every day is a good day
Yesterday, I heard Nina’s chicks peeping underneath her. Soft, happy peeps of chicks drying their wet feathers under their mother’s warm feathers.
Today, I saw two of them. Here is one. The other one snuggled underneath her before I could take it’s picture. It’s not unusual for a hen to hatch chicks in December. The past few years, I’ve had at least one hen raise a clutch in winter. Luckily for the chicks, this December is warmer than usual.
Yesterday’s respite from the daily storms revealed a wet, blue world. Many fields have turned into duck ponds. Swans are having a field day romping in all the mud. How do swans stay so clean when they spend hours wallowing in mud?
After the rains comes the rainbow. After the rains the trees are left stranded in the overflowing slough. When they see their reflection in the glassy water, do they ooh and ahh, saying, “Oh my, am I that beautiful? Look, that man is taking our photo. Which of my limbs is the most beautiful?”
After the rains comes a sky, bluer than before. After the rains, Margaret decides that it’s time to sleep on the roost again with the other chickens. Her chicks aren’t sure what to make of it. Why is their mother up so high? Why aren’t we sleeping in our usual bed? After the rains, the whole world changes.
Margaret’s chicks are as excited as I am. It’s only thirteen days until the days start to lengthen here. On December 21 at 8:48 pm Pacific Time (December 22 at 4:48 am Coordinated Universal Time) the winter solstice occurs. The sun will reach its lowest level in the northern hemisphere and from that moment, it will start rising higher in the northern sky.
The growing pullets are excited too. More and more of them are starting to lay eggs. They seem to be trying to outdo each other by laying the greenest, bluest, most pointed, most round, most whatever egg a hen can imagine.
Even the kohlrabi are flush with joy. This is what kohlrabi looks like at dusk, after days of wind and rain. It’s survived weeks of deep freezes, and yet it springs back, sweeter than ever. You won’t find a better, happier, midwinter food than kohlrabi.
Today was a trail dragging day, rain from the get go. You know it’s raining a plenty when the roosters are dragging their tails on the ground. There are plenty of places they could go to be dry, but they would rather be outdoors, even if it is raining. It takes a downpour for them to seek cover. They do look sad, dragging their wet tail feathers behind them.
The next time it is raining all day, you can say, “It’s raining so much, the roosters are dragging their tails.”
