When walking through a flock of chickens, especially little chickens it is best to shuffle. Chickens make no connection between your foot and danger, focussed as they are on the bucket. So as I walk through, in my boots, I gently push a swathe through the little ones. They have let themselves out of the nursery now and are an official and delightful rabble. The ones I raised in the basement are unusually tame.
Guinea fowl live a long time and can walk with only one and a half toes.
Peacocks and their hens and the Guineas Love their own reflections. They are not afraid of them as they recognise them as one of the flock. So looking at themselves in the window is a pleasant surprise.
When offered an egg Sheila opens her mouth and waits for it to be popped in behind her long yellow teeth. Poppy bats at your hand with the side of her head, hard, with her mouth open, and often through sheer luck and a good deal of danger I can slide the egg in through the side of her mouth. Poppy is not a clever piggie.
Tima has learned to run away from me and towards her bowl when she sees me approaching with her carrots. Tane rus crossing my bows, still trying to trip me up in the hopes of getting a head start on his dinner. Callifornia pigs don’t eat out of bowls, he shrieks. Drop the bowl! And they do shriek.
Kittens often sleep in a tangle with no definite ownership of their own arms and legs. As though they lend each other their limbs in their sleep. A bloodless gentle sleepy exchange. When they awake they gaze with silent wonderment at their little fingers and claws not terribly sure how they came to be attached to the ends of their legs that were not there when they went to sleep either. Then they roll over with a huge yawn and fall willy nilly off the chair. So often I think they are doing it on purpose.
Plumbers here cost 72 dollars an hour.
Some Farm raised Salmon are fed pelletised chicken remains (at least I hope they are pelletised). I never thought about what they were fed before. But very seldom is the whole of a chicken sold in the marketplace, they are pieced up, for a fussy public, leaving a huge amount of waste that is sold on as feed. Which is not a bad thing in itself. Except You are what you eat – eats.
A sore throat is only the beginning.
Kittens are the epitomy of the expression Fall Asleep.
While my brain was full of wool, the battery ran out in Camera House. Ran Out.
Nanny Boo is often observed lying flat on the floor with a kitten under his chin. No-one is saying how the kitten got there, but nor does anyone seem to mind.
It is dreary here again. I think animals feel dreary too when the sun has been hidden for weeks on end. We are going to love the sun when it finally comes back.
The bees are still alive.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Love your friend on the farmy
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
49 responses to “Small things”
Vicks Vapo-Rub as mentioned above is very good for “chesty” colds but have you ever tried a mustard plaster? equal parts dry mustard (Keenes, comes in a tin) and flour, add just enough cold water to make a paste. Spread the paste over a paper towel, then wrap in a single layer of flannel, lay it on your chest, cover up and lay down for 20 minutes or so. You’ll feel it warm you up, but be careful you can burn your skin. I can still see my mum mixing them up for my dad or for me. And a good stiff hot toddy won’t hurt either!
If you have some Echinacea and some mint, put them in a little saucepan with water and set it to boil – once it’s steaming, turn the heat off and hold your head over the pot. Use a towel to make a little tent around your head and breathe in the steam. It helps to loosen uo the tightness and soreness. You can use many different herbs this way, whatever you’ve got – it’s really the steam that does the work.
Your words were enough today, everything you spoke of we have seen before so our imaginations got to do the work.
Hope you start to feel better soon!
Chris S in Canada
The battery didn’t run out on your ability to post pictures made of words. Feel better soon!
Gloomy weather and feeling ill. Not good. Hopefully the sun will show itself soon. We haven’t seen much either but are having the strangest weather! It was 60 degrees last night at 8:00 pm. Unheard of!