2 2009-11-04T04:54:30-08:00 false I am a happy camper...I ordered some seeds from the UK about a month ago & they arrived today. Of course, I checked on the AQIS site first to make sure I could bring them in. And, of course, they were inspected by Customs. But they got through just fine & I now have some interesting-sounding melon & basil seeds I couldn't get here in Australia. Because I needed more seeds (yes, I did..._nods head_). Moving on to the "chook pen":http://myfolia.com/journals/70297-cluck-cluck, I'm not sure if the eggs are viable any more. Esme, who has never been broody before, clearly had no idea what she was doing & decided that it was better to brood on anything but her eggs. No matter how many times I moved her back, she wouldn't sit on them. She'd sit next to them but not on them. Go figure. After several hours of this (which is why I think they may have died), I decided to see if her sister, Rosalind (broody _par excellence_...she spent most of the first two years of her life trying to brood), would set. Now...Rosalind wasn't broody before I showed her the eggs & she hadn't displayed any signs of going broody. But obviously a big pile of abandoned eggs was too powerful a temptation...she sat on them for a few hours but wouldn't set. By the time she got up, Esme decided she was ready to sit on them again. However, the next morning, Rosalind meant business. She stole all the eggs off Esme & has been sharing mummy duties ever since. Sometimes she has all of them...sometimes Esme manages to steal half a dozen back. But it's clear that Esme has now learned off Rosalind what she's supposed to do & is finally setting. And it's also clear Rosalind is in it for the long haul - she gets very indignant if she comes back to find Esme has stolen the eggs & she's very protective of her brood if I try to move her (which is normal behaviour but not something Esme has done even once yet). I'll candle the eggs at day 10 & see if they've developed at all. If not, I think we'll have to start again. They'd been cold for a while but it was very early in their development & I've heard some amazing stories of egg viability so we can only wait & see what's happened. In other news, clearly the earwig hoarde are subject to the "laws of D&D":http://myfolia.com/journals/69888-plastic-shield-of-protection-10 & my plastic bottles are doing the job nicely. A three-pronged attack (bottles, stomping & Chickens of Doom) has severely dented the population & I'm happy to report that my zucchinis are still among us. This was topped off by a very satisfying Sunday afternoon spent stomping on every single snail I could find (they were all out trying to grab a meal while it rained). Hopefully the snail gods don't use the karma system (otherwise the next 10 years aren't going to be much fun). And finally...my plum is dropping some of it's fruit prematurely, one variety of my potatoes appears to have early leaf blight & the drainage problem along the fence is rearing it's ugly head again. I hate this weather. 3 false 70504 false false false Entry 2009-11-03T05:00:00-08:00 DMY Public 2009-11-04T05:28:00-08:00 9591 Cloudy 18 C