It’s the season of color. There’s something celebrating every day. Flowers in full bloom, and Billy crossing the bridge to see who is on the other side. Will he get lucky or will she go? A rooster’s fate is to court, court, court. No matter how many times he is turned down, he can’t stop from trying again. Which shows what a powerful force love is in the lives of chicken. It rules their lives.

The beans express love by blooming. They have nurturing gifts in delicate, beautiful, enticing packages for the bees. They don’t ask for much in exchange. Just go to the next flower and the next and taste all of our love. “Love us all,” the beans sing to the bees.

Ruled by love, the beans reach for the skies. If the poles were long enough, could their love reach the clouds?

The rainbow chard have no shame. Such brilliant colors. Is this really food? To fully appreciate rainbow chard, you have to see it growing out of the ground. How does it do that? How does it take sunlight and nutrients out of the earth and explode with such color? Can you do that? It’s a magnificent plant and tastes twice as good when you pick the leaves yourself.

Hazel’s love for her chicks is boundless. Love is the missing, essential nutrient on 99.999999% of poultry farms. Chicks should never be deprived of their mother’s love. If you’re lucky enough to get one of my eggs, know that the hen who laid that egg for you, grew up bathed in her mother’s love. If you close your eyes and let the yolk linger on your tongue, you can taste the love.

According to the Japanese Seasonal Calendar, today, August 8, is the first day of fall. It marks the time when you first sense fall in the air. The last few mornings, there has been a chill in the air. The sun is coming up three quarters of an hour later than at the solstice. The days are an hour and a half shorter. This evening there were even dark clouds, wind gusts, and a handful of raindrops, not the buckets we need.

Hazel’s chicks are two weeks old. Their wing feathers are showing. Every day Hazel takes them on a grand tour which starts at the crack of dawn. Each day these chicks walk more than industrial chickens walk their entire lives.

Tangerine is nestling in to hatch a clutch. She’s a feisty hen. She should make a good mother.

The poppies are throwing one last hurrah before all their petals drift to the ground. Many of them have dropped their petals already and are now plump seed pops with amusing hats. At the end of summer, once their seed pods have dried, I’ll turn the seed pops upside down and shake out their tiny black seeds. I’m looking forward to delicious poppy seed breads and poppy seed filling for poppy seed rolls.

Poppy seed pops have an ingenious design. As they dry, little holes open just under their caps. When they are ready, all you have to do to get their seeds is to turn the seed pods upside down. All their seeds will flow out. It would be great if other plants did this.