31 March

The hens seem to approve almost as much as the cat of having their people kept at home, quickly adapting to life in and around the home office.  They find their own work to be  getting on with, chasing insects, grazing on the lawn or searching in the shrubbery close by, but take a keen interest too in what I am reading and in what the cat is watching.  The outdoor home office is rather more manageable than the indoor home office, the hens proving to be easier colleagues than the cat to share a workspace with, though they can be distracting in their own way, particularly when I happen to have a phone with a camera about me.  Even so, I managed to miss the splendid display of posturing between Goldie and Maude.  I had thought the posturing days were over and I'd missed my chance at capturing it on film, but yesterday Goldie started it off by chasing away a blackbird (surely not Wilma's) who had come down onto the lawn, and then Maude raced over to join in and Goldie, startled, puffed up her feathers setting Maude off in an instant retaliation.  For a few exciting seconds they faced each other off, dancing around in a small circle like boxers, up on their toes, feathers out, then they both fluttered off up onto the deck chasing Mabel, who led them into the irises where they distracted themselves chasing flicker moths (what we always called the passion-vine hopper - flicker, or flicka, moths because they flick themselves away when you touch them or even come too close, very wise especially if you might be a hen, or someone with pet hens always trying to please them).