every day is a good day
A bowl of fresh greens is a sure sign of spring. Food never tastes as good as when it comes fresh out of the garden while you are cooking. By the end of April, the garden will be overflowing with greens. With most people living in vast urban settings, it’s only a lucky few who get to eat fresh produce. If it’s more than a day old, it’s not really fresh.
“I only have eyes for you,” or are the hens saying, “I’m watching you!” Niji-himi 虹姫 is downright hawkish if you get too close to her nest. I wouldn’t put it past her to aim her beak right at my eye if I venture too close. Sunshine, below, is more mellow, as are Tangerine and Ungetsu-hime 雲月姫. When you study their faces, you see how different they all are. The shape and shade of their combs, their eyes, their beaks, their wattles, the color and pattern of their feathers. Their personalities are just as varied as their looks.
The trilliums, spring beauties, and bleeding hearts are awake and pushing through the fallen leaves. Soon the forest floor will be a carpet of green with pink and white flowers. Can you imagine that almost no chicken ever gets to wriggle her toes in such lush undergrowth? And yet they are birds descended from jungle fowl. With such ancestry, every chicken deserves to spend time every day feeling the lush forest floor between her toes.
So do humans, when you think about it. We’re descended from forest dwellers too. So why are so many of us walking on concrete all the time? Our feet are made to move over thick carpets of moss and fallen leaves and wet tickling grasses. Feel the dew drops kiss your toes. Reclaim your heritage. Venerate our ancestors of a million years ago. Feel the grass between your toes. Liberate yourself from concrete.
Empty nests all around but Ruby insists on using the same nest that Jacqueline is using. Hens often have their favorite nests, and if it is in use, it doesn’t matter. The empty nests right next door won’t do. They have to use the nest that’s occupied. The way they squeeze in is interesting to watch. They usually squeeze in very slowly. I’ve seen three hens squeeze in at the same time. It makes me wonder what is wrong with the empty nests? I think that some hens aren’t satisfied with a nest unless it’s in use.
On a spring day, Buttercup keeps her eggs warm. Hens have such fiery eyes, they should be grade school teachers. With such eyes glaring at them, no child would dare misbehave. When you are a mother-to-be, safeguarding a clutch of eggs, you need to be able to stare down any threat. For the three weeks they sit patiently on their eggs, I wonder what hens think about all day long.
As Buttercup patiently sits, the pears are in bloom. Before their blossoms open, they look like fluffy popcorn. When pear blossoms open, they spread their dark pink stamen as wide as possible. Against their white petals, the stamen must tell the bees that there is lots of pollen for them.
