cockadoodledoo

Bending over to refill the hybrids’ feed hopper at 7 this morning, I had my back to him when he crowed. But there was no mistaking it – the extraordinarily resonant sound, squeezed out through his upstretched syrinx (a bird’s vocal chord, situated...

Overheating

So, some busybody has been creating vicious rumours about my Solway hen house. She says it causes hens to overheat and is not safe and the local poultry shop is refusing to sell it because of the news. What I say is – how come the prize-winning Solway...

More allotments

What a marvellous thing the Great British allotment is. The idea of urbanites growing their own food perfectly combines all sorts of contemporary ideologies – it’s local, it’s low-carbon, it’s recession-friendly….For me, it appeals to my...

Vermin

On the first sunny day of the year, I arrive at the allotment gates, a bucket bursting with kitchen waste swinging from my handlebars. The most stalwart diggers, old Jack and his mate, are already out on their plots. Along the road to my left a man is approaching with...