Its 2am....

...and my skin is on fire and I can't sleep because of it and the fact that someone we shan't mention is snoring like a sodding train in my ear.

So I am up and sat in a very cold kitchen with a cup of that 40 calorie fake hot chocolate stuff (pre-Menorca diet), itchng and scratching as I, at the tender age of 38 have shingles!! I thought it was for more er...mature folk but nope, the doc who kindly saw us at 2am wednesday morning diagnosed it within 5 minutes of me being wheeled through the doors of the local hospital.

However, I will not grumble any more as I'd had a pretty outstanding few days prior to this and the memory is enough to keep me smiling for a few days yet.

IMPORTANT NEWS! Landrover finally passed its MOT!! Hurrah! I could have cried with joy. Its now taxed as well and I went for an inaugural spin to the farm down the road and back (not too far as I feel like death warmed up). Tomorrow I may venture as far as the village Post Office!

Sunday and Monday I was down by the river taking full photographic advantage of the amazingly good weather we've been having here and chatting to fishermen from afar. Some photos to follow via flickr bloggy thing. Now of course I am pretty much housebound (well house and garden) so the birds who come to the feeders have been photographed from every angle and in every style known to man, or bird.

The greenhouse is living up to its name and its a mass of exciting sprouting things. Most notably the french beans which literally grew 2 inches overnight. Quite scary actually. If you don't hear from me for a few days, please check behind the gro-bags!

Its now 2.41am. Shall I try to go back to bed? Or will I end up ripping the blankets from the bed in a fit of pain-filled-pique again....perhaps another hot fake-chocolate and some more pondering first. If I ponder out loud to you guys then perhaps theres less in my head to keep me occupied up there.

Chickens are fine. First day of spring worming today. I use Verm-X liquid so theres no egg withdrawl period. Which is nice. We're contemplating selling some of the eggs to friends and family - £1 a dozen maybe. We have too many eggs. Even given the fact I've pickled and turned into quiches and god knows what, I still have millions left.

My cunning plan of marking the three ex-rescue jobs going to my friend Jo didn't exactly work. I bought some good old gentian violet to spray the backsides of the poor sods we're keeping that had been pecked to smithereens at their previous abode. They are fairly obvious by their lack of ass feathers so I thought hey, why not mark Jo's chooks-to-be so theres no faffing when she comes to pick them up. They'll be the ones with feather AND purple bums. HAH! The three of them are faster than greased lightning when you point anything at them especially a bright purple spray tube of GV. They may remain unmarked.

Rocky, I think, has issues. Nicks came in last night muttering about 'highly strung' birds and even pondered the possibility of Rocky being female (he's not, but my husband lost brownie points for being uncharacteristically sexist) - but I do have to admit, I've never come across a more high maintenance bird. If he were human, he'd be Alan Carr...

2.57am and Sara has popped into my head. My gorgeous daughter and equally gorgeous grand-daughter are off to join their husband/father in Germany as of first week in July. Sara broke the news to me tonight and I have to say, my reaction was not expected. I cried - I cried buckets, rivers, nay whole fucking lochs of tears. I know I shouldn't have. I knew I should have just fought it back and just tried to sound pleased but it hit me like a brick. I thought I was going to be braver. Well actually, maybe thats the problem - to be honest, I'd tried not to think about it at all. I knew they'd go but it was at a date faaaaaaaaaaaaaar in the distance. And now its not. Now its in words, and on a calendar. Double BAH! Now I understand those TV parents who cry into hankies and things as the kids drive off to uni..

Right, thats 3.03am - enough is enough. I'm going to try again....