Saturday 2 January 2016

Good day for the pheasants.

There is quite thick fog here and it is a shooting day, so I would say that the pheasants are in luck.   I really do think also that they learn a bit of common sense over the shooting season; there are four cock pheasants in our front walled garden this morning and they look to me as though they have absolutely no intention of moving anywhere in the firing line.

Our neighbours with their two small children have returned from a fortnight in Tenerife - they go every Christmas to friends there - and G has just been round to say that there is only a trickle of water coming out of their cold water tap so what is our water pressure like?   I had to ring the farmer to see what he said as our pressure seemed fine and he reminded me that when the indoor cows are all drinking from the trough the water pressure lowers considerably.

G has gone off home with a dozen fresh eggs so I hope by the time he got round home again the pressure was back to normal.   The farmer meanwhile (when I rang him) is sitting in the barn half way round the shoot, comfortable on straw bales, all eating sandwiches and passing round a bottle of some sort!   That's life for a Yorkshire farmer in case you were thinking he was out working on a cold, foggy morning!

16 comments:

Heather said...

Your farmer is a sensible man, and I hope the pheasants are too. They don't have much road sense and we have often had to slow down or swerve to avoid hitting them.
No fog here - just grey all over and drizzling. I am wondering how long it will be before I can get out to do a bit of work on the garden. Maybe I should just give in and turn it into a wildlife sanctuary!

Anonymous said...

I love that the cows having a drink lowers the water pressure. Clever pheasants. We used to lock them in the barn when we were children on shooting days! x

Tom Stephenson said...

Clever Pheasants? Like Cocker Spaniels, I don't I have ever met one. I've never eaten a Cocker Spaniel either. We live above a hair-dresser, and out water pressure lowers when they are washing their hair - not cows!

Anonymous said...

Nice brace of pheasants for dinner next week then? Us also.

Wilma said...

We rarely have fog, I have only seen fog here 2 times in 3+ years. But we did start off grey and wet. The sun is coming out now (9:00AM) and it looks like the rest of the day will mostly sunny. Hope you stay warm and dry.

Rachel Phillips said...

The farmer's mates muttered "it's his wife on the phone again!"

donna baker said...

Oh no. pheasants are too pretty to eat. My husband is planning on hunting pheasants in the spring, out of state. They don't live around here, but again, they are just to pretty to kill, like swans and peacocks.

Derek Faulkner said...

Good to hear that the farmer still enjoys his countryside pursuits. It's mainly wildfowl shooting alongside the nature reserve that I wander round with the dogs every day. The wildfowlers have been out every morning over the holiday ('cept Xmas Day), before dawn, sitting in the tidal gullies waiting for ducks or geese to pass over them. We always have a chat once they come back up onto the sea wall to walk back to their cars.

Joanne Noragon said...

It's a grey day here, too. I wish there were sunshine for photographs.

angryparsnip said...

It is finally more like our "December" weather. Sunny blue skies, about 65/38.
I am happy to hear the pheasants are safe in your garden.

cheers, parsnip and thehamish

Simon Douglas Thompson said...

Stay safe pheasants!!!

Cro Magnon said...

Our water occasionally comes out as diluted mud, but the pressure is always fine. That's France for you!

The Weaver of Grass said...

Rachel - your comment made us both laugh!
For the record - although I speak of the farmer going 'shooting', he doesn't in fact shoot. The syndicate shoots on his land (as well as that of the surrounding farmers) but he really goes along and does a bit of beating and enjoys the company. Actually I don't like to eat pheasant but occasionally the farmer will bring one home, skin it, cut off the breast and the legs and I will freeze it, so that when I go gadding off one day I can pop it in the Aga with a good dose of red wine and it will cook nicely for his lunch.

thelma said...

The ins and outs of rural life - love it. Pheasants are like sheep round here, there are lots and lots of them. What I took for shooting every morning round here, is not men with guns but a 'scarer' to keep the birds off the fields.

mrsnesbitt said...

We've heard the shooting going on too Pat.
Happy New Year.
Dxx

The Weaver of Grass said...

Thanks everyone for calling in.