a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

  • Art Happens Despite What We Do

    20150310ArtWoodPieces

    An art installation isn’t the intention when we trim a maple tree. But the jumble of branches and twigs does look like an art installation destined for a museum. I could see art critics pondering the meaning of all these branches and twigs, with some pontificating on the significance of that branch being on top of this branch.

    20150310ArtLichen

    One thing worth pondering is the beauty of lichen. Some consider lichen to be a miniature ecosystem. They are complex structures of fungi, algae and cyanobacteria, and even more participants. Since they are the first things to colonize exposed rock and growing trees, it’s estimated according to Johnson R. Haas and O. William Purvis in Lichen biogeochemistry that they cover 6% the Earth’s land surface.

    20150310ArtLichenB
    20150310ArtThimbleBud

    The thimble berries are starting to put on their annual art show. It starts with delicate pink flowers, followed by blood red berries in early summer. It’s an art show worth following. In unfolds beautifully and in the end you get to eat the art show.

    20150310ArtThimbleBlossom

  • Protecting Her Eggs

    ButterCupOnEggs

    Buttercup lets out her inner dinosaur to protect her eggs. It’s too bad that hens don’t have hands. If they did, they could write novels, code apps, knit booties, all sorts of things while they wait for their eggs to hatch.

  • A Season for Colors

    Tulip20150308

    The first tulip is starting to open. This is a season for colors. Everyday there is something new in bloom. It makes waking up each morning an adventure.

    EggsInASweater

    A sweater makes a good makeshift egg basket. So do pockets in jackets if there are just a few. Jut don’t forget you put them in your pockets. The egg on the far right is Hazel’s. The egg on the lower left is Bendy’s. I gathered these at the end of the day, when I went to let our old rooster, Billy, into his evening roost. He likes to be let in the back way so the younger roosters won’t harass him. He’s so happy when he doesn’t have to sneak past Sven and King Richard. He chuckles with joy when we let him in. That’s the closest way I can describe it. Roosters have a distinctive happy call they make when they are overcome with joy. If they are really joyous, they will even do a little dance with their feet. Does happiness in chickens feel the same as happiness in humans? Why wouldn’t it? Happiness is such a fundamental emotion that it’s origin probably predates humans and chickens by hundreds of millions of years.

    Carrying the eggs into the house, I pass the cherries in bloom. Few things are as soft as cherry blossoms in the evening. The wonderful things about flowers is that they look so different at different times of the day.

    EveningCherries20150308A
    EveningCherries20150308B

  • Cherry Blossoms

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    The cherry blossoms are in full bloom now, three weeks earlier than last year. Last year it was March 27 when they opened up. They smell like baby powder. It’s been a very warm winter and spring. I looked back through my photos and found dates when the cherries bloomed before. They show what an unusual spring this is:

    2015 – March 7
    2014 – March 27
    2013 – March 30
    2010 – March 18
    2008 – April 7 (it snowed March 30)
    2007 – March 29
    2006 – March 25

    In the hoop house, the lettuce I planted last week is starting to pop out of the ground.

    LettuceSprout

  • Becoming a Mother Again

    ButtercupIncubating201503

    This is Buttercup sitting on her eggs today. Last year in April she was doing the same thing. She’s aged a bit in a year. The pictures below are from last April when she was sitting on eggs and teaching her new chicks how to forage.

    Does she have any memories of raising chicks last year? What does she think as she sits on her eggs, day after day? Having raised chicks last year, does she plan on raising them differently this year? We think so little of animals like chickens. They are far more complex than we can fathom.

    ButtercupIncubating201404
    ButtercupIncubating201404WithChicks

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