What could possibly be as busy as a bee? Two dogs helping me weed a bed to plant potatoes, that’s who.

Takuma 拓真 and Ena 枝那 spent hours yesterday, and much of the morning today helping me prep a potato bed. What are they looking for? Gophers? Moles? I’m not sure. I did hear an occasional crunch when they found something worth eating. They don’t show any interest in the countless earthworms, but they are finding something to eat down there. Whatever it is, they aren’t sharing it with me.

Svenda has better things to do than help me plant potatoes. She’s looking for that special herb, that striking bug, to give her eggs a flavor all their own. With late spring’s verdant foliage, there is no shortage of good things to eat.

They are diggers. We found that out yesterday and today. Moles and gophers be forewarned, Takuma and Ena are here.

In the woods and in the garden, Takuma and Ena dug deep, trying to find whatever it is that they are smelling. All that digging is so tiring.

The chives are in bloom, it felt like August today. It’s the hottest May day I’ve seen in the eleven Mays we’ve been here.

The hens take their egg laying seriously. They are adept at warning me with their eyes that they want to be left alone. They’d make good librarians. No child would dare utter a peep with hen eyes glaring at them.

The purple flamingos have opened up into striking irises.

Serious business. You can see it in her eyes and her sharp tone.

My garden has a sneaky way of absconding with my tools. A few days ago, while putting up a trellis for peas and beans, a bed of greens hid a pair of pliers so well, I haven’t found them yet. But I lucked out today. While preparing a bed for planting, the folding yardstick I’d been looking for since fall showed up. It pays to weed. You never know what precious item the garden stole, the garden will decide to give back.

Five year old Cognac looks as beautiful as ever. She’s still laying beautiful eggs as dark as her neck.

The kale are blooming. Some have sent flower stalks seven feet up toward the blue sky. Seven foot tall flower stalks properly don’t come to mind when you buy kale in the produce section, but this is kale’s destiny, glorious blooms lifted high into the sky.

All is well when potatoes are growing. Potatoes are among the most beautiful of vegetables. I’m surprised city parks don’t plant beds of potatoes. Not only would the plants grace the parks with beauty and flowers, at the end of the season, city parks could have potato digging parties.

All is well when you have interesting beans to plant. These are Jacob’s Cattle Beans, so called because their color and patterns reminded New Englander’s of the Biblical story of Jacob and the spotted calf. Legend has it that they were a gift from Maine’s Passamaquoddy Indians to Joseph Clark, the first white child born in Lubec, Maine. I’ve also read that they were brought to New England from Germany. Other names for them that I’ve found are Trout bean, Anasazi bean, Aztec bean, Cave bean, and New Mexico appaloosa bean.

All is well when Cognac, our five year old Maran lays an egg. Hers is the dark one on the right. She laid an egg a few days ago too.