A Contemplative Life

Many things I could have written about but this wasn't on my radar. Yet as I stepped outside to check for chickens, a hawk flew into the air in front of a greenhouse where the hens like to gather. A barnevelder had been attacked; I could tell from her limp form and the feathers around her. From left: Welsummer, Owl, Gigi-Ru, the backside of Camilla, and Nadia. Immediately we found five living hens; Owl, Camilla, Cami, Welsummer and one of the Triplets. Nadia was missing, as were the other two triplets, though I didn't think Nature Girl was accounted for. Not for scratch or money could we lure the chickens into the run or coop, so while my husband buried the deceased hen, I kept watch on the rest, wondering if Nadia was gone. Meanwhile my back, which I wrenched on Sunday, wasn't awfully painful, which was great! I had a very nice time with my sister, but this was the first I'd been out with the hens since coming home due to a very achy lower spine. Who I believe is Natur...

Guests have gone, a quiet house this evening. Fog rolled in a couple of hours ago and my goodness it's as thick as it was early this morning. Family has landed in their respective domiciles where it's not at all marine-layer-like, lol. Funny how within one state, albeit a large state, the weather and climates can be so different. I think I'll sleep well tonight, pondering how being close to routine still feels a little strange. Hosting several beloveds became immediately normal and now that altered normalcy is quiet, foggy, autumnal. Earlier sunsets and later sunrises get a little lost in the card game shuffle, long chats, and lots of dishes washed. Now it's truly October, very much fall, and with four molting hens to boot, lots of change occurring. Ruthie on the baby perch while Cami looks on. Photo courtesy of my husband from this evening. Cami and Owl are both looking scraggly, Welsummer as well, though she still has tail feathers. Camilla is hinting at the molt, wha...

Guests are arriving tomorrow for the upcoming week, beloveds dear to my heart. Since I'm the type who (deep) cleans prior to visitors, the last few days have been steeped in, well, cleaning. LOL! Not sure why I have always done it this way, but it works and I'm too old to change. I'm feeling weary tonight, but other than making one bed TOMORROW, the house is looking good. Hopefully I'll sleep well, I've certainly earned a decent rest. Little Owl Chicken from a year ago. She looks so YOUNG! From where I'm seated I can see six chickens scratching at the ground. It's six p.m. and in another hour and fifteen minutes those hens will be heading to the coop, climbing up the roost steps, then settling on the wall. Cami Chicken has lost her tail feathers, but not as aggressively as Ruthie and Gigi, who both appeared like someone had chopped off their backsides! Cami is also acting slightly cowed, Ruthie picking on her in the mornings while they eat breakfast. Pecking...

Nadia amid the wishflowers, what my granddaughters call dandelions gone to seed. Our chickens are sneaky creatures; this morning as I finished breakfast, I peered out the window and there's Nadia strutting across the front yard. It's not even eight a.m. and she's already flown out of the run, exploring as she is wont to do. Lately I've had breakfast before I feed the chickens, as I'm up early and we don't feed them now until around seven o'clock. But this morning I was mesmerized by a band of heavenly light sandwiched between two pushy layers of cloud that JUST COULDN'T PUT OUT THAT LIGHT! (Lol.) They tried, those portions of the marine layer, squeezing with all their cloudy might, but that light was just like Nadia Chicken; stealthy, smart, powerful in its own not so little way. Nadia's merely a hen, and yeah, she scales the door, and can fly right back in, as my husband witnessed later this morning. But those clouds, that marine layer, my goodness!...

Writing, sewing, um, life. A new day, another chapter in On Being Brave , and the proper photos taken of a brand new quilt! It's a Monday kinda like no other, other than it's simply another Monday afternoon. But joyful bravery adds a new dimension to my life as though I'm the alien, newly arrived on Earth, wondering how cool is this rather gray-skied planet in this little corner of a tremendous world. Washed and decently crinkled; I'll take it! Once again the North Coast is smothered by clouds, but it's good for the Mile Post 18 fire, the inversion layer lessening the oxygen, trapping the smoke, keeping the blaze slightly under wraps. If I was newly landed on this planet, I'd be shocked at how many fires burn, but compared to the enormous fires from years past, California is getting off easy. Canada and the rest of the Pacific Northwest not so much, but as an interloper from outer space, I wouldn't realize that, nor would I actually be aware of how blessed C...

Twelve months ago yesterday we bought ten baby chicks. Two died days later. Eight have muscled their adorable poultry lives into our hearts and daily existences. Currently one is missing her tailfeathers from molting. Another is opting out of the broody stage except at bedtime. The rest are being their little henny-penny selves and here I am, writing a post about them. Because a year ago, I was overwhelmed in becoming a new chicken mama, also wondering what the hey we'd done. Lol.... It's not like I ponder, "Oh, what would we do without them???" Though, I do wonder for how long our lives will include them, especially since early this morning I again saw the gray fox trotting around, then slinking into the underbrush. Whatever! I've let go and let God concerning these hens, which for the most part are very healthy and seemingly happy. And honestly, what more could I seek? Suspicious of scratch in a pan.... All photos courtesy of my husband. Becoming chicken owners ...

For the last several days hints of summer have muscled their way through an entrenched marine layer. A couple of hours of sunshine one day, another few hours the next. June Gloom is the theme, and I'm trying to be patient, but.... LOL. I'm very grateful it's not HOT here, and as for the sunshine, well, it'll come back one of these days. Gigi is in the Broody Hen condo and just about everyone else desperately wants in! Photo courtesy of my husband. The chickens don't seem to care; they're a year old today, going about their henny-penny ways, including Gigi going broody again, as well as a few hens molting. Hard to believe it's been a year since they hatched, and a nearly a year since we chose them, brought them home, and began our chicken adventure. The good thing about the marine layer is that I don't have to move their water container in and out of the sun. By the time the sun does come out, where the waterer sits is in the shade, not something I consid...

Warm Hearted quilt in its full glory. Tomorrow I'm heading out for a few days with family in the SF Bay Area. My suitcase is mostly packed, a few things with those chickens to accomplish, like cleaning out the coop today, lol. From my bedroom I could hear one of them making a racket, so I trekked outside to find Ruthie in a grumpy mood, probably because Owl was in Box #6. Ruthie, at times a broody hen, croaks the loudest, not a cluck exactly, more like the caw of an angry crow. I hope she behaves while I'm away and doesn't cause my husband too much fuss. I'm SO GLAD I denoted what I planned at the top of the quilt. An upside-down view of it. Two days ago I had big ambitions for my Warm Hearted quilt, since the back was finished. Big because on Thursday I'm leaving; what did I think I was going to accomplish in three days amid preparing for a trip, chickens to look after, etc, etc, etc. This morning I put the EPP part of this project on my work table while the back w...

Skies, fabrics, etc.... My right shoulder is BETTER! It's not to the point where I'm hand sewing like previously, but it doesn't hurt when I do hand stitch. Every other night. For about an hour. Which is approximately a quarter of the time I used to hand sew, but I'll take it. Very slowly beats not at all, and as I have several EPP projects, not to mention Kawandi, I wish to complete, hand sewing will truly exemplify SLOW STITCHING on a grand scale. Lol. A few days ago, while figuring out the next round of my Peace Around the World quilt , I played with some fun squares, turning an extra swan into the center of yet another coaster. I have So. Many. Coasters! Yet I love the brevity, experimenting with different fabrics, as well as adding a layer of Insulbrite to make them more heat-resistant. It kinda works, but it's not perfect. Guess I'll need to try it again, hahahah. What I DID LOVE were how woven fabrics worked amid regular cotton prints. I love how green me...

So much has occurred in the last few days, so many times I've wanted to sit at my office computer and write a post about.... Not merely chickens, but the beautiful SUN we enjoyed on Mother's Day, how gorgeous Monday was (more sun and quite warm), and then yesterday with MORE SUN! Please understand that after ten straight days of cloudy weather that was at times chilly, feeling the sun on my face has been a treat beyond explanation, and will give me patience during our summer of marine layer mornings that do eventually break into blue skies. Time to blog has been minimal in part due to those CHICKENS, LOL! Ruthie was her broody self, then on Sunday Icey revealed an outdoor nesting spot, nine eggs having been laid at the base of a camellia tree not far from our house. That dang hen! However... 1) She did reveal her location. 2) It wasn't hard to access. 3) It was easy to dismantle. And 4) She's not broody. She was attached to that spot, I'll say, but how we've dea...