A Fox Visits

Black Australorp Hen pecking

MOST MORNINGS, I LET the chickens out after breakfast, but on Sunday I did something different.  I let the chickens out early, before we went to Nippers at Bar Beach.  So they were scratching around outside before 8am.

Sunday was an overcast day, grey skies lingering until late afternoon and some decent showers before sunset.  I worked inside all day, barely going out except to have a stretch at lunchtime.  I did notice some kerfuffle with the chickens early in the day, with some clucking and squwarking, but then that was sort of usual after one had laid an egg.  It wasn't until late afternoon when I noticed old Rosie clucking around at the back steps by herself, that I gulped and felt a squirt of adrenalin - where were the other birds?  Nervous it wasn't a red fox. 


I grabbed my daughter and we trudged down the backyard.  Just one other bird.  10 gone.  It was obviously a fox.   We walked all around the property and along through the bush - all we found were a couple of wispy feather rings and one cold corpse with the head missing.

So long chichens - is always sad to lose a brilliant egg team.  And we had just been sharing a dozen eggs every few days with our friends.

Merewether Baths Surf House

 SOME LOCAL SECRETS are worth sharing.  Just underneath Surf House at Merewether Beach is a pizza and fish and chip casual eats spot where you can feed a family of four for under fifty dollars. 

Once I got a taste we ate here every week for about six weeks straight - so we enjoy a nod from the waitstaff and know where to sit to catch the perfect nor-easter on a Friday afternoon.

The new walkway takes you effortlessly to Surf House from the Ocean Baths, so it has become an established habit for use to trudge up with sand between out toes and eat.

There is a relaxed friendliness about eating pizza with your hands whilst the kids scuttle about over the rockpools and drip ice cream on themselves.

Here's a sentimental image of the baths changerooms - slated for demolition/removal in 2014, we will probably miss the mustard ugliness and awkward design of the building.