1-9-1986

Dear Bill,

Just a quick note to acknowledge your last letter. I’ve been on holiday for a couple of weeks (first time in 3 years!) and I’ve had lots of correspondence/orders etc to catch up or since getting back.

Thanks for the poultry book addresses. I’m following these up for some of the older books such as Tegetmeier, etc, as I’d like to have a few of these in my own reference collection.

Cawley’s article on the Araucana sounds very interesting from your comments. I’d love to get a copy if can find it. This breed has long been a favourite of mine, and I now have some good-quality birds so I’m been to follow up whatever I can on them.

The holiday accidentally ended up rather chooky, which wasn’t planned at all. We stayed on a property in Mallacosta (Vic) which had a wide range of breeds-something. I hadn’t known about when we booked to go there. Neither Jan (my wife) nor I have ever been keen on Bantam breeds with the exception of some of the Cochin bantams.

I was interested to see the Cochin bantams (which I always think of as Pekins) as there were some good ones there. We also were  much taken with some Belgian bantams (Millefleur, Barbue d’Uccle) and bought 5 very nice birds. As the car was completely packed out, I had to post most of our clothes home on the last day to make room for birds.

Kindest regards.