This handful of moss is so lush, you might think I took a close-up of moss at Sanzen-in, but it’s moss growing on the top of a fence post next to my vegetable beds.
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Beauty On a Post
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One Head – Two Heads
First there is one head, then there are two heads. There is safety in numbers. Three heads are better than one. With two other chickens paying attention, it’s safe to preen and take your eye off your surroundings. If a hawk or eagle or farmer with a butcher knife appears, someone will sound the alarm so everyone can escape.
Fences make good places to take a break. Nothing can sneak up from behind, and it’s easy to spot danger from afar. Take a look at their heads. Each one is pointed in a different direction. Coupled with a chicken’s remarkable ability to see nearly all around them, very little happens without them seeing it. Which explains why chickens have so much to gossip about.
Humans often begin salacious conversations with, “Did you see … ?” Among chickens, it goes without saying that they saw it already, so their gossip must start with, “What do you think of that, Hazel?”
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The Color of Rain
What is the color of rain? Trickling through the trees, it forms dazzling jewels on the tips of leaves and needles. But the real color of rain is green. Rain makes the forest possible. It makes the gardens grow. It lets the bean vines reach for the skies. Places where it rains are green and lush. Rain makes picking fresh herbs in the dead of winter possible. It comes down to this axiom: no rain, no green.
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A Mother’s Feathers
Little chicks need to feel safe and secure. Of the billions of chickens raised each year just in the USA, just a tiny handful get to snuggle inside their mother’s feathers. For little chicks, there is nothing more important than having the security of a caring mother.
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On a Blue Day
On a blue day, the Christmas trees touch the sky. They are so beautiful, they don’t need any decorations. On the ground are wheel barrow after wheel barrow of fallen leaves, waiting to be picked up. In time, they will crumble. Bacteria and bugs will feast on them, turning them into soil to grow beautiful vegetables.
Raking the leaves attracts the chickens, including this young rooster with brilliant colors. Chickens can be among the most colorful of all birds. The variety of colors and patterns is stunning.
Just as stunning is the power of these small arugula seeds to grow into delicious salads. A plant which likes cool weather, I can even plant them in the unheated hoop house in November.
