I’ve never seen two old love birds like Billy and Imelda. They’re not exclusive, mind you. Billy continues to cavort with plenty of other hens, but Imelda has a special place in his heart. They spend a lot of time together, and this afternoon when I saw Billy standing in the doorway of one of the doghouses, I went to investigate what he was doing.
He was watching out for Imelda, who was in the doghouse to lay an egg. He hovered around her for half an hour or so.
He was right next to her when she laid this egg.
And afterwards, he followed her around. The two make a touching pair. He is five years old and she is four. For chickens, they are well into middle age.
There is more going on in their tiny brains then we realize.
Category: Happiness
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Old Love Birds
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Popup Garden
While out plotting new vegetable plots for this year’s planting, I stumbled on this exquisite miniature garden. The tiny, fresh leaves were dotted with fresh raindrops.
From a distance, it’s easy to miss the beauty nature poured into a cement block.
But up close, it’s every bit as calming as sitting on the veranda of Nanzenji in Kyoto. If you ever make it to Kyoto, Nanzenji 南禅寺 is a temple worth visiting, though with more than a thousand temples in Kyoto, and with hundreds you just have to see, you might think of planning a very long vacation there.
Not to be outdone is the garlic patch here at a man and his hoe®. You don’t have to get on a plane and travel across the world to encounter exquisite beauty. Sometimes you just need to look down and see what’s growing at your feet.
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Living in an Outdoor Museum
No matter how busy we get, there’s always time to enjoy beauty. It only takes a second or two.
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Posts – Nature’s Gift
If you look around, nature often has what you need. What I need are some 10 foot posts to fence off a vegetable plot to keep the chickens out. I could go to a lumber yard and pick out some posts, but there are many young tree that need to be thinned out. They’re not perfectly straight, but they will make a distinctive looking fence that will be unique. I’ve left some of the branches to have handy hooks for hanging things.
For fun: to get red hands, strip the bark by hand. -
New Pullet Egg and Cherry Blossom Snow
This time of year, every day is full of surprises. This morning I discovered a pullet egg. When hens first start laying eggs, they lay tiny eggs. You’ll rarely, if ever, find them in a store, but they are beautiful and make very cute fried eggs.
The flowers are still drifting off the cherry tree and blanketing the ground like snow. There are more petals than the chickens can possibly eat.
The mint is now growing vigorously.
And the salmon berries are in full bloom. Come late June and early July, the orange-salmon colored berries will be ready to eat. They are best eaten in the afternoon on sunny days, after the sun has warmed the berries to perfection.
