it’s only chance at survival was a wash, although I didn’t hold out much hope as it was obviously very weak.

So I washed it as best I could in warmish water and dried it off with paper towels, then quickly put it back under the light. Things didn’t look too good. It couldn’t stand up, just flopped about a bit. But there was nothing else I could do for it – so it really was a case of nature taking its course.

I went back upstairs and woke Himself up – he said roughly the same thing, nature would take its course and to leave it alone. So I cried – yes, I’m a soppy cow - which is another reason Himself puts his foot down with the No More Animals rule. Anyway I had a shower, got dressed and went back to look if it had left this mortal world.

It hadn’t. This time, it had flopped about the box and obviously ended up in the dish with the water in. Good job it was shallow as the poor thing was currently doing the quail equivalent of the backstroke in it.

I lifted it out; the poor little thing was so cold. It was obvious that unless I did something very quickly it wasn’t going to last too many minutes more. But what the hell could I do? The light bulb was giving off heat, just not enough to dry it very fast and it was shivering and cold to the touch.

So I got the hairdryer out. Well that’s what we use, and by my reckoning the poor thing had nothing to lose. So I turned the setting to the lowest, supported the chick in my hand and made sure that I held the hairdryer far enough away so it didn’t blow him too hard.

It took nearly five minutes to dry, by which time its eyes were closed but it was still breathing. So I put it back in the box and left it alone whilst I went shopping. When I got back it was still where I put it, eyes still closed and still breathing.

And it stayed that way for about five hours, me checking it very half an hour – then it got up and started running around as if nothing had happened to it, the little sod…….