After forty days, the chicks are too big to all sleep under their mother. In the evening they crowd around her, but not for too much longer. She’s done a great job raising them. Another two to three weeks and they will be on their own. It’s fun looking back to see how they grew up.
Author: theMan
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40 Days of Love and Care
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It’s Hard to Have a Bad Day When …
A favorite saying of mine is Yunmen’s words, “Every day is a good day 是是良日.” It’s hard to have a bad day when it starts by discovering a nearly-ripe raspberry. More-than-we-can-eat supplies of raspberries are around the corner.
And it’s hard to have a bad day when your bicycle ride back from your post office is as beautiful as mine. The rest of the photos on this page are of places I pedal by on my way home from our post office. For a June day, a sky this blue is something people throw virgins into volcanoes for. Most years, June is a month to be endured under slate-colored, sodden skies. Usually we don’t see this amount of blue until mid July. About now, we are scraping the moss out of our hair and between our toes. Not this year.
The hay fields are ready for cutting. At this rate, the cows will be happy all winter long.
This afternoon, it is the bees who are gorging. I pass this climbing hydrangea nearly every day. It is in full bloom and buzzing with bees. Today I had to stop and enjoy it for a few minutes. May you live in even more beautiful surroundings than I do.
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On the Board Today – June 5, 2014
Greens for this evening’s meal include young onions, chrysanthemum greens, lettuce, and arugula. Vegetables are best eaten as soon as they are picked, and yet few live in an environment where that is possible. If you can step outside your door and harvest the produce for your meal, consider yourself infinitely blessed.
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A Herd of Chickens
Late afternoon, evenings are grazing times for the chickens. There is a distinct ripping sound they make as they tear grass with their beaks. Sit quietly on the grass and they will come over to see what you’re doing. It’s impossible to be sad or upset when they are milling about.
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Out of the Ground Today – June 5, 2014
It’s egg and salad delivery day. In the cool, early morning, the produce in the vegetable beds is awake and succulent. Picking the greens in the quiet of the morning is almost a meditative exercise. It’s an opportunity to clear the mind and think of nothing as I snip, snip, snip away. It’s much better than toiling away in a corporate cubicle, staring into a monitor for hours on end.
Once washed and stacked, the fresh produce has a beauty all its own. If you’re eating at Tweets this weekend, you may be lucky and enjoy some of these fresh greens. Currently, I’m making a single delivery on Thursdays, but in the near future I will be making deliveries of produced picked that morning on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. You’ll enjoy salads at Tweets made from greens picked just hours before. You can’t get that Mickey D’s or most any restaurant.
