Jan, after struggling for quite a few weekends to master the art of building, was now almost finished with his store room, and it was almost ready for the roof to go on. But as he was a bitty scared of the strong Haarlem winds, he decided to get help with putting on the roof.Charmaine said that her cousin was just the person for that, and in due time this young guy appeared, and between the two of them, the roof was up in no time, and Jan strutted around like a young cockerel, very proud of his handiwork.
Then it was decided that Jan and Nina would get two dozen chicks from a very reliable chicken farm, and I could have two of the hens, if there were indeed hens amongst them. They opted for Kuk-Kuks, a very hardy breed, but also the most quarrelsome and bloodlusty birds , as they found out later when the cute little chicks grew up.
In the meantime I was walking around with murder in my heart against Sheila's bally peacocks, as they were the most gluttenous horrors, and also the most sly and wily thieves. My Strawberries was just too big a draw for the pesty birds, and when I lost another batch of almost ready fruit, I declared WAR! I collected a whole stack of suitable stones, and practised a whole afternoon to get my aiming abilities with shooting a catapult up to scratch, and that night I donned my warmest clothes, and with a flask of coffee, made myself comfy between a clump of arum lillies, my catapult ready, and my pile of stones gleaming ominously in the moonlight.
The time went very slowly, and it was bitterly cold, so I went to get myself a warm blanket, and my warm gloves, as my fingers were so stiff from the cold that I wouldn't have been able to shoot any bally birds! That was a lot better, although time rolled on too slow, with no sign of the birds, but I decided to stay put, as I was sure the peacocks were on the look-out, and would attack my half ripe strawberries the moment I threw in the towel!
It was cosy underneath my blanket, and I must have dozed off for a minute, but was almost scared out of my wits when somewhere close behind me, the most horrendous scream suddenly cleft through the silence of the night! I had clean forgot where I was, and felt around for my bedlamp, but felt only leaves and something pricking my hand quite nastily, and then I screamed! I could hear things running, and me by this time wide awake and remembering where I was, I got very, very murderous, grabbed the catapult and  swearing like a banshee, I flee over the field, telling the birds that I was going to kill the lot of them! Of course I never got one of my stones catapulted near one of them, and all I got for my effort was bleeding scratches and a lightly sprained ankle.
I was really at my wit's end, and when a friend of mine came for a sleep over, and told me that it looked so wonderfully exotic with the lovely peacocks, and I just snorted, she was quite upset with me, and asked me what happened to the animal lover she used to know.
That night the peacocks decided to fly onto the roof again, and when they started their wild screams in the early hours of the morning, said friend almost expired from fright and jumped into my bed, and I made us coffee, and sat talking to her until she had calmed down. She then understood fully why I do NOT like peacocks!