One of my favorite movies is the Secret Garden.  I like both versions but it is the Warner Brother’s version that has the haunting line above.

You can watch the scene here:  The Secret Garden

NOTE:  It is a ten minute clip and I found out that, if you like, you can slide the bar up to minute nine and bypass all but the scene I mention .

I used to have a secret garden when I lived in Claremont, California.  I used to invite people to come into the back and it was always fun to listen to them audibly take in air when they saw it for the first time!

Now I am in another place, this garden is left behind and in the loving care of new owners who appreciate the hard work that went into my little secret garden.  I am carving out another garden where none existed when I got here.  It will be one of a different sort.  This one is for self sufficiency.  It is our vegetable garden.  It is a bit rough around the edges, but all things that are worthy and good take time.

There are, or soon will be peppers, corn, squash, tomatoes, beans, cantaloupe potatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and more.  The soil will be worked, and amended with all the compost I can make from kitchen scraps, and the henhouse straw.  Also cared for is my little orchard of apples, figs, muscadines, and blueberries.  I tend them in their infancy and they will feed me even when I am old.

That is a comforting thought… and that keeps me at it every day.  I look at my pictures from yesterday and far away in California and I get sad for what I left behind.  Then I think about all that I have here, and what I will grow tomorrow and I smile and thank God for the gift he has entrusted into my care… my “…bit of earth.”

Let me explain… and no Alison, I am not making “Baby Brother Stew!”  (I’ll tell that story, but only if I get enough requests from you dear readers.)

We have been doing a lot around the Farmlet and that included tearing down the old shack and lean-tos.  All the tearing down and rebuilding has left us with a chicken yard full holes… one of which is big enough for the geese to swim in.  This might have been a good thing  if it were big enough.   Well it just isn’t,  and it is right in front of the roll up door of the garage/barn.  Now way back when, the builder of that shack had set the supports for the lean-to onto very large cement blocks that he’d buried in the clay.   Fast forward:   when it  all was torn down somehow one block remained, and it was next to the aforementioned mud hole.  So naturally, before I could bury the mud hole I had to dig out the cement cinderblock.

Yeah right!  No mere shovel was going to penetrate that clay, wet or no!  So I grabbed my handy garden fork to do the job.  Working with force I managed to nibble out bits of the red mass and eventually free the block.  But how to get it out?   HEAVY, packed with mud,  I imagined it weighed about 4o pounds.  It is a very LARGE cinder block.  I didn’t know they made them that big actually.  But I digress…Coming at it from all sides I try to work it up out of the hole using the garden fork and it slipped, thus I stab myself in the shin with a blunt end of a fork tine.  OUCH!  “Well actually what was said was more along the lines of  “@#$%#&@##$$%@!!!”

Into the house I limp looking for an ice pack and of course there is no ice.  I’m digging in the freezer when I spot it, that old forgotten bag of cut okra.  I investigate its contents and sure enough it is compost fodder!  So I wrapped  it in a dishtowel and used it.

Lesson for the day:  Never throw away those old half used bags of ice encrusted veggies.  They are actually quite handy on a bruise.

Yeah, I know…     “;<>

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.