Earthquakes and floods

This has been a very strange week, there was an earthquake of the coast of Mayo, 4 on the Richter scale, then we had a months rain in one day, 4 inches fell over night and the rivers have burst their banks.
There is also a pod of Killer whales off the coast of Donegal which has caused much excitement. The earthquake has been blamed on the oil extraction just of the coast of Mayo, I have no doubt that this is true, and no doubt this will be something we can all look forward to if the fracking goes ahead. From floods to summer all in a day and a half, today has been very warm and dry.

We have a super helper with us at present, from Australia and he worth his weight in gold. He has done an enormous amount of strimming for us, moved rocks and is now constructing a Keyhole garden for me. The more I think about the idea of this type of garden the more I like it,the base has proved a good way to get rid of the builders rubble, this will give good drainage, having the compost pit built into it also has several advantages, it will rot down in situ, in doing so it should heat up and create a type of hot bed, being built to waist height means no more bending over, and the diameter is two m which means you can reach the middle from all sides, it should also make the spotting of slugs easier. So thanks Matthew, we will miss you when you leave.

The garden is now being very productive with our first potatoes ready, lots of broad beans, peas and strawberries, spinach and chard, there is always something to eat, this includes chickens. We have two cockerels who are giving the other birds a very hard time so the time has come for them to become dinner, they aren't the largest of the birds that we have done for the table but I don't like to see the others being bullied, so one for tomorrows meal and one in the freezer.

The duck who we had hoped would sit on a clutch decided not to, however one of the others has now decided that she will, we have no idea how many eggs are under her, she does not wish to be disturbed so we will have to wait and see.