The Chickens Are Coming! The Chickens Are Coming!

I hate to admit this - I have ordered chickens.  Don't ask me why.   I am not the kind of person easily swayed by little creatures - usually, anyway, but I have ordered chickens.  For some reason, they are a new adventure.   We had chickens last year, or more accurately, my daughter had chickens, but the romance was not "on" - they were stand-offish, and somewhat smelly, while being quite the curiosity for me, they were not my "cup of tea".  I put them in the "maybe someday" category of my life, and forgot about them.  This Spring, that seemed to change.  I was building a rabbit hutch for my grandchildren when one of the chickens they own jumped into it, and looked at me.  Yes, I know - How can a chicken look at someone?  - but this one did.  It flew up into the hutch, and cocked its head at me and looked at me, then clucked, and I was smitten.  Suddenly the chicken thing seemed to make perfect sense - I could see myself clucking among the chickens as they went along on their daily tasks of.. I dunno, eating, clucking and laying eggs.  Fatally, they were...cute.  In truth, I had no idea chickens could be so beautiful  Their feathers are simply amazing in their variety and color.  The one chicken I persuaded my daughter to buy is basically useless as an egg producer, yet has the most amazing green/black feathers I have ever seen.  Perhaps it is my lifelong fascination with birds in general that makes this chicken thing make sense.  In any case - I have ordered chickens, and am waiting, in anticipation, for the arrival of the first group tomorrow or Wednesday.  The brooder and all the accessories are in place.  All I need now - are some chickens.  I'll keep you posted.

The Lusty Month of May!

When I was a teenager I went on a class trip to see live theater for the first time.  It was amazing! The play was Camelot, and the part of Lancelot was played by Howard Keel.  I remember loving the music - especially the song "The Lusty Month of May" which begins "Tra la, it's May, the lusty month of May, the darling month when everyone throws self control away."  It's actually a song about human "indiscretion", but every May since, the song plays in my head just about this time as the air and earth warm, and nature awakens fully from the long winter.  This year is no exception.  The long, long white winter that covered the ground so totally for almost nine weeks was apparently just the ticket for the sleeping plants below.  Not only did I have a bonanza of daffodils, the peony garden I planted in 2007 (and have looked at in longing since) has not only finally settled in, but appears to be headed for a show stopping display - I'll keep you posted - but I have literally dozens of buds, just waiting......