every day is a good day
We had company for lunch today. How often do you get to visit someone and enjoy a salad made from salad greens that were just picked? It’s a pleasure to be able to serve such fresh food to our guests. I also made mashed potatoes from potatoes I dug up just before I boiled them.
Recently, whenever I am out in the vegetable beds, the sweet scent of a mysterious flower floats through the air. The past few days I’ve wondered what is blooming. Today I found out. It is the popcorn I planted. The tassels of the popcorn have an enchanting, sweet fragrance. The fragrance is so sweet, I’m tempted to cut some tassels and put them in a vase.
Watching chickens preen makes me want to have a neck that can stretch like theirs. The only spot they can’t reach are the tops of their heads. To scratch an itch on their heads, they need to use their feet. When they are resting, their necks don’t look very long, but when they need to, they can stretch their necks to reach any itch.
Only a mother can provide the warmth and security a little chick craves. I was aware that hens have a variety of calls to instruct their chicks. There is the sound they make when they have found food. Another for danger. And yet another call which means, “get your butt over here now!”
Today we learned they have another sound which means, “hide, stay quiet, and don’t move until I come.” While she was with her chicks on the open grass, a raven came flying in. Lucky sent the chicks scurrying under a bush, while she went running in another direction to distract the raven. A raven will easily eat a small chick. She waited until the Raven was gone before she went back to fetch her chicks.
A favorite spot for chicks is right in front of their mother, half covered by her feathers. Sitting snugly, they can peer out and watch the whole world go by.
Being a mother hen is a twenty-four hour job. It’s mid afternoon and it’s time for a break. Some of her chicks are taking a warm nap under her, while others still scamper about. Her chicks may nap during the day, but Lucky doesn’t. Which might explain while mother hens tend to go to bed early. By dusk, they are bedded down with their chicks underneath them.
