Saturday, May 30, 2015

An Entire Universe, Right Here In My Back Yard

To no one's surprise, least of all my own, I slept until almost ten this morning.
By the time I got up, Mr. Moon had already gone to town to help Jessie and Vergil with their kitchen. Mr. Moon called me though and told me that if I went into his garage and looked over by the rakes and stuff, I'd find a surprise.
I knew what it had to be. I've been saying that Camellia is laying in that garage and I'd looked but I couldn't find her cache.


Well. There is is.

I picked up two dozen eggs. 


I don't even think I'm going to wash and do the float test on them. I believe I'm just going to heave them into the woods. 
Jesus, Camellia! Reminds me of the cat I had once who gave birth IN A BUCKET OF NAILS! Animals are not always as full of wisdom as we'd like to think. 

Last night Jessie and Vergil took a little walk out to the giant oak where Vergil had asked Jessie to marry him. It's the same oak that let go part of itself a few years ago. I was sitting right here on the back porch when it happened and I heard a ripping as if part of the universe was coming unglued and then an endless pause and then a tearing, a sheering, and the ground shook when the huge part of the tree hit the earth and it reached all the way across the back yard. Anyway, the tree has lived on, still magnificent, and as Jessie and Vergil discovered last night, is now the home to a very busy hive of bees. 


You can't see the bees in the picture but they are darting and in out of that slit in the middle. Is that tree now filled with honey? With an entire universe of working bees? I hope so. 

More mystery-of-life here in Lloyd this morning:

I heard the baby chicks making their call just now and went out to check. Mama Hen was pecking and scratching a few feet from the hen house, no babies around her. The sound was coming from inside the hen house and I found this.


I believe that she's trying to teach them to stay in one place without her for a few moments. Now I can see her leading them back over to the ivy. She is a good mother. She is teaching them what they need to know to take care of themselves. Sometimes animals ARE full of wisdom. And could there be a sweeter picture of the two chicks? I swear, they finally posed.

So hello and good morning and I believe I am going to go put on my overalls and get dirty. I feel good in spirits and in body and although my dreams were strange as ever, they were a bit spicy (in a good way) as well. One of the chickens has now laid an egg and she and another hen are cackling and cackling about it, the air is humming with crickets, the light is dancing across the yard and it is a most beautiful day and I am most grateful to be alive in it.







10 comments:

  1. Adorable chicken! And this - Jesus, Camellia! Reminds me of the cat I had once who gave birth IN A BUCKET OF NAILS! Animals are not always as full of wisdom as we'd like to think. - well, that's just so funny!

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  2. It's a magical world you live in! Your chicks are adorable! The egg cache impressive. So glad your oak survives and provides its own universe for the bees. I thought of Winnie the Pooh :) We've been enjoying hours of campfires from the oak tree that lightning killed. I thank it every fire, and know it lives on in the baby oaks taking its place. Thanks for sharing your world and your wonder at it all. Xo
    Ps I'm probably going to have a heart shaped tan line from my necklace. Xxoo

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  3. I think animals are much wiser than us. they know not to shit in their own backyard. a similar thing happened to my sister when she had chickens. no eggs for days except for one or two. when her husband moved a pile of hay to put down fresh, there they all were, about the same amount, carefully hidden from those people who keep taking them.

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  4. A beautiful day already. From the egg hoard to that pic of the chicks.

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  5. Oh my the eggs don't look like they would pass the float test. Those baby chickens are just the cutest things. Gail

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  6. LOL eggs under the post hole digger! Perfect.

    And enjoy your beautiful life for all of us.

    XXXX Beth

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  7. The egg picture is funny. I showed my husband. We are still considering getting chickens ourselves and he loves things like this. I am -this close- to convincing him.:-)

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  8. Jo- Those kittens lived to be a thousand so maybe the mama was smarter than I thought.

    Mel- I think of you every night when I get into my bed because the little bottles you sent me hang right beside my pillows. Every night.

    Ellen Abbott- This is not the first cache of hidden eggs we have found. My opinion though is- if you're not going to sit on them and hatch them, why hide them? Most of my hens don't seem to mind at all if I take their eggs. Once they've laid them, they are done.

    Jill- And it stayed beautiful though out.

    Gail- Aren't they darling? I heaved those eggs, one at a time, into the woods by the railroad tracks. It was bizarrely satisfying.

    Beth Coyote- I am, darling. I swear to you! It's my job and I do it with all of my heart.

    Birdie- I hope your husband comes around on the subject because you will be so delighted with them. I swear.

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  9. Two dozen hidden eggs - holy moly!

    I also liked the line about the cat having kittens in a bucket of nails. Wow.

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  10. Ha! Camellia has certainly been busy. Where's the oak snake when you need him?!

    I laughed at that cat having kittens in a bucket of nails. Talk about a harsh introduction to the world! Maybe they LOOKED like they'd be comfy, like straw? Who knows.

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