australorp

week 1

week 2

week 4

week 7

Australorp ("Lorpy") is usually the last girl in our flock to come into the coop at night, so I thought she should be the last one I introduce on the blog.  Lorpy is sweet and gentle, somewhat shy & yet also independent by nature.  She's quiet and usually off to the sidelines a little bit, though she never strays far from the flock.  

That's it for our backyard chickie round-up!   



golden comet

week 1

week 2

week 4 (she's the second one in from the left)

week 7

"Buffy," is actually a Golden Comet, but first we thought she was a  Buff Orpington, hence the nickname which has stuck.  She has always been the biggest girl out of our little mixed flock of 7.  She's still most developed & largest in size, but we suspect Jersey is going to outrank her in that department fairly soon.  As a little fluffball she had a stronger & more dominant personality, but now she's independently self-contained and fairly mellow. 



jersey giant

week 1

week 2

week 4

week 7

Jersey is our most curious girl.  And she's super sweet.  Like most of the others, she's gone from the cutest fluff ball to a face only a mother could love... in almost no time flat!  Jersey loves to perch on our arms or legss & to nuzzle in & cuddle just about any chance she gets.  When we pet her, she has a coo that is almost like a purr. 

brahma

week 1: showing off her feathery legs

week 2

week 4

week 7

Brahma (if you haven't caught onto the shortened-breed-nickname theme yet, here it goes:  "Brahmy!").  She's one of our most independent girls.  Brahmy can be a little bossy, but never really mean.  Mostly she barrels around like she means business, and does she ever!  Especially when food is involved.  She can be a worm-stealer, but the other girls don't balk at her much when she nabs their good finds.  She's definitely near the top of the pecking order, if not THE top.  I wanted to name her Beulah.  Or maybe Bertha, but once again:  Brahmy seems to have stuck. 

buff orpington

week 1

week 2

week 4

week 7

Comet, or "Commy" as we tend to call her is one of our most gentle girls.  We originally thought she was the Golden Comet (hence the nickname), but now we realize she's the Buff Orpington...   So her nickname, unfortunately, is a misnomer, but it's stuck!  She seems to be the bosom buddy & partner in crime of Dominque (aka "Dommy").  I want to name the two of them Gertrude & Alice B. Toklas, but Commy & Dommy seem to have stuck.  Commy will push her weight around & make sure she gets to be next to Dommy, whether they're out on a foraging frolic or roosting on a perch.  They definitely don't like to be apart for long... much like me & my gal.   

baby robins about to fledge!

There are actually three young robins in the nest, but only two are visible here...  They're so big that the Mama can't even lie down anymore... she just perches on the side.  (Apologies for the poor photo angle, unfortunately the mother built her nest right into our lattice...)  Out of numerous nests of young robins this year, this late-season brood is the only one that might actually make it since we predator-proofed the area from our hound-lab mix, Bella.  Bella the Bad baby-bird killer!     

americauna

week 1

week 2

week 4

week 7

"Specky" is our broodiest girl.  We originally thought she was a speckled Speckled Sussex (hence the nickname), but now we realize she's an Americauna (see the burgeoning beard?)   She will hunker down on just about anything (including a patch of grass) as if her sole purpose in life is to keep it covered & warm.  In her spare time, she likes to lounge like a clucky goddess with one wing & one leg spread out, as if she is awaiting the delivery of a platter of grapes which she expects to be hand-fed to her.  She was the first girl to fly up & perch & she loves being up higher than anyone else.  She is most often sighted on a shoulder, & sometimes trying to fly up our backs to perch on our heads.  She is also our most brave (or maybe just lazy?) gal; she will stare down one of the dogs for several seconds before choosing to get up & move elsewhere...



dominique

first week

2nd week

Dominique is our 'runt' -- slow to develop following some health issues.  For a few days we thought we were going to lose her.  Her respiratory rate was very fast / strained, she couldn't stand or eat on her own... we nursed her through with TLC & some coconut water!  She continues to be much smaller than the other girls.  At one point she was nearly 1/5th the size of our Buff Orpington, who weighed in at nearly 6 ounces while Dominique was 1.3 ounces!  Little Dommy is catching up, her breathing has slowed to normal & what she lacks in size she definitely make up for in spirit! 

week 4

 week 7

day lily & chicory

 

As we walk throughout the seasons & as my flower vocabulary & awareness expands -- it's a delight to notice the cycles of things...  what comes up when, how nature pairs colors along the roadside or in the woods... Today we noticed the first day lily, and a few strides later -- our first sighting of chicory!  

love the blushing, golden heart.

Stunning how life surges through everything, n'est-ce pas?  

beautiful day:  the genus Hemerocallis comes from the Greek words ἡμέρα (hēmera) "day" and καλός (kalos) "beautiful" (Wikipedia). The flowers of most species open at sunrise and wither at sunset.

I say: 'tis better to have blossomed once than never at all.

scapes of shallot and garlic & a purslane surprise

We call these "The Scapes of Shallot" because we can't harvest shallots without thinking of Anne of Green Gables, or William Waterhouse's painting, but they are indeed beauties in their own right.  Interspersed are some scapes of garlic (more scape pesto!) & a nutritious surprise found by my sweetie...

She found some wild purslane!  Purslane has a very mild, crispy, juicy almost lemony flavor... (even I like it!)  Cultivated purslane apparently is loaded with Omega-3's, so maybe the same applies to the wild varieties.

But the fun find of the day is this lovely gigantic shallot seed head... to me it looks like a beluga whale rising out of a green sea, with a playful offering of flowers. 

a turtle (box turtle?) egg found on the side of the road this afternoon.