The weather today is windy but warm enough to be out in light layers. Longing to do something in the garden, I put on my wellies and gloves, grabbed the pruners and strolled out to survey the area. Within seconds I was surrounded by eager Dashwoods. They helped me cut back hyssop and wild bergamot, prune the climbing rose and clear a bit of grass away from the gooseberries.
Last fall, Elinor proved herself to be a good garden companion, helping me weed and snapping up bugs and worms that were disturbed in the process. She would stand in front of me, watching carefully and waiting. Perhaps winter has made her cranky or she’s become more bold and so suffers from an unattractive impertinence. Whatever the cause, she no longer waits patiently for me to move my hands out of the way. Oh no. If I take too long pulling something out, she pecks my hand. Hard.
Yes, I am wearing gloves, thank goodness. However, she still managed to give me a couple of punctures and several bruises. If I yell and flap my wounded hand at her she squawks and flaps her wings in my face. She has been pecking at Bookman for the last month or so when he is cleaning the run or trying wrangle all of them into the coop for the night. I thought it was kind of funny, a bit of self-assertion. After today’s gardening, I have stopped laughing.
Elinor’s gardening behavior is a bit of over excitement and impatience. Nothing, I hope, that I need to worry about but I will be keeping alert to make sure it doesn’t morph into aggressive behavior. With Bookman, since I am not there, it is hard to tell. It could be when he is cleaning a matter of curiosity and when he is wrangling them to bed it is likely because she doesn’t want to go into the coop yet for the night. Still, something to watch. Apparently, if it becomes aggressive, we are to “peck” back by poking her in the chest or on top of her head.
As I was out in the garden I noticed the shrubs and trees all having buds swelling up on them getting ready for when it truly becomes warm. So exciting! My witch hazel is currently blooming. Now, this is supposed to be a fall blooming shrub/tree and in earlier years it did bloom in the fall. But then it began blooming in spring. The flowers are also supposed to be yellow and they have been for years, a pretty perky yellow. But this year they are a dark pink! I think the poor tree must be having an identity crisis or something.The indoor seed sprouting is coming along marvelously. The basil and shiso are just beginning to poke up. It appears there is an eggplant making a sprouting attempt and some cumin too. The already sprouteds are starting to get their second leaves. The peppers are doing well, but the tomatoes are pretty wow. If all the tomatoes that sprouted make it out into the garden it might possibly be the year we are finally able to make our own sauce. Fingers crossed!
In cycling news, I was in a virtual women’s race yesterday morning on Zwift. We all start together but each racer competes in a category, A, B or C with A being the top cyclists and C being newer ones. I race in category B. The race is actually broadcast to the Zwift community which is rather exciting, especially when I am focused and working hard and suddenly hear the announcer call out my name as being a strong B rider!
Saturday’s race turned out to be the best one I have ever done. I took second place in my category! I was quite surprised when the official results were posted and rather pleased. I’ve been working hard at sprints and holding high cadence and high power for longer than a few seconds and it is paying off. Also, I am getting the hang of how to position myself for a good start and I got really lucky yesterday to be in a near perfect position for the race opening all-out sprint.
I love racing with women. We are all competitive but in a friendly way. There is so much encouragement and recognition of effort, praise and kindness and a genuine gratefulness for the challenge, opportunity and support. No one needs to prove anything, no one has a big ego, and we all know that next time the finish will probably be different. We all give it our best for that day for that race and in the end we all have a fun time whether we finish first or last. It’s really quite wonderful.
Perhaps Elinor just wants a baby! LOL.
And congrats on your bike ride – I can understand the enjoyment of riding with women. There’s something about the knowingness of riding with one’s own gender I suspect.
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whisperinggums, heh, I think more likely she wants to be the one in charge!
Thanks! yeah, racing with women is a whole different dynamic. Mixed races, you never know how the men are going to react. Some of them don’t like losing to a girl. A woman won a big virtual race last year, beating all the top male riders by a lot and she was immediately accused of cheating. She is a champion amateur time trial racer in the UK. To the credit of the race organizers, they shut down the accusations, but still. When she shows up for womens races we all wish we could be her and do our best to keep up with her as long as we can, which for is not long at all!
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But still, exactly… It’s the point that the accusations were made isn’t it.
As for Elinor, sounds like you’re right.
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Yup, you’ve got that right 🙂
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Hope Elinor isn’t getting aggressive either. Maybe she just has winter blues.
Racing with women is a nice experience… and your gardening projects seem great!
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wanderwolf, I’m hoping as it warms up she calms down, but if not, I might have to start “pecking” her back. I’ve got to see if I can’t find a group of women in real life to race with. That could be interesting! So happy the gardening projects have begun well. I can already taste those tomatoes 🙂
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So Elinor wants to be ruler of the roost! I was wondering how you planned to curb her aggressiveness, so I was interested in the ‘pecking her back’ method. We had dinner last night with my chicken-loving veterinarian cousin. During dinner she got a call about a wounded chicken and what to treat her with. I guess if you love chickens, you’re not alone!
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Joan, she might be getting uppity and need to be put in her place. I should be higher in the pecking order than she is! It’s chick season, does your cousin have any new chicks?
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No, my cousin doesn’t have any chicks. I believe she has two roosters and about 16 hens, four of which are quite old. She and her family use the eggs, so no breeding here.
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I think if I had a rooster I would be tempted to let a few eggs hatch!
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Well done on that bike ride achievement. Elinor is getting to be a bit of a hissy miss isn’t she. Needs taking down a peg or two
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BookerTalk, thanks! yes, Elinor is getting a little full of herself. I’d call it the terrible twos but she isn’t quite one yet!
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Congratulations on doing so well in your category! I’d definitely have a peck at that Elinor, she needs to realise you re top in the pecking order. Strange about that witch hazel – almost witchy.
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I guess Trump’s election would get through to Elinor eventually!
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Ha! Ian! Elinor is power hungry 🙂
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pining, thanks! Yes, next time Elinor takes a peck at me, she’ll be getting a poke. Maybe my witch hazel has been hexed! 🙂
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Wow, naughty Elinor! I guess you can’t sit her in the naughty corner for fifteen minutes, can you? Does she peck at the other girls? Maybe she is just feeling tired of the cold and will improve as the weather does. Thanks for sharing photos of your seedlings–I was wondering what your paper trays looked like and what the heating source was like. Just curiosity mind you–I am far too lazy to try and do something on my own (but you never know!). Do you find that men are more aggressive cyclists–both in real races/rides and on Zwift (and is one place worse than the other?).
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Danielle, heh, yeah she needs a time out corner! She does not peck the others. I think she was just wound up and excited to have me out doing stuff in the garden and couldn’t help herself. We’ll see what happens next time. If she does it again she will get “pecked” back and hopefully that will get her attention.
Glad to provide the seedling photos!
Good question about male cyclists. It’s not a matter of aggression, women racing are really competitive and aggressive, it’s more a matter of ego. Not all men are like this, but there are a large number that don’t like being beaten by women. There is actually a term, “being chicked,” when a woman passes a man. Some guys get angry and go faster to catch up and pass her. Most of the time the guy can’t keep the lead and the woman will pass him again and then he will try and pass and it goes on like that to a ridiculous level. Other times they will make assumptions about your fitness and ability because you’re a girl and will be condescending. Some men are quite gracious though and when I have raced with them have given me encouragement and compliments even when I beat them 🙂
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