Fingernails

15/09/2009 by Rosemary.

Thank you everybody for your comments!

Today, as usual, four of the chickens escaped but they have now settled into a reasonable routine.  Four of them disappear after their breakfast and then reappear at tea time.  I don’t know where they go and none of them lay any eggs so I am letting them get on with it; they seem quite happy!  I started today by continuing an ongoing spring clean (bit late in the year I know!)  Among the more mentionable things I found in the lounge were two Christmas decorations (one of them chocolate), 40p, a dog chew and a screaming monkey.  I also found two pots of blackberry jam from last year, what they were doing on the book shelf is beyond me!

I then went to mend the chicken house door which I had temporarily propped up yesterday.  I am not terribly good at practical things so probably was unwise to attempt it.  I tried putting a nail in my mouth while retrieving the hammer which had fallen in the stinging nettles, a method I have often seen Carl successfully adopt, but nearly swallowed the nail when Georgina barged into me.  In my panic my fingernail slipped down in between the door and the hinge and got stuck.  This bit will not make sense to you unless you know that I have fairly long fingernails.  They do break but not that often.  People often think they are fake but they are not.  How they imagine I would have the time or the inclination to stick false nails on I don’t know.  I don’t particularly look after them, never have manicures and don’t try to grow them - they just do.  Sometimes people ask me how I manage to type with them, or do anything for that matter, but I am so used to them they are just like extra long fingers and they can be quite useful for prising dirt out of alpaca feet and things like that.  The only thing that is tricky is looking at an alpaca’s bite. They are very strong nails and grow quick so where most people might have found their nail handily snapped when it got stuck between a hinge and a door mine didn’t, it just stuck and I couldn’t wiggle it back out for some reason.  I had visions of sitting there till dusk, gnawing it off but as I sat down to consider the position the door fell off and I was released!

When I arrived back at the house Carl had got home and was capering around the hall in the act of removing his trousers.  This was a fairly worrying sight until I realised he was trying to get rid of a spider which had found its way into his pants!  The day went a little down hill for him as we then had a hedging incident.  For almost a year now he had been particularly nurturing four hedge plants he put in on one side of the bottom run to fill a gap in the hedge.  He has been diligently strimming round them, talking to them in a Prince Charles sort of way, watering them regularly and generally checking up on them every time he walks past.  The girls and the cria came down for their supper and then I opened the gate so they could amble back at their leisure.  I failed to notice Flamenco climbing the bank and remaining there where she slowly munched her way through every one of them.  I tried to tell Carl Autumn had arrived  early but he just walked off dejectedly with the dog, carrying a spade!

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »