Hunting Fishing and Shooting

RED IN TOOTH AND CLAW

We’ve just come back from a family holiday in Mid-Suffolk where every 3rd vehicle has a sticker in it – something like this:

To an Essex outsider all this keeping chickens is very lovely and a gentle reminder of “The Good Life” . . . do you remember Tom and Barbara? . .
Anyway – up here everyone grows vegetables and keeps livestock of some kind. In the last month we have been given Marrows, eggs, carrots, cucumbers, cabbage, tomatoes etc – we have even joined in this year and are close to cropping our second lot of ‘grow in the bag’ potatoes!!

But our holiday introduced the family to the reality of the rural idyll.
When we arrived the little girl was at A&E having fallen from her pony and was now not going to be allowed to join in with the pony club week – much to her obvious distress. (A&E was an hour away at the Norfolk and Norwich).

The farmer had been talked into rearing 400 baby partridges. And after three days of holiday they had grown to a size where they could manage a short flight . . . . a flight which took them high enough to escape through the ventilation holes in their cage. Kt and I had a bit of fun trying to catch a couple, then decided we should tell the farmer – turns out about 10 have already died and if these babies don’t get back in the warmth they are unlikely to make it through the night !!!

Of course, Kt is hoping that we can keep some partridges next spring.

The farm also had 2 ‘free range’ dogs – Mollie and pebbles. Mollie was a very friendly Black Lab and pebbles a little Jack Russell who would come looking for food. Early in the week the two dogs took themselves off rabbitting . . . but only Mollie returned. By the end of the holiday Pebbles still hadn’t returned and posters were being put up round the village . . . . . .