You sily goose

 Dear Neighbor,
You may have noticed a lot of the greenery at the front of the house has been removed.  A working bee has cut down a lot of the shrubs and vines that had grown over the front of the building, moved it out the back and fed it to the goats (who needs a rubbish skip?).   
Of course we did manage to cut the phone line while we were doing it, but a roll of insulating tape was all we needed to get back on line.
One thing I hadn't expected was that one of the hens nesting in the driveway turned out not to be broody after all.  Sunday morning I discovered she had hatched out seven chicks.  I tried to move them, but she wasn't having any of it and I had to drive around them on my way out to church.   Another effort in the afternoon persuaded her to move only as far as the front of the house,  where she now resides.   So if you see a proud mother and her offspring when you walk past, you will know the story behind them.   

 

March 15 Monday
A quiet day, with no appointments to keep or people to meet.  After lunch I sat down and typed a 1500-word short story.  Nothing significant, just a bit of fan fiction I had been plotting in my mind before I slept each night.  All that was left was the physical act of entering it into my word processor.

Tuesday I could tell that Summer was on its way out.  Not only had my cough returned last night, but today there was an icy wind blowing across the garden when I opened the back door.  Before breakfast I dug out my thick green jumper from last winter and put it on so I could feed the animals without shivering.  But by the time I went to the Croquet Club after lunch, I put on my  broad-brimmed hat to keep the sun out of my eyes.  Welcome Autumn!

The quiz night this week was almost Standing Room Only, with 14 teams competing.  Despite the absence of Mark and Caroline, we had a few good rounds, scoring 76 points.  We came in sixth, with the winners racking up 89 points in a very close finish.  And we scored 10/10 in the French round despite the absence of our Francais expert!

22 March Monday
Spent a lot of time Monday morning considering how to get food and water to the goose, who has somehow got through the fence to join the goats in the back yard. I eventually worked out how to get to him without the goats trying to get out.  
The following day we moved him out of the back yard  --  hint, when handling a goose, scoop him up and get your arm around him to keep him still (this prevents you getting a whack across the face is he decides to flap his wings).  I carried him into the driveway and his head shot up;  he obviously remembered a couple of years ago when he and the other goose used to wander down the driveway and curl up on the front lawn in summer.

Later that day I went out to feed him before dusk and couldn't find him. (Surely he couldn't have got into the back yard again , I thought). I went up the driveway, then down to the front garden. Eventually he emerged from where he'd been curled up under the table at the back door. He likes a bit of shelter at his age and ended up spending the night under one of the garden chairs near the carport.
Hence the expression "You silly goose"?

23 March Tuesday
Croquet today was fine and sunny this afternoon.  In fact it was getting a bit warm by the end of the first game but after the tea break we played the second game with a refreshing sea breeze to cool us down.  Won first game, drew the second.
While we were playing,  I glanced over the fence now and then, watching workmen dismantling the greenhouse that the City Farm group built in the St John's complex.  They moved in a few years ago and made quite a success of their brand of popular agriculture. Alas, they must have lost their lease.

 

Quiz night went off all right.  Caroline rose from her sickbed and looked tired but ready for the fray.  W e were up and down a bit, but finished with a credible 79.  We came second out of the eleven teams.  (we would have made another point in TV except for me being unable to recall whether Gary Shandling played Larry Sanders or vice versa.)

Movie moment:  SECOND ACT [2018]
Jennifer Lopez gets a job with a big corporation using a faked background and qualifications.  So far so good, but midway through there's a mind-boggling twist that will have most viewers rolling their eyes.  Two stars only.

I did like the brief scene with a bunch of Cornish Rex cats, and the use of the anecdote about the Ginkgo trees of Hiroshima.