Chickens and birthdays.

It's been a week of mixed emotions.

Our lovely boss chicken, Portia, departed this world and is now in Chicken Heaven with her best friend Cordelia. She had been with us for just 1 year, 2 days. When we got her as one of our original four, we were told that she was older than the others, probably 9 months old. This turned out to be incorrect, and a little

research showed that her brittle shelled eggs, then no eggs except for small brown pebbly things, indicated that she was about 5.

Over the last few weeks, Portia started to look old. She was sleeping a lot, and she wasn't running around with the youngsters. I thought her days were numbered. On Wednesday when I went to visit the coop in the morning, only 6 chickens greeted me. Portia is always there, as she doesn't lay eggs. She wasn't one of them. Then she appeared at the top of the ramp,

hesitating to come down. She did come down, but fell at the bottom, then stumbled over to a corner where she settled herself down. She stayed there for the rest of the day, then we transferred her to our spare coop, with lots of straw around her to keep her warm. We found her in exactly the same place the next morning, looking very cuddly and peaceful.

And now for some happier news.

It was Ellen's birthday yesterday

. She is 7, and we had a party at the Wacky Warehouse today.

I made a Giant cupcake. It was my first, and it turned out rather well.