These are not just pushover chickies, no sir. They are TOUGH. Only, if you take them outside they don't go more than a few feet away. Which considering the hawks (and the foxes and coyotes, each of which I have only seen once here) is probably a good call. One or two of them is beginning to cluck, now, rather than cheep, and my suspicions about the palest chipmunk-colored one's maleness are not going away. They are reasonable company when one is weeding. Mascara can catch black flies in mid-air. So far they have been frightened of worms.
The woodfrog tadpoles are almost a centimeter long in the body, like oval BB's, and I am surprised at how large they are without having sprouted even back legs yet. I believe digestion gets iffy for awhile as one transforms, so maybe they are bulking up. I will certainly not lead the chickens to the backyard for a few weeks after the tadpoles leave the water, as I don't think they are as frightening as worms.
The frog, at least _a_ frog, has returned to living in the Rubbermaid in the courtyard garden. Some new-to-me kind of amphibian is singing in the woods and making a remarkable noise. Hummingbirds part our hair when we walk or sit outside. I think the sugar makes them edgy.
Ellie and I saw the bear again, at nine in the morning, walking across the driveway. I wanted to jump onto a chair and gather my skirts and shriek, but something told me this was the 'appropriate' reaction to a different animal. I am told that one of my friends kept her birdseed in a can on a screened-in porch, and a bear came and stuck its arms through the walls on one corner and tried to drag the birdseed out. Being Ann, she hit it with a broom and it ran off, accurately perceiving itself as outclassed.
I hope to see some of you at the Mass. Sheep and Wool festival on Sunday. The weather forecast is better than the one we had for NH. Tomorrow Doug and I are taking the Fiber Studio's flax workshop and then heading for MamaCate's. I am only going for the social, as I have not finished spinning anything I bought last week (two weeks).
And we are taking the smaller of our two cars. So we can't buy much.
No.
Well, maybe a little.
4 comments:
I was a Jet girl in the community theatre production of WSS waaaay back in my high school days. Velma, with the worst line of the whole play. But I got to wear red lipstick and nail polish, which Mom would never have allowed IRL.
I got to sit next to you!
Mr. E and I enjoyed reading your post of the backyard goings-on. Evocative, lots of good word pictures, and full of life.
There's nothing to buy there at Cummington. Nope, nothing. We made sure of that.
Mass. M&W was a great day, met up with some other bloggers, guess we missed each other. I was really looking forward the NHS&W but coming from CT it would have been a wash, Haha. We have 6 eggs incubating now, day 8. After candling them, so far so good. We have three species of tree frogs and I can't wait til their season is over.As soon as one varity pipes down , another starts up, have to close all the windows and doors just to hear someone on the phone.!
Me again. Forgot to ask how the flax workshop went. I went tempted to sign up.
Post a Comment