Yesterday, after milking the cow and feeding the goats and the cows and the big pigs and the little pigs and the chickens of all descriptions, John and I loaded two dog crates into The Matriarchs jeep and went to the Bantam Swap. Do you remember last years Bantam Swap we brought home Godot and Carlos Garcia and the year before we brought home BooBoo and the year before that it was The Duke of Kupa.
Well this year was just as successful.
I found Mr and Mrs Flower.
A mature piebald peacock and his Mrs – who is shy and hid her head under him.
He has an extraordinary tail and is old enough to be fertile and finally we should be able to get some eggs to hatch. Fingers crossed. One day it will be me selling at the Bantam Swap.
Just imagine that sauntering through the garden. (For now though he is in the Palace with the girls until he knows where his home is).
When I was very, very small I used to play this game with my mother. I would pick a flower from the garden and go and knock on the front door. My mother would come to the door drying her hands on her apron and say something like goodness me, a visitor. Then I would say: I am Mrs Flower, and I have dropped in for a cup of tea and I would hand her the flower (Everyone brought something when they dropped in to have a cup of tea – never go visiting with one arm as long as the other, My Pa would say.) My mother always acted very surprised and pleased – Oh a flower, how lovely. And holding the door open for me she would invite me in. Of course I was too young to remember much except coming in through the front door which no-one ever did and the sea behind me. But my mother gave me back this memory. Mum used to tell me this story about when I was little. She said I played that game for a whole summer until it was time for me to start school. (In New Zealand we started school on the day we turned five). So for years she would smile about me being Mrs Flower with a flower.
The peahens are pleased to have Mr and Mrs Flower come to stay. I have asked Godot to stay out of the Peacock Palace for a wee while until I am sure they will not fight. He is the juvenile and has to step down for his elder. Best this is settled through chicken wire. So far they sit on either side of the divide and call out to each other. Loudly. Now I know why Godot was so quiet. There was only one of him. And he will not wander into the garden with all the others in the Peacock Palace in the top story of the barn. So the emerging cabbages and lettuce and broccoli should be safe.
Lady Astor and Naomi had a lovely day out in the sun. Baby has been observed having lots of good drinks. Though Lady A keeps putting her baby to bed then wandering off and forgetting where she is. Never mind. I have her in my sights at all times. Potter is growing very fast. Elsie still gives me the evil eye when I go through to open or shut her gates. She is never far from her baby.
Freya and Hazel had a walkabout with me on their way from the wee field to the barn for bed. Munching and dancing all the way. They are so funny.
Poppy and Sheila came out into their field yesterday evening and were chewing on grass from the moment the gate was opened. These trips are always short so there is only eating going on, no digging. Then they come in for their dinner.
Tane and Tima have been behaving differently. I have a feeling she may be coming into heat. There are no real signs of when a Kune is in heat. Not like the big pigs. But something is going on. I am watching carefully.
I hope you have a lovely day. I will.
Love your friend on the farm
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
61 responses to “Mr and Mrs Flower.”
Yes, Yes, yes 🙂 Laura
Wow! Mr. & Mrs. Flower are gorgeous! I didn’t know there were piebald peafowl. What a lovely memory from your mum, too. I remember bringing flowers to my mother from the pasture across the road – Bloodroot, Spring Beauties, Dutchman’s Britches, and Dandelions too. When I brought her dandelions she would hold it under my chin ad ask if I liked butter (the sun would reflect the yellow and that meant you liked butter). Good thing Lady A has a nanny who watches Naomi.
What an exciting day! Will the grapes be safe? 🙂
The grapes are never safe – this year the remaining vines (that bad winter killed half of them) will be transplanted to the new trellises next to the house so this year it will be a light grape year – not that that will put off a peacock, but we will see. John has always maintained that the culprits are the hens.. c
Trellises sounds good – the grapes will be higher up and perhaps less obvious…
plus right by the house so i can see if there are THIEVES hiding in there..
Excellent idea! It’s a good job you don’t have wild boar – they can decimate a vineyard overnight!
Apropos of nothing but just an interesting fact – did you know that the word ‘decimate’ comes from the habit of ancient armies to kill 9 out of every 10 remaining enemy soldiers – this was called decimating and as you can imagine it did not leave a lot left! Very good way of describing a vineyard after a wild boar has been through. Sorry – I love finding out where words originated, so that’s my little fact for the day!
I love words too! thank you Miss Kitty
Ha ha – nice! It’s worse when a mother brings her hungry babies 🙂
How exciting! So many new ‘players’ on stage. Good morning to you all! >
Which reminds me I must update the Cast page.. c
Mr. and Mrs. Flowers! They are beautiful and big. Godot looks smaller than Mr. Flowers in the shot from the Palace or is that just the perspective of the picture? An exciting spring for the farmy this year.
You are right. Godot is much smaller than Mr Flower. He is definitely an older bird.. c
Mr Flower must be one of the most handsome [one cannot say a male is beautiful, can one?] peacocks I have ever seen . . . . but I do feel a little sorry for Godot on the other side of the screen . . . and am happy to see dainty Naomi out in the sun: am sure little heifers need vitamin D also 🙂 ! A very good morning Celi: I watched the Paris>Roubaix until 2 am here last night but think I’ll have an early night and dream of old players and new on the farmy !!
Yes poor old Godot, but we want eggs to hatch and he can’t help with that yet. The perches run right through the netting so he is perched up with them anyway.. c
Mr and Mrs Flowers are beautiful. Poor Mrs bring so shy. The picture of the tail cascading through the crate is wonderful.
I had guessed right! I was so excited that when I saw that first picture I went running through the house to show Jock, who was sitting stitchig a tryptich (try saying that quickly) of 3 head pictures of his grand-daughter’s pony. .
I loved your memory of giving a flower to your MuM. I once gave my MuM a bunch of lilac that I had picked from a bush which hung over a wall on my walk home from the bus (I was 5). MuM was VERY cross and said I’d stolen them. I was told to go and give them back to the owner, but I was too scared. I stuck each stem back in the bush Poor things, they must have been dead by evening!
Love to the extended Farmy family
ViV xox
That is the saddest little story.. poor wee girl.. yes once more we will be collecting tail feathers ate this summer.. white ones and blue ones, he has the most amazing dark magenta shade in his breast that this image does not show us, when the sun shines he is going to brighten the barn right up.. c
Love the newest additions. And your memory of your visits to your mum. I am inspired to plant some broccoli now as I was thinking it was too early? We are in garden zone 7 and I think you must be 6? Anyway, I will give it a shot!
yes we are in six and john already has his brassicas out, they like it to be cool so i would certainly pop a few in.. c
What a happy farmy day and I loved your recount of when you were a wee girl.
Have a lovely day Mrs Flower.
🙂 Mandy xo
They are stunning and what a beautiful tale and memory. I used to make my mum “coffee” from mud and water most evenings one long summer and serve it to her in a little plastic cup and saucer and she would pretend to drink it…a good memory!
Your numbers are growing! I am having a hard time imagine all the swarming about that goes on in a day…between goats and peacocks and LOTS of new cows and chickens. We need to hire Annie Leibowitz to come photograph one of those formal sittings, where absolutely EVERYONE is in the shot looking his/her best. I bet she’s not very good with animals though. And a wee bit out of our budget. Too bad.
Yes our budget would not run to Annie and she likes such CLEAN organised images i am fairly sure she would be appalled out here though that is itself would be entertaining! morning charlotte.. c
G’morning dear Mrs Flower
Oh what beauty the new Peacocks bring to this dreary grey day! The cast characters is ever growing!!!! I would have loved to gone to the swap this weekend! Oh to see all the animals! Of course, my itch for chickens would have been too overwhelming I’m sure. And I would have ended up with birds and no place for them! So best that I couldn’t join you.
I love Mr. and Mrs. Flower but the story you told about the name is such a fabulous memory. Isn’t it fun to remember those brief childhood memories? We had neighbors by the name of the Boardmans and they always shared the bounty of their gardens with us in brown paper bags. Somewhere we came up with the idea that we should have kittens in the house so we would put a few in a brown paper bag, bring them into the house and tell our mom that the Boardman’s had given us something. She “fell” for it every single time. What a good mom. Of course the kittens eventually went back outside in those days but it was always funny. To this day my sister and I still give each other things in brown sacks with the explanation that it came from the Boardmans. 🙂
I love this story.
how on earth did such a long tail go into the dog crate? Absolutely beautiful birds and I am sure Mr and Mrs Flower will show us their full fantastic plumage in the fullness of time…The same colours as Kupa, but even so Godot will look like a bride adorned for a wedding when full plumage has grown…how exciting life is with all these new creatures……
I was wondering about that tail, too! I’m sure it doesn’t fold well!! Such excitement!
The bird went into the crate and his tail stuck out like you see in the photo, then I tied the door loosely closed. Then we put him into the vehicle tail first so the we had feathers laying between the seats right towards the dashboard. No broken feathers at all.. c
Maybe detachable