Chickens, Babies, and Peas

I enjoy keeping chickens. I have had 4 flocks in the past several years, both in America and here in England. Our little flock of 3 hens (Anne Shirley, Diana Barry and Marilla Cluckbert) in our back garden is lovely, but I never quite get enough eggs from them. When our sweet Marilla got broody, I asked our piano teacher who keeps a cockerel with her hens, if we could please have some eggs for Marilla to hatch out. She was successful last week with two little puffy chicks making their appearance under the apple trees in the garden! Unfortunately the rest of the eggs were abandoned in favour of leading her new charges around and teaching them to "chicken." But two is certainly better than none! As far as I can tell, they're both female chicks, which means they will continue to live under the apple tree for many years, hopefully! It is such a tremendous joy to wait on a new thing being born, whether it is a baby or a litter of pups or a clutch of eggs. The miracle of life is just amazing. 

Another joyful thing for me in this season is our garden. In Southern Utah where we used to live, I could never quite get a garden going with any degree of success. My tomatoes were always bitter and nothing else, beside a good amount of different herbs, ever grew well. The radiant heat was just too much. But here in England everything seems to thrive, nearly effortlessly by comparison! I got to taste my first ever garden peas with my dear friend Maxine two days ago. They are the tastiest, freshest peas you can imagine. I'm a little disappointed they didn't climb up the obelisk garden trellis as I had hoped, but they are producing, nonetheless. The pumpkins seem to want to climb up the obelisk, so nothing is wasted. I also have onions, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, blueberries, basil and other herbs going at the moment. The potato crop was a huge success, as was the garlic. I'm learning as I go though. Isn't it grand to be able to continue to learn new things or improve upon old things your entire life? I used to mistakenly think that there would be a time when I'd know all I needed. I hope we all continue to be intrigued enough to desire to learn.

Be blessed!