Our one remaining hen (from a posse of rescued ex-battery girls) looks decidedly fragile today so I've put her in a fleece-lined dog bed in front of the Aga. My husband commented that it's the nearest she'll get to the oven as we wouldn't have the heart to eat any of our pets. They all get a Christian burial (look the other way if this causes a sharp evangelical intake of breath!)

Henrietta would definately qualify as Boiling Fowl now anyway as she's clocked up a few years since she arrived bedraggled and terrified to take up residence in the hen hut. Though since she's been a lone chicken she's slept in a rabbit hutch by the back door.

I probably qualify as boiling fowl myself these days though apparently I don't look my age - probably due to the number of oils I slap on my skin sampling my own organic products before launching them on anyone else.

One thing is sure - since reading the article last week about people selling fat off dead bodies to the cosmetics industry I won't be buying any potions from elsewhere. One Pharmaceutical person doubted the story and said they use fat from the stomach and buttocks of live patients in their anti-wrinkle cream (as if that helps...)Mind you most commercial soaps are made out of palm oil because it's long-lasting and hard-wearing and gives good lather. It's the stuff that chip shops fry in. They all sell at top whack prices too - the world has gone mad!

Anyway - in the true spirit of Advent I hope you are watching and waiting for the return of Jesus. And none of this will matter because apparently when we are resurrected and made perfect we will be without spot, blemish or wrinkle.
Trust me I'm a Vicar
j x