I’m sat up in the attic just for the hell of it, waiting to see if any spooks appear on this the spookiest day of year. So far nothing apart from a black cat slinking around the various boxes of bric-à-brac and piles of books. Sound from the street below is amplified in the attic. Rather than trick or treaters singing merrily from the street “Gis some sweets or I’ll egg your house”. All I can hear is the sound of sirens and someone shouting that the meat raffle in the pub next door was a fix….to be honest on the pub Facebook page it had a pic of the said raw meat platter sat on top of a radiator…most off putting I thought and also the fact I don’t eat meat..that also put me off.
It’s a pretty awful night weather wise. It’s been windy and heavy rain most of the day. It’s kept the trick or treaters in. I got Mally to limp up to the local shop earlier today to buy some sweets in case anyone did knock. But no sign of anyone. What a shame I shall have to eat all those sweets…it’s a tough job but needs must.
The attic is not looking particularly spooky tonight in all honesty Attic stairs Cagney has seen something in the corner!
Cagney one of my black cats 🐈⬛ loves the attic and she’s always looking towards the ceiling. I’ve looked but can’t see anything untoward….as far as I can tell.
Cagney has decided to make the effort this Halloween and dress up as Salem the cat from Sabrina the teenage witch. I think she’s done a great job.
See you can’t tell which is Salem and which is Cagney. Just for reference though, Cagney is in this pic 😁
I’m off downstairs now, bit chilly up here.
I just remembered I have a witches broom. It’s located near the front room fireplace. It came with the house…think they heard a witch was moving in 😂.
The broom came with the house. That’s the real reason I bought the house..the free broom 🧹
I can hear Harold the swan shouting from upstairs. He doesn’t like to be left alone. If I sit beside him then he’s happy as Larry (I wonder who Larry was and why was he so happy?).
Happy now I’m sat beside him
As you can tell, thus far it has been a most uneventful Halloween. However, I hope I haven’t spoken too soon……..🎃 👻
The cold dark nights are now starting to make an appearance. I must admit I do love the late autumn/early winter. The leaves falling from the trees, the wood burning stove on, the chill in the air, it makes me feel more alive and in the moment.
I’m getting all the animals ready for the winter, stocking up on hay and cosy straw. The tarpaulin has come out for extra protection on the rabbit and hen runs. The rams winter coats are growing nice and thickly and their stone house is now full of hay. It makes me feel content when my animals are all snug.
I’ve just recently took over fostering a young swan from Whitby Wildlife sanctuary. He’s been born with several genetic defects. His wings aren’t growing properly and he walks bowed legged. However, he is the sweetest little guy ever! He insists on cuddles and cries if you leave him for more than a few seconds. I’ve named him Harold. If Harold does progress and looks like he can make it in the wild then he’ll go back to the sanctuary for wilding up and hopefully be released. I don’t know if he will ever get to this stage but if not he’s got a home here.
Harold the swan goes out during the day in the bottom garden with two duck friends and two disabled hens who all get on really well. Harold comes back in on a night and sleeps in a cosy dog basket 🧺. Last night he came downstairs in his basket and watched a movie in the living room….The hitman’s wife’s bodyguard…he seemed to enjoy it! Rather than popcorn to watch the movie, Harold had cracked corn…next best thing. 🍿
Harold watching an evening movie Harold outside with his buddies
Mally’s sister, brother in law and two children came up last weekend. It was a lovely afternoon and evening of food, wine and talking about everything under the sun. However, when I was showing everyone the animals, the suspicious number of animals with leg issues raised some questions. Fiona (a solicitor and obviously naturally suspicious/looking for new clients) asked if I was doing a Kathy Bates Misery style and ensuring none of the animals ever left by breaking their legs. 😂 I can honestly reassure everyone that these animals came to me already disabled and I have actually successfully got some of them walking properly again.
Halloween tomorrow and I’m considering camping out in the spooky attic to see if any ghostly apparitions appear. I’m going to guess probably not, but it will give me something to do…i.e. a good excuse to switch all the lights off downstairs and not be seen by trick or treaters banging on the door!
I’ve realised I haven’t given an update on the baby bunnies and the little chicks. All are doing fabulously. The little chicks moved up to the woodland and have their own coop. The baby bunnies are now outside along with Fonzie in a big run ready to go up into the their new woodland run soon. The baby boy who I have named Max has to be four months old before he can be neutered so he’ll be staying in the garden until that is done.
Bunny family. Sam on the left, Fonzie in the middle and Max on the right The chickies enjoying their new home in the woodland
My neighbour Dawn took three of Olive’s chicks, Dawn is the only person I would ever give my babies to as she is animal bonkers like me and loves her babies. Plus there is only a cattle style metal fence between us so all the chicks can still see each other. Dawn also has three ex battery hens and the three bantam hens make a nice addition to her flock.
On another note, I got a phone call from one of my friends Steve and his wife Michelle regarding a hen they had rescued. The poor thing was in an awful state, covered in lice and had been doing that hen classic…walking on the road! They rescued her and popped her in their back garden to recover. They’d asked around but no one admitted to losing her so luckily she was rescued by them. She’s been in my garden for just over a week and a half to recover from her lice and build her strength up. I’ve been powdering her everyday. Last night she went up into one of the coops in the woodland and spend today trying to establish herself in the huge pecking order up there!
White hen Stevie…just after Steve had rescued her and I had brought her round mine.Stevie today with the woodland gang.The turkeys were very interested in the new member
I’m very pleased at the moment with everything. Touch wood the animals are all doing really well.
In a previous post almost a year ago https://inthecountrynotinthecountry.com/2020/11/29/spooky-north-yorkshire-coast/. I spoke about some ghostly goings on in Whitby. On Thursday, myself and Mally took ourselves off to Whitby for the evening for a ghost walking tour. We arrived in the afternoon…it’s only a 25 minute drive from our house. I was determined to scout the local shops out for a painting fitting for above the fireplace in our newly decorated front room. I was hoping that Whitby would provide me with a moody seascape to fit in with the other Cornish smugglers paintings I have hanging on the wall.
It’s a lovely painting of the front of my house. But not really in keeping with my seafaring, smuggler theme.
So I dragged Mally around the galleries in Whitby despite his knee absolutely killing him. However, everything was too bright and not the moody print I was looking for. By the time I had finished I was becoming Hangry (hungry and angry). Whitby was packed and we couldn’t find anywhere to eat. We managed after going round several times to find a seat in The Angel Hotel (a local Wetherspoons) which we were also staying in. We had a few drinks and few plates of food and waited the four hours for the start of the ghost walk. Yes four hours seems a long time but not when you are in a pub!!
Classic Wetherspoons nachos
Now onto the ghost walk. We hauled ourselves up from our beer, wine and nachos and made our way towards the whale bones in Whitby. Anyone who knows Whitby, knows it’s a slog up some stairs….I’ll call them stairs not steps as you’ll find out why later…
On the stairs there was a guy with a crutch trying to walk up and a lady coming down with a knee brace and Mally limping up. We all laughed as it seemed to be a meeting of those with knee injuries…well I laughed.
At the top of the cliff we approached the whale bones and I could see a crowd was already waiting for our guide….Dr Crank. Turns out Dr Crank was in fact a retired real doctor. I’m no Sherlock Holmes but I don’t think Crank was his real surname.
A couple with an Irish wolf hound had joined the walk and it seemed totally apt as tales of hell hounds dominate this area’s spooky history.
The whale bones looking out towards the Abbey…where Dracula was said to have first come ashore.Whale Bones
The reason for the Whale bones is the fact that a lot of whaling boats set sail from Whitby a couple of hundred years ago. (Thankfully that practice no longer exists in this country!). Also a lot of ships left Whitby and went straight to the North Pole,Whitby was the last port on that latitude.
So a gentleman all dressed in black and with a black walking stick approached the whale bones. We all just assumed he was Dr Crank and around twenty of us handed over our £7 for the 80 minute tour…turns out that wasn’t Dr Crank at all…I’m only joking it was.
Dr Crank led us on a tour around the alleyways and streets. Telling ghost stories of Dracula, two black cats that menaced a few streets…spoiler alert…they were actually witches. Dr Crank was very funny and very engaging. It was a really enjoyable tour. He touched on the hand of glory which I referred to in my earlier blog. Apparently a gristly hand of glory now resides in Whitby museum, I shall have to pay a visit soon to witness the ghastly spectacle. We stopped off in one street. Near a Dutch house which is said to be a haunted by a poltergeist. The Irish wolf hound belonging to a young couple on the tour suddenly started barking as soon as Dr Crank mentioned the word poltergeist…put the wind up us all at that moment in time!
Now I come onto why I called the steps up to the whale bone stairs. According to the good doctor the folk in Whitby call steps, stairs..I didn’t find out the reasoning behind it…maybe there isn’t one.
So as you all know, I was flooded out quite badly during storm Christoph in January. Although there was no dispute with the insurance and everything was covered no problem, it’s still taken eight months to make the downstairs liveable again. Having watched the horrific floods in Germany and then New York, my heart felt heavy for those people as I know how terrible and disorienting a flood can be. Myself, Mally, my family, neighbours and strangers battled for hours to keep the flood waters from totally engulfing the house, but once the beck breached the wall there was nothing that could be done. At least my house was left standing and no one died during my flood.
Video of the path and road just outside my front gate. Minutes later we were evacuated by the coastguard. The height of the water inside the house reached at least two to three feet. This was the mess left when the water receded.
Virtually every piece of furniture downstairs had to be thrown away by the insurance team who came in. It was a health hazard due to the sludge that came in with the flood water. Nearly everything downstairs had been virtually destroyed including the telephone lines and electrical sockets. The house was ripped apart in an attempt to dry it out. It took months. The kitchen had to go as it had been damaged by the flood water. We have lived upstairs for months.
However, the long slog is now nearly over, the kitchen has been replaced and the downstairs is now ready to receive furniture.
Below are a few photos taken around four weeks ago just before work started
The pantry The kitchenThe living room
The kitchen is now up and running which I’m extremely pleased with. I can finally return to making proper Sunday dinners. I wanted to get a country look kitchen and I hope I’ve succeeded, I like it anyway.
New kitchen!!!Living room now all decorated Kitchen/dining area
It hasn’t gone without issues, the decorators only did half the job that the insurance were paying them handsomely for, so that’s in the process of some backside kicking. But on the whole I am really pleased. The guy who fitted the kitchen was a real professional craftsman and was painstaking in everything he did, even things I wouldn’t have noticed. He was sad as he couldn’t get it finished on time before he went on holiday and another chap took over. But even on holiday he kept phoning the other joiner to make sure he was finishing it correctly. So it’s been a game of two halves really, unhappy with the decorators but over the moon with joiners. I guess you can’t have it all. I’m actually ecstatic to have a kitchen and downstairs. It’s only when it’s not there do you truly appreciate something.
Sorry it’s been a while since I posted, it’s been really busy. Everyone is doing well, the baby bunnies and baby chicks are getting really big now! Time flies and they’ll all soon be fully grown.
One of the baby bunnies having a relax after throwing her food all overFonzie and the other baby. I need to think of names now!
The bunnies are just over seven weeks old and they are gorgeous. When the family are old enough they’ll be having a trip to the vets for a check up and a certain other procedure to stop any further little furries coming into the world. Then they’ll all go up into the woodland in their large run with playhouse.
Olive and her chicks
Olive and her chicks are all doing really well. Just like the bunnies, they’ll go up into the woodland when they are big enough.
I also added four young turkeys to my ever expanding flock. They needed a forever home after being rescued by Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary. They are beautiful loving creatures. One of the boys I named pumpkin was a little poorly and of course I had him staying in the house with me whilst he recovered. I’ve learnt that turkeys are very messy creatures! Mally woke up after a night shift to find pumpkin snuggled in to him, this was good strategy by pumpkin as Mally was saying pumpkin should be outside but he changed his tact when pumpkin started snuggling in 😂. Although I must admit it took a long time to clear up the mess he had made. Pumpkin is now back in the woodland with his buddies after a course of antibiotics.
Pumpkin on his own blanket on top of my bed. Pumpkin shouting from the window at a passerby “don’t you come near my house” Pumpkin snuggling in. Mally got a shock when he woke up 😂
And finally yet another adopted critter to the household….poorly slightly lame old duck George. George was dumped presumably because he was old and was again rescued by Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary. He spends quite a few hours a day laid in his dog bed, he also goes outside for a few hours leg stretch if he is feeling up to it. He’s so lovely and extremely chilled out. He has a daily bath in my bath or in the plastic pool in the garden.
Gorgeous George Bath time.
I know some people would recoil in horror at having a duck in their bath but it’s not like I’m using the same water. Plus I do really scrub the bath afterwards…I promise.
Tomorrow I will finally be finishing the longest story ever told….my house getting renovated after the flood. Yes it’s virtually all done now, a few calamities all the way but it’s nearly there.
I’m going to start today’s post with a pic taken just a few minutes ago of my baby bunnies 🐰 ❤️
18 days old now!
Now onto other news….Last week work finally started on fitting a kitchen and restoring the house after the flood seven months ago. However, nothing in this old house ever goes smoothly and a lot of extra plastering and damp proofing had to be completed once the kitchen was completely ripped out.
Kitchen finally taken outKitchen prior to flood
Still a long way to go but eventually we’ll get there. I must admit I won’t miss doing all my cooking on a portable electric hob…which switches off and on when it fancies it and a small halogen oven. Although I’m not knocking it as it’s been a life saver for the last few months. I’ve been able to still rustle up a few veggie breakfasts using my camping kit, so for anyone in a kitchen less situation it’s been extremely useful.
Veggie breakfast made using the electric camping job and mini halogen oven
The rest of the ground floor is also still in upheaval until the plastering and eventual decorating can be completed. But in a way I’ve enjoyed just living in a bedroom. I like small space living, it’s cosy. I think I’d enjoy living in a wooden hut as long as I had plenty of outdoor space.
My little quail Tiny is still living with me in my bedroom along with her birth mother blondie. I moved her indoors for company for Tiny. Also Blondie is getting old now for a quail and could do with some extra TLC. Tiny still hops on my knee and reads whatever I’m reading on the kindle.
Still reading Tiny Tiny learning to read when she was a few weeks old.
It’s been a little while since my last update. It’s been an extremely busy time both in the house and in the woodland. My little bantam hen Olive went missing and turned back up three weeks later with nine chicks in tow! My two woodland bunnies Arnie and Sly escaped their run the other month after the rams knocked a hole in it. However, during their time as fugitives they managed to burrow into my house bunny Fonzie’s outdoor summer day run and let’s just say two weeks ago I was met with two little pink baby bunnies 🐰 in a nest of fur. I actually hadn’t thought Fonzie had been besmirched as I thought I’d managed to grab Arnie and Sly before the deed, but clearly not. Anyway a vet visit is definitely on the cards now for all concerned!
So Olive, my little bantam hen went missing. I searched all over the woodland and just couldn’t find her. I feared she had been taken by a sparrow hawk (she’s really tiny our Olive) or a fox. However, three weeks later I get a photo and text from Mally with the words “help!”. Mally had gone up into the woodland to feed the crew when Olive had suddenly reappeared with nine little chicks in tow. With three cockerels in my garden anyone could have been the father or fathers. I quickly ran up to the woodland with a net and caught Olive and her gang. We then placed them in a coop and run I normally use as a hen hospital in my main garden. I couldn’t leave them in the woodland as it’s too dangerous for little chicks and a safe coop is much better for them.
Photo Mally sent me with the words HELP!Their new coopLatest photo of the chicks. This is three weeks on from the other pic
The chicks and Olive are all doing well and of course they will all be staying in the woodland for the rest of their lives. Olive is a really good mother and looks after her babies really well. I managed to find her secret nest so unfortunately for Olive there will be no more chicks, as I’ll be taking the eggs next time before she has chance to sit on them.
So now onto the bunnies. I went outside about two and half weeks ago to bring Fonzie into the house from her day run. I noticed she had made a nest but this isn’t unusual for Fonzie as she has had several phantom pregnancies in the past. However, when I picked her up there was blood around her bum. Obviously as I knew she had been possibly got at by the two woodland bunnies then this meant there was likely babies around. I found three little tiny kits wrapped up in some hay. Two were lovely and pink and one was blue/grey. I immediately brought everyone into the house. I desperately tried to warm the blue kit up, rubbing him and I even tried CPR chest compressions using a finger, however, sadly he couldn’t be brought back.
I wrapped the kits up in a knitted blanket and popped them into a cage with Fonzie. I hadn’t really a clue what the modus operandi was for a bunny mother as she didn’t seem interested. However, again professor google informed me that this was normal and that a Doe only feeds her kits usually once a day and only for around five minutes. I set up a camera to make sure Fonzie was indeed feeding the babies. A couple of days passed and it appeared the babies hadn’t been fed. I was starting to panic. Google was telling me that baby bunnies are really hard to hand rear. I rang the vets for advice and although lovely they basically said the same thing that kits are notoriously had to wean. They said all I could do was try my best and hope either Fonzie started being a mother or I could try feeding kitten milk. I got Fonzie out and sat her on my knee. I then held a kit up towards Fonzie and the little kit immediately latched onto her teats. However, it appeared that no milk was coming out and the little baby went from teat to teat. Now I was really starting to worry. I got some kitten milk and syringes and picked the little ones out. They weren’t interested in suckling the syringe so I put some milk on my finger and the little ones suckled it. However, as the vets stated synthetic milk is no match for mother’s milk and all I could do was hope that Fonzie started producing it.
Hours old kits Kitten milk
I couldn’t settle thinking about those poor babies. However, success was achieved later that night as my camera captured Fonzie stood over the babies and I could see them feeding. Just of note in case anyone else finds themselves in my situation. The vets did suggest a warm flannel on Fonzie’s teats to try and stimulate milk production. Luckily I didn’t need to do that.
Fonzie contemplates what’s under that blanket and furBabies at 4 days old7 days old Unbelievable but only one day later than the above pic. 8 days old 10 days old and eyes opening 15 days old and now hopping around. However, still in the nest sleeping most of the day.
The bunnies are doing really well and I learnt a lesson that bunnies are pretty standoffish mothers. They only see to their kits for around five minutes every 24 hours! I think she plays on her iPhone the rest of the time 🙄
I’m nervously sat with a glass of wine listening to the classic song Vindaloo by Fat Les and psyching myself up for the match. Come on England! I’m sure they’ll let us down as they always do and Gareth Southgate does play some very dull football but there’s hope. Also I’m sorry Fat Les we all don’t like Vindaloo, I personally prefer a vegetable masala with pickle tray starter….mmm pickle tray.
In woodland news, the quails have moved into the woodland again. They’ve got a brand new enclosure, Elvis seemed very impressed. It needs a few things adding but it’s looking good.
New quail enclosure
We’ve also had a racing pigeon in the garden for a couple of days. He was very tired and needed food, water and rest which I provided. The North East has a massive following for racing pigeons. According to the local news hundreds of the birds went missing last week after being released down south in order to race back up to the North. Pigeon fanciers believe a solar storm may have knocked them off course. Advice was if one of the little chaps landed was to let them rest and feed them. They would then be fit in a couple of days and continue their journey. That’s exactly what happened with my visitor. He made off on his merry way after a day and half of pampering. God speed little geordie racer.
Little racerProvided him a little B&B for his brief stay
After listening to Vindaloo several times I’m now lining my stomach with a couple of Linda McCartney veggie burgers. Let battle commence!
I recently added a few new additions to my family. Two ducks, a cockerel and some more hens. They were in dire circumstances in an area not far from me. Anyway to cut a long story short they are now living with me and Mally. The ducks in particular were in a sorry state. I named them Jemima and puddleduck….of course! Jemima’s eyes are in a terribly sore as she had previously not had access to water in her last abode. So everyday I have been cleaning them, saline dropping and trying to encourage her to dunk her head in water. The ducks are Aylesbury breed and are very much a couple of characters. I get chased around the garden by puddleduck as she’s convinced I constantly have food…she’s right I normally do.
Jemima being treated for her poorly eyes. However, I’d never had ducks before and was shocked by the razors along their beaks. The ducks new pool
I remember telling Mally who was at work that day to go and buy a paddling pool after work. He started to laugh and I think already realised it was because we had new members of the gang.
Also part of the new gang is a gorgeous cockerel who I have named Arthur. He’s amazing. He had a fight with our resident bantam cockerel Rocky. Arthur even though he is a giant wasn’t interested in fighting but little Rocky was. A large fight ensued and by the time I got up there it was over. Arthur had won and Rocky decided to put himself to bed early. Rocky had a couple of cuts which I cleaned and was fine. Since that incident Rocky just walks past Arthur and knows he’s the boss. So luckily no further unpleasantries.
ArthurArthur and Rocky face off. Luckily all is well now
The weather has been glorious recently and we’ve started eating al fresco. Food just seems to taste better sat out in the sun. It’s also lovely sitting out hearing the hens clucking and Arthur crowing, I’m sure the neighbours think so too 🤣. Luckily I have animal mad neighbours.
One of my hens eggs fried and with some fried tomatoes in a bun. Simple but tasty.
In the country not in the country 