Student Pleasures

This time last year I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be excited over printers, new pens and folders.
I am currently on my last break from college before I finish for the year. I have four assignments to complete and revision to do. Next week I start to take my exams. I am incredibly nervous, I was not this nervous in 1998 when I originally took my exams. Back then I was the teen that thought she knew better, the teen that had her career dreams dashed through medical reasons, the teen who had the ability to do well but lacked the motivation. 17 years later I am now a nervous adult who has motivation and has put in the hard work. I currently have distinctions in every assignment; there has been plenty of them too. My controlled assessments have given me a grade A so far in English, I doubt I will achieve that as an overall grade but I am ok with that. I will be happy with a C in both my Maths and English. So as a mature student who is going through a stressful few weeks I am going to share my student pleasures.

Printers

My old printer is that old they no longer sell the ink for it and I have totally ran out of spare ink for it. This week I treated myself to a new printer from Tesco. No longer will I have to rush into college early on a Monday to print off my assignments. It is a Canon all in one, I paid just £59.99 and saved £40.00. It prints, scans, copies and can even send a fax(I don't think that last function will ever get used). What is even better is, it is wireless, no longer will I have to move the sofa just to print. It also prints double sided, I will no longer have to waste paper and ink trying to print a document double sided. I am so pleased with it.

Pens

What also gives me pleasure is pens, not any pen, Pilot pens! I am in love with my frixon Pilot pens. I chose to use them over my livescribe pen at the minute. Every piece of writing I do is done so using my trusty Pilot pens. I love that I can erase a word if I have written it incorrectly. I often get other students trying to steal my pens so I guard them with my life, ok that is a bit extreme. I would not give my life for them but I would hurt the fingers of the person who tried to steal them.

Folders

I have a love hate relationship with my folders, mainly because I have gone through so many of them the last nine months. I have had so many that last week I turned up to my English lesson with an empty folder. I had forgotten I had bought a new one and threw the old one in my bag in a rush whilst running out of the door. It is safe to say I felt rather stupid that I could produce no work that I had completed. I won't be making that mistake again and have learnt to throw the old ones out.

So there you have it, my student pleasures. I can't wait for August when I can go stationary shopping ready for my last year in college.

I really should invest in a new keyboard as the one I have the majority of the letters have rubbed off. That can wait for now, I enjoy playing guess the letter every time I type .

A Life of Freedom

Two weeks ago I opened up my collection point for Fresh Start for Hens. Fresh Start for Hens are an organisation that I volunteer for. They rescue the hens before they go to slaughter and find them homes. Every few months I open up my garden to these little beauties. I give them all a health check; which takes a while when you have over 50 hens. I give them fresh food and water and sit with them until their new owners come and collect them, to take them to their forever home.  
This rescue, the hens were all barn hens, I was quite surprised at the feather loss to be honest. It breaks my heart to see them like this but in true hen character they were all active and tucking into the feast that was provided. They never fail to make me laugh, they have their own little personalities too. Some are really nosy and will come and see what you are doing. They all had their first taste of grass. They mowed my lawn for me which saved me digging the flymo out at the weekend(yes I strim it all as we have no lawn mower). This lady above had this piece of grass hanging out of her beak for a while, she made her claim on it and was not letting go. 
As I carried out my head count of the hens I found I had one extra hen. Having lost one of my girls earlier in the year to egg yolk peritonitis, I had room for one more. That is when I saw her. A scrawny, almost featherless hen who looked paler than the rest. I quickly started to make a quarantine room for her. Once her space was ready I scooped her up away from the rest of the group and allowed her to rest. I carried on with the rescue. Slowly but surely I waved the rest of the hens off on their new journey. A journey that carries them to better places. Places of freedom, places of grass a plenty, places where they feel the sun on their backs and wind through their feathers.
Turning my attention to my new lady I checked on her, she was so timid. Her little head poking out to see me as I talked softly to her. 

My youngest daughter is as crazy about animals as I am. I picked her up and carried her outside. She asked why the hen had no feathers, she felt compassion towards our new, frightened hen. She then asked her name. I told her that she had no name at the minute. A puzzled expression came across her face, then she announced that she had a good name for her. I thought here we go, we will have a new Disney princess. She then surprised me, she named her Lucy. So here she is, Lucy the hen with a few feathers on her tail and some on her wings, everywhere else is bald. She has a wound on her back that is healing and feathers are now starting to grow. I will update on her progress soon. I urge you to buy locally sourced eggs, from farms that show you their set ups or buy from neighbours who keep hens. Better still why not keep a few hens of your own, you will never taste a better egg.