A Chicken Shower

One of my neighbors became the "grandmother" of a baby chick. One of her hens turned out to be an excellent mother, sitting on her egg faithfully and lo and behold, 20-some days later, it hatched! My neighbor was so excited!

I thought it would be fun to throw a shower for her, to mark the occasion.

I have had this farm print fabric in my stash for years. I matched it up with some scraps of this and that, and made an apron for my neighbor. 

The apron has big pockets to gather eggs with, or carry chicks as the case may be:)

The gifts were: a Chicken magazine, the apron, a few empty egg cartons, and a little bag of corn scratch for the new mother hen. Here's hoping the chick will be a hen (not a rooster) and lay lots of eggs someday! 

Garden of Eatin'

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A friend sent this film to us, and my family had a very enjoyable and inspiring time watching it. This gardener simplifies vegetable gardening and fruit growing, trying to get back to gardening the way God designed it! His methods are simple and I know that other people do this and are quite happy with their soil and produce.
It is rather long, so set aside some time to view it-- you won't be sorry! Well, I take that back: if your home-grown carrots are as puny as mine, you may start crying when you see his carrots.
http://backtoedenfilm.com/
scroll down to see the video.

(note: the gardener talks rather fast, so listen slowly!)





Shelling Peas

William Banks...

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the Upright Egg

We interupt this "Teacup Thursday" to bring you a special post on balanced eggs. 

We were at this tea party today, and someone proposed that we go into the kitchen and start balancing eggs.

I acted as photographer, though I see now that with a little bit of patience, egg balancing can be acheived. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So Delicious!

Apple Blackberry Plum Punch

We are enjoying extending our cool treats into the late summer heat wave. Here is today's refreshment-- and oh, boy, is it good! It is also a good way to use up plums when it is too hot out to make jam or pies.

I cannot give exact measurements because this was a "thrown together" thing, but here are the ingredients:

Ice

Pureed red plums (with skins on)

Pureed frozen blackberries (I've been freezing the blackberries as we pick them, as it is too hot to make jam. I suppose fresh would do but it is nice to have the extra cooling factor of frozen berries!)

Apple Juice

Simple Syrup (optional, depending on your sweet tooth)

Ginger Ale

Place ice in your punchbowl or pitcher, enough to fill 1/3 of the vessel.

Puree the blackberries, adding enough apple juice to help it smooth out nicely in the blender. Strain if you don't want the seeds.

Puree the plum slices. You may strain out the skins but it takes a while. You could peel them but the skin makes a nice tart flavor.

Mix the two purees in the pitcher; if it is too tart, add some simple syrup (sugar + water) to get it to your liking.

Add some ginger ale for a nice fizz-- I added 2 small cans to a gallon of the juice mixture.

Ladle it out into fancy glasses and enjoy!

God's Bold, Bright Colors

A bit of inspiration for you

Life is real, life is earnest,

And the shell is not its pen –

“Egg thou art, and egg remainest”

Was not spoken of the hen.

Art is long and Time is fleeting,

Be our bills then sharpened well,

And not like muffled drums be beating

On the inside of the shell.

In the world’s broad field of battle,

In the great barnyard of life,

Be not like those lazy cattle!

Be a rooster in the strife!

Lives of roosters all remind us,

We can make our lives sublime,

And when roasted, leave behind us,

Hen tracks on the sands of time.

Hen tracks that perhaps another

Chicken drooping in the rain,

Some forlorn and henpecked brother,

When he sees, shall crow again.

-"A Parody on A Psalm of Life" Attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes

Photo: The Pleasant Times chicks enjoying a day out.

sleepy chicks

The little fuzzy balls are chicks that are all hunkered down for the night. They resisted sleep most of the day, but at last they all cuddled up and succumbed to it. They were so funny, just like people, for they would start to droop, and then jerk themselves awake with a start. Then their little heads would droop again, and their beaks would hit the hay. Sometimes one would get the idea that she'd rather be in the middle, and step on all the others and wake them up!

But oh, the poor little things need a mama hen, don't you think? It is good they have each other to cuddle with; and even though they were raised in an incubator, they probably have an instinct (just as they do for food, water and scratching) to go and get under mama hen's wing.

The Latest Additions

Meet the chicks. They are two days old. All six of them are providing a lot of interest here at The Pleasant Times!

There are 3 Ameraucanas (they lay the green eggs), one Rhode Island Red, one Blue Andalusian, and one Welsummer that is supposed to lay a very dark brown egg.

But, oh, my, what an unfortunate choice of a box to keep them in! Truly, we got the chickens for eggs, not for bakin' !

Not a Proper Lawn At All

Our lawn is rather wild. But I like it that way.

Perhaps it is not as nice looking, but it is more interesting.

Things creep out of the garden to grow where "the grass is greener." Flowers and things like mint. The mint smells so nice when it's mown down!

Wild violets of purple, lavender and white grown in the lawn;

and of course the daisies;

and other little tiny wildflowers.

There are different kinds of grass:

some tall, some short, some fat, some thin, some lush, some not.

We have these little blue flowers, as well as pink wild geraniums. There are plenty of weeds, too. We have counted over 25 different kinds of plants growing in our lawn.

And we have this curly curiosity.

It smells like an onion and tastes like chives, but I have not looked it up yet to see what it is exactly.

 Pink geraniums have also taken root in a gravel parking lot next door.

 One surprise this spring were the brave little pansies that grew in the gravel.

 People must think parking lots are not for flowers.

 (though if it were my parking lot, I'd let them grow there)

 Alas, they suffered the fate of being poisoned by roundup. Poor little dears.

Love-In-A-Mist

Love in a Mist

Giclee Print
Anderson, Sophie

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 In the vegetable garden this year, a couple beds were set aside for "mystery seeds." These were saved seeds from the flower garden last year, put in Ziploc bags and envelopes, but not labeled. Yes, I know we ought to label them. Ahem! To get back to my subject... a plot of these beautiful blue flowers came up, but there were no blue flowers in the flower garden last year, making these extra mysterious.

 A friend told me they were called "Love-In-A-Mist."  I have heard of or read about Love-In-A-Mist, but must not have paid attention to what they looked like. I thought the shades of blue were so lovely, and now I have extra reason to like these, and grow them again: their beautiful name!

 I have not yet identified the wee blue-purple-white-ish flowers that have come up with the Love-In-A-Mist.

 What fascinated me about these, was that there are at least 4 different variations of this flower in this plot. Some more blue, some more white, some more purple. Some with many petals, some with a single layer.

 Here are the four different variations I have seen so far (above), and three close-ups (below).