Month: February 2016

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Sunshine in the Pacific Northwest

NWSunShine

A sunny day in the Pacific Northwest. If there is a circular glow in the sky, it’s a sunny day. If you don’t get wet when you step outside, it’s a sunny day in the Pacific Northwest. Light gray is considered a shade of blue here. The hens are out in the pasture early in the morning. Blue skies and brilliant sunshine, a Pacific Northwest glow, or steady drizzle, it doesn’t matter to them. It shouldn’t matter to me either, though if they knew there were places where the skies are blue most of the time, they’d probably ask me to take them there.

HensOnPastureInTheMorning
RhubarbShoot

The rhubarb is sprouting. You haven’t lived if you haven’t tasted rhubarb’s first spring stalks. The Tokyo Bekana I didn’t pick in the hoop house is in full bloom. Many vegetables are so beautiful in bloom, that you’re better off not eating them all. Let a few bloom and dazzle. One plant will provide more seed than I can possibly plant. How great is that?

NanoHana
GinHimeOnNest

Ginhime is relieved. She waited and waited this morning to get on this nest. At times, there were several hens in the nest, laying eggs. Never mind that there were plenty of empty nests nearby. She wanted this nest too. Now she has it all to herself. What a relief.

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There Is Hope

LadyBugA

A day’s break from the rain gave an opportunity to do some gardening, and the delight of finding a ladybug looking for something good to eat. Ladybugs eat a large variety of pests, not just aphids. There are some 6,000 varieties of ladybugs (Coccinellidae).

Awake after winter’s long sleep, a ladybug in the garden is hope. After seeing the ladybug, I decided to take a chance and plant several rows of radish. In the photo below, you’ll see another bug on the left, looking at the ladybug. It’s probably hoping not to be the ladybug’s lunch.

LadyBugC

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Before It’s Too Late

SunRise20160216

Wow! The sun still exists! I know because I saw it this morning, glowing brightly behind the morning clouds. I took a picture in case I never see it before I die. This time of year, when clouds rule for weeks on end, it does seem like I’ll die before the clouds part and I get to see even a sliver of the sun.

The mushrooms growing in the garden everywhere are as happy as can be. Sun? Who needs the sun? May rain and clouds rule forever, is their morning screed.

MushroomsInGarden

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The First Salmonberry Flower

FirstThimbleBerryFlower

I found a Salmonberry in bloom today. A sure sign that spring is well on its way. It’s a wet, wet, spring. The kale and ruby streaks are so washed with rain, that they can go straight from garden to plate. The cool winter has softened and sweetened the kale that it doesn’t need anything, no dressing, no oil, no salt. It’s delicious just as it is. It’s a perfect compliment to slow roasted rooster.

HomeLunch

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No Longer a Dream

SalmonBerrySproutA

The salmonberry leaves are sprouting. Spring is no longer a dream. The great unfurling has begun. When leaves first unfurl and take their first breath, they don’t scream like newborn babies, or do they? Is the forest filled with the cries of baby leaves, crying at pitches we can’t hear? Maybe it is the crying of new leaves that wakes up the insects.

SalmonBerrySproutB
CherryBlossoms160211

This is the time the cherry tree which blooms year round has its heavy blooms. Every month of the year, this tree has a few blossoms. At times, there are just one or two blossoms on the entire tree. For this tree, this is what full bloom looks like.

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Cherry Blossoms in February

CherryBlossomsA

It’s time to prune the cherry, plum, and apple trees. Last week we brought some pruned cherry branches indoors, and today we have cherry blossoms in February.

CherryBlossomsB

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Time to Weed

HazelNutBlossoms

The hazelnut catkins are in full bloom. The ruby streaks which overwintered are sending up flower stalks too. It is from tiny blossoms like these that many of our foods come.

RubyStreakBlossoms
BBInRubyStreaks

BB has found something interesting in the ruby streaks. If I had a nose like his, I could probably smell how things are growing underground. I could plant seeds and by sniffing, tell when they are about to pop out of the ground.

TulipShoots

Tulips are shooting out of the ground too. The warm, spring sun is calling them out of the ground. It’s time to get busy weeding and deciding what to plant first, and second, and third, and on and on.

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Spring Clouds, Spring Flowers, Spring Everything

SpringClouds

Yesterday, the sky was filled with spring clouds. The sun coaxed the daffodils to spread their petals. Winter is shedding away. All I have to do is stand and close my eyes. I can feel winter’s footsteps becoming fainter and fainter. The smell of spring tickles my nose. Spring clouds, spring flowers, spring eggs.

Daffodils
SpringEggs
HensOnBench

This morning while a group of hens gather to gossip by the stream, Special is in the water looking for something good to eat … or is she doing something else, like looking at her reflection in the glassy water? “Mirror, mirror in the stream, who’s the fairest of them all?” She knows the answer. She just wants to hear someone else say it.

SpecialInStream

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立春 – Risshun – The Start of Spring

SpringSunrise

Yesterday, February 4, was Risshun – 立春, the start of spring according to the seasonal calendar used in Japan. Yesterday’s sunrise, with clouds burning brightly, was fitting for the first day of spring

A sure sign of spring are the nine dozen eggs I took to Tweets this morning. The hens are producing twice as many eggs as just a few weeks ago. It’s time for soufflés and omelettes and raw egg on hot rice.

EggDelivery
MaggieOnNest

Maggie, tucked in her dark nest, and Special, on her bed of straw and hay, laid their eggs early this morning. Special reminds me of an art lesson I learned as a child, that red and gray go well together. She also has a distinctive voice. When she belts out, her loud cry makes you jump and yell, “What the hell was that!” Her voice sounds like a peacock on LSD. Her eggs are unusual too. They are slender and pointed. She tossed convention out the window when she was born. “I gotta be me! I gotta be me!” I think that’s what she’s saying when she yells.

SpecialOnNest
MaggieAndSpecialsEggs

See, Special’s pointed egg is nothing like Maggie’s round one. If you get a pointed egg, put your ear next to it and see if you can hear a special chicken’s cry.

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Helping Feet

FebruarySnow

Just because it’s cold and the snow lies heavy on the hills doesn’t mean that I can stay indoors and not tend to the compost. All of January I’ve been collecting the bedding from under the roosts and setting it aside in a covered spot for a substantial compost pile. With the change of the months, it’s time to stir it all up and get it wet so that it can start to cook. Fortunately, I have plenty of feet wanting to give a hand. How people compost without chickens is beyond me. They are indispensable when it comes to stirring and mixing and turning compost piles. They get to all the bits you and your pitchfork don’t. If you look closely at a chicken’s feet, they look like small pitchforks. It wouldn’t surprise me if the first pitchforks were designed after chicken feet.

HelpingHands