The great thing about growing your own food is that you can plant beautiful things to eat. Chive flower buds and blossoms add a splash of color to salads.
And don’t forget to plant plenty of flowers to decorate your table.
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Eat Beautiful Things
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An Acre To Herself
Chickens are social birds. They like to roost together. During the day they’ll hang out together in a dirt bath and gossip and kvetch. Hens will cavort with roosters and lead them on. But they also like to get away and be by themselves. They will meander off into the woods or deep into the pasture all on their own.I read an article in Modern Farmer by Tyler LeBlanc titled Virtual Reality for Chickens – Is this the future of free range? According to the article, Austin Stewart, a young assistant professor from Iowa State University, has designed a virtual world chickens can see by wearing a Oculus Rift headset. He’s even set up a website, Second Livestock, where he discusses his ideas of giving caged or confined animals the experience of being outdoors by wearing virtual reality headsets.
It makes me wonder if either Tyler LeBlanc or Austin Stewart have even seen a live chicken. The experience of being outdoors on pasture and in woodland, is much more than just seeing those things. It is about touching the tall grass, feeling the brush, scratching the dirt with their toes, pulling earthworms out of the ground, and hunting down a field mouse. And with headsets on, how in the world are these chickens going to preen themselves?
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Iris, Wysteria, and Babies
It’s Iris and Wysteria season, a terrific time of the year to be outdoors.
It’s an auspicious day to be born. These chicks are just hours old, safe and snug with their mother. The clutch is due tomorrow so these two are on the early side.
It’s a day for making a fuss. Hazel is making a fuss, but so many hens do after they’ve laid an egg. I guess if we had something as large as an egg coming out of our butt, we’d want to talk about it too.
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It’s a day for temporary art. The alcove in the entry way is a handy place to display eggs gathered this afternoon.
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Where Do Tulips Go When They Die?
Where do tulips go when they die? They fall onto their tombstones and slowly vanish.
And these geriatric tulips are nearing their end. They are still beautiful, just like old people with all their wrinkles. At the beginning of the month, they were so fresh. Now, they are losing their shape, getting wobbly, and gracefully showing their age. But their beauty endures to the end.
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Egg Art
Every day the hens lay eggs with such beauty, they are small works of art. When you buy them in a store, they are cold and lifeless. But when you gather them throughout the day, they are warm to the touch, almost hot if the hen has just laid them and left the nest. You can tell they are living things.
