Over the sea to Skye

Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing, over the sea to Skye...

Carry the lad who's born to be King, over the sea to Skye...

I can hear her calling! I need to go.

Here chooks!

Just two weeks to go, and we'll be starting to grow our little brood of chickens! I'm ready!

Ta-Dah!!

Here is the finished Chook Palace, all stained, and ready for the day-old chicks, who will arrive before we can blink an eye! And here is the slate bearing the eternal truth:

Chanticleer, all over again!! Actually, I think we've decided to abandon the Chanticleer idea...a lot quieter, and a lot less worry!

Omnibus I

I have decided to go back to school! Not as a teacher, though, but as a student! Today was day one of my new course, Omnibus I, Biblical and Classical Civilizations. It should take me 6 years to complete Omnibus I - VI, so by the time that I turn 70, I should be fairly well-versed in the classics! Today we 'went' to the Sistine Chapel, and asked the question: "Who do you suppose that beautiful woman under God's left arm is?" Depending on your viewpoint, I suppose she could be Mary, who by the time Michelangelo painted his famous fresco had received the title of Mother of God back in the Middle Ages. Since Michelangelo didn't follow biblical descriptions of the cherubims, he probably didn't think too much about time-lines either, so this gorgeous female could then be Eve, even though she wasn't created until later. I, personally, think that this is the personification of Wisdom, who is portrayed in Proverbs as a woman. Entirely appropriate, for Wisdom to be included in this earth-shattering event! I suppose we'll never know this side of Heaven who she is, but rather fun to ponder such things! We looked at the whys and wherefores of Genesis, and now my homework is to read Toledoth 1 - 5, or the first 11+ chapters of Genesis. I'm going to enjoy being a student again! Soli Deo Gloria!

A Leeky Census!

A dear friend left this bag of ramps(wild leeks) hanging on our door knob early this morning! What a lovely surprise...so this evening we're having ramps and mushrooms gratines: saute 10 trimmed ramps and quartered mushers in a couple tablespoons of (real!) butter until golden. Take off heat, add half a cup of heavy cream and pop in small casserole dish. Cover with breadcrumbs mixed with Gruyere cheese and broil until golden topped! After dinner go for a brisque walk around the field 4 times to help move all that lovely cream through your veins!

The Wasp Nest

Who decided the perfect spot

To build the nest, was it Dot?

Was she the one, on bended knee,

To plead to her inflated Queen?

Or did a host of cheering wasps,

To the throne, raise Dot aloft, and

Carry their newly elected Queen

To boss them about

And live her dream...

In this her treetop paper palace?

Tea-time With Marilyn

The other day, I went to my friend's house to enjoy a nice cup of tea and soft, sweet conversation with Marilyn and her dear mother, Betty. The table was set so prettily with beautiful china that had been Marilyn's grandmother's, who lived in Wales. How clever that Marilyn made some jam tarts out of a Tasha Tudor book that I had given her for Christmas a while back...Tasha Tudor had corgis! Corgis/Wales...

And just look at the exquisite centrepiece! It's a shooting-star hydrangea...so beautiful! A gift to Betty from Marilyn for Mother's Day...

Chicken House Project - Phase V

Now things are really beginning to take shape!! I love the shape of this very fine chicken house...it looks like a robot head, complete with square mouth, square eyes, square ears, and a nice square brain vent in the back! Those nesting boxes are big enough for broody ostriches!! What lucky chooks...

My best friend is going to try to pull a piece of granite from the old barn to lay down under the door, to make a nice step...

Framed-in Nesting Boxes

My best friend is nibbling away at the Hen House Project, using up every single spare moment in the course of his very busy days. Here he is, with his cheer leading team, after he framed in the 4 quite large nesting boxes this afternoon. Think eggs!

Still Waters

...He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul...

Hen House - Phase Three

This is what the hedgerow looks like now! All cleaned out and free of barbed wire fencing ! But this is what it looked like before I got in there with my trusty pruning saw, strong arms and cable cutters:

The rafters are up!!

What a clever friend I have!

I think we're supposed to tie a tree

to the chimney at this point...

Here chook chooks!

Chicken House - Phase Two

Since my best friend started the hen house we had a foot or so of snow, but now we have clear skies and another bout of ambition! So here's the next phase. While Larry was hammering away, a hawk was screeching at him from the tippy top of a cedar tree right above the hen house!! He seemed to be screaming: "When will they get here? I'm starving!!" We'll have to seriously make provisions for anti-hawk attacks from above!

I have been working hard on the hedgerow, too, removing all the old barbed wire fencing, and the dead scrubby brush. It's beginning to look quite smart.