I am munching on a mango in the Nairobi garden and
recovering from a full-on lunchtime. What? Why? Because the garden is already
peopled with tortoises, rabbits and chickens, then an invasion of Sykes monkeys
arrived and tore down the little Sunbird's nest. We had to call on Samson the
gardener and James one of the guards to help us chase away these aggressive
intruders. I dashed to close the door to the house lest they took it into their
heads to look for Sunbirds inside.
The tortoises, rabbits and chickens all have their own
stories. The tortoises: TeeTee, Artemis, Lola and Gypsy were gifts from a
family who ended their time in Kenya and couldn't take them home however much
they might have liked to. The rabbits were originally named Cleopatra and
Napoleon. It quite surprised the family that there was no offspring, until one
of the guards picked them both up, turned them upside down and they both had
the same undercarriage. Cleopatra became Nelson.
The chickens have had a varied career. One young male called
Mohawk was taken by a hawk - was it destiny? One rooster ended up on the dining
room table because he pecked the neck of his admirer until her neck bled. There
have been two groups of happy arrivals: balls of yellow fluff that the two hens
spoiled and doted on until one day - doubtless when they became teenagers – Theodora
and Geronima would have nothing more to do with them. The teenagers had to find
their own food from that day on.
The cacophony of five crowing roosters at 6.00 a.m. has
proved too much to bear. Samson is selling three at the market today. Lancelot the
alpha male will remain to look after the hens.
As I write, the staff are eating Pwet Pwet or Penguini - not
sure which one and not sure of the spelling - but am sure we will wake up each
morning to just one cock-a-doodle-doo.
