Today was awesome!  I went out this afternoon to check on the geese, chickens, and bees like I always do.  So here not necessarily in that order is some of what I saw.

NOTE:  I provided some musical portions for you, so if you click on them they open in another window.  In this way you can continue reading while the music plays in the background.     “:<>

The heat had brought out the bees and  they flew about in a frenzy while delivering pollen and nectar to the hive.  Standing there I hear Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov  “The Flight of the Bumble Bee“ playing in my head…

Grayson struck a perfect pose for me.  He usually does not stand still long enough to get a good shot of him.  Although his tail has not fully recovered from his vicious dog attack, I have confidence that it will return to its former glory after his next molt.

The new replacement Hennies are somewhere between two and three months away from egg production.  I can’t wait for that… and they can’t wait for me to get those geese into their own section of the yard!  Here they are letting me know in no uncertain terms that…

“We are tired of the geese coming into our run, muddying up our water, and making such an unsightly poo mess.  Why, its positively GREEN!”

Meanwhile, Goosie-Lucy looks my way as if to say…

“Don’t look at me with that accusatory attitude!  Did you see me do it?  Well then, you can’t prove it now can you!”

Looking for a another subject for picture taking I stroll over and find that my Peggy Martin pink rose climber has exploded all over the fence!  This is the famous antique climbing rose that survived Hurricane Katrina when all else in the area was destroyed.  Apparently all that salty water just couldn’t do her in! The bush has been propagated extensively and portions of the sale of Peggy Martin have been used to rebuild and restore the city parks and gardens in New Orleans, LA!

Here are the Silkies.  They are living in the Chickie Hilton where I keep them safe from being plucked naked!  Seems that the other Hennies are too attracted to all that lovely silky soft stuff and want it for their own! I am in the process of designing a chicken tractor for them. Poor things, they want to be out on their own to hunt and peck!

There are two Hennies and one Roo.  The Roo is hysterical!  Each morning for the past week Grayson crows at the sound of my approach.  Then Roo answers back with a long monosyllable “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”  Just makes me chuckle every time.

So in the midst of all this loveliness I stand in the middle of the chicken yard and take my pictures.  Suddenly out of nowhere I am under attack!  I have a bee caught in my hair!  (You see, my hair is baby fine and I usually have it pulled back to keep it out of my face because its just to tickly to be believed)  Well, this girl gets in there and I can’t shake her out.  I can tell by the intensity of her buzz that she is really getting angry.

I tell myself to be calm, but I still can’t shake her out.  PANIC!  Now I am grabbing at my hair and combing it with my fingers to try and dislodge her.  Hey, wait a minute!  When your hair is this thin you should be able to FEEL her if she’s still there!  I start to walk away and she is dive bombing me now!  I RUN!

No good!  She’s following me all around the chicken yard, so I take off for the front of the house as fast as I can go… She’s still buzzing me!  I am now climbing the steps and freaking because I am trying to figure out if I should go inside, and risk bringing her in with me, or if I should just start smashing at her and kill her outright…

I then lost my footing on the steps falling face first onto the porch.  It is at this moment that she has me… I am now imagining the music from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”.

I lay there in pain from my fall to the ground.   She dives in, takes aim, and with one well placed sting gets me right on the back of the head.  “OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!”  I cry.  Grabbing the back of my head, I get up, and see her slowly stager away into the sunset…

For you see, she won the battle but her life was forefit.

Sometimes when you look at a flower to photograph you are trying to get the whole thing into focus, get the color right, and lighting just so.  Then you go inside and view it on the computer and realize that an Iris, is only an Iris, and the beauty of it lies within its center.  You realize then that the beard spilling out is the picture.

But before all this there was the beautiful flower you found when you moved in two years ago.  You can’t remember the name of it but you knew what it was by its foliage… and now after all this time it has matured enough to bloom.  You have no idea how or when the seed chanced to land there by the side of the house, but you knew enough to leave it, waiting for just this day.   The day when it was all abloom against the wall with sun and shadow playing against it.  Like this…

You planted the little Ballerina when you first moved in because you loved her so in your garden in California.  You ordered her in a small sleeve to be delivered by mail.  When she came you placed her into the ground watered, fed, and protected her from the snow.  You waited for her to bloom and this year she rewarded you with the bowers of bouquets you knew she had within her.

But the surprise was the last photo you took.  Your seeds were planted and watered in and not wanting to deal with the heat and humidity any longer, you had cleaned up and put away your tools.  On the way back in you glanced down from the porch and chanced to spy this… and taking a parting shot you were stunned when you downloaded it to your computer.

In summary, your camera may very well be the best gardening tool you own.  It captures moments, vingettes if you will, of the beauty you had a hand in creating.  Long after these blooms have faded you will still have a record of what once was in the garden, and will be back again next year!

Hurt no living thing
Christina Rossetti
Hurt no living thing: Ladybird, nor butterfly, Nor moth with dusty wing, Nor cricket chirping cheerily, Nor grasshopper so light of leap, Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat, Nor harmless [snakes] that creep.

I used to teach my first and second grade children this poem every year.  It was a favorite of mine and soon became a favorite of theirs when we learned about insects.  The thing is, that I really do believe this philosophy.  I try very hard to coexist with the creatures in my environment.  Hence, when faced with a situation such as this snake I found trapped in bird netting in my chicken yard… well, I just had to set it free.

Note:  The picture is the best I could do with only one hand.  As you see the other hand was obviously preoccupied!

The poor thing!  Its face and neck (do snakes have necks?) were completely entangled in the netting.  It had apparently tried to chew its way through and made things worse.  Miraculously, it was not cut by the tightly wound filament!

It took some work to get my little embroidery scissors under the strands and not puncture its skin, but eventually I got it loose.  I then took it to the back fence and set it free in the weeds on the other side.  I told it if it wanted to thank me, then it should live a long life and go eat lots of mice and voles!