Going Green
The word Green stands for so many different things. Environmentally friendly. The greenies. Marijuana. The Green Party (hey NZ – are they still there?). Green as in innocent or un-knowing. Little Green Men. Green as in envious. Green Tea. For me: Green means – well – GREEN – as in the colour. 
Yesterday it rained with a high of 60F (15C) . A warm drizzle all day long. I was working inside the barn for a few hours and came out into the late afternoon to find the world had turned Green. As in Greening UP.
In about four hours the world had turned green.
Amazing.
In the time it took for my Lemon Chicken Chickpea Soup to cook, the world had turned green. This soup is divine. I use a whole cut up chicken (one of my home grown ones of course) and omit the rice.
All the cows are suffering loudly in the yards – they hate to be locked out of the fields but the rain makes the ground so soft and poggy and if they are quiet long enough they would be able to hear their forage growing and their world turning green.
Today I start to clean out Fede’s waterers (in between cleaning a winters worth of piggie-living out of the barn) so when I do bring Poppy home everything will be ready for her and her (hopefully) piglets.
By Thursday we should be drying out again and then I will begin to plant the brassicas and sow the beetroots and carrots into the late winter (early spring) garden. There is lots of work ahead to set ourselves up for the summer.
Some Dates.
- Poppy (Hereford sow) has two dates – 25 April and 16th of May. I think it will be May.
- Lady Astor Holstein/Dutch Belted) is due in the first week of May.
- Alex (Dexter) is due late June
- Aunty Del (Ayrshire) is due July 10th.
I hope you have a lovely day.
celi
36 Comments on “Going Green”
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Love the shot of that calf….glad to see Spring has arrived for you:)
Yes, and in Ireland we have forty shades of green… there has to be an up side to all the rain! Sunshine this morning and it is very welcome. The maternity suites will be busy but hopefully spaced out to give you the time needed for each new family.
What a brilliant photo of Carlos the Tiny. He looks like an ancient Greek carving, with all those beautiful loops and curls in his coat. He’d look amazing in bronze, wouldn’t he? Your land is greening before our eyes, you could almost see it happening with time lapse photography. It’s going to be Baby Animals of All Nations at the Farmy this spring. Can’t wait!
I can even see a cow with green earrings 😉
I just said last night that just during the afternoon the buds on the trees had popped out amazingly so that I could not see the church across the lake as clearly as I had in the morning! I love when you can actually see it happening, don’ t you? You have a busy busy time ahead with all that going on and I can’t wait to watch along with you!
Yes it’s so amazing see the plants sprouting and to be having a marvelous early spring. I think i have sone carrot and parsnip seeds somewhere, and of course pea seeds will go in soon and tomato seedlings to start.
Welcome to the greens of growth. We’re so lucky here, there’s always plenty of green around – the result of plenty of rain, this year the wettest ever winter.
Looking forward to the exciting time of baby animals.
love,
ViV xox
The soup sounds delicious. It has been warming up here too, the geese have been flying back in huge V formations overhead, a sure sign of spring.
I will look out for them this time – they must be on their way to me!
That soup looks yum!!
25th April and you could call one of Poppies babies ANZAC!! 🙂
Lots of babies due! Love the chicken soup recipe.
Your green makes me green with envy! We’re still some snow with a lot of brown no green in sight yet. And by the way Alberta and Canada for that matter has Green Party also!
It is so exciting to actually see the grass grow, and see the buds on the trees burst open, seemingly right before our eyes!!! 🙂
We call that warm drizzle a Pineapple Express here in the northwest although we are in Michigan for awhile and things are not as green as they are for us back in the Evergreen state! Ah well!
Your soup sounds divine!
We green’d up here too! I went to bed Saturday night after a gray, dreary, drizzly day. After a warm rain that evening, I woke up Sunday to blue skies and sunshine and GREEN. In the South, GREENing up will soon be followed by the YELLOWing of the landscape as our Southern pine trees begin releasing their pollen. The pollen will be so thick, we’ll be able to write our names in the pollen dust on our windshields.
Hooray! Spring has sprung. All those dates to look forward to new life. Best of luck as the farm and garden gear up for summer.
And the bees?
No bees this year – they all died last spring and I gave up – I am going to focus on having as many bee loving flowers as possible to attract the wild bees.. c
We sowed wild flowers a few years ago that continually reseed themselves, and the bees love those flowers. Declining bee population is a big problem here, so I’m doing whatever’s possible to help the little beasties. 🙂
Snorts – Houdini says there are Greenies too – his treats for his teeth – snorts with piggy laughter. He likes that green. I prefer the green of grass. The green of cash – what? A piggy has to shop too, right? And I prefer your soup. It looks amazing! Mom would dive in head first I think and eat her way out. Have a terrific Monday my dear friend. XOXO – Bacon
greening up is unbelievably quick! Have a lovely day!
Gorgeous soup and I love that your world has turned green!
I’m going to make this soup soon, Celi. It looks delicious. It rained all day here in San Leandro, CA, too — all of my water catchers are full.
Love the curly haired baby! And I also love the green. I celebrate every little shoot and bud. So tired of grey and brown – but we haven’t had enough snow this year, so for the sake of us all, I hope we get a few more dumpings. I’m also going to pretend I never said that.
Thank you very much for the recipe. I think it’s suitable for me for taking to work. Will make it next weekend. I got used so far to my new rhythm although I miss my home when out in the office for so long – and of course I miss reading the comments of the Fellowship. It’s so different being a silent reader and always behind…. – Wish you all well!
Hello Irmi – glad to see you are popping in when you can. It must be difficult to not be at home when you are used to being there, but I think I hear happiness in your comment too that you are back to a job. Other than a couple of years when my daughter was very small I have always worked in an office of some kind. Sometimes I think I would like to try staying at home for a while, but I have a feeling I’d not like it as much as I expect – or not for long anyway. Hope your week goes well – enjoy the green that’s coming! Chris S in Canada
Thank you, my Dear! So nice to read your lovely words… I wish your week goes well too and yes, welcome to spring everywhere in the northern hemisphere! Today it was snowing here, all green turned into white. Suddenly…. hehe.. But spring cannot be stopped anymore now! He/she/it is on it’s way! 🙂
Irmi, I have been wondering where you were, good to see you back again.
Oh, Netty! Found some work place finally after being unemployed for so long. Run out of time completely. All work in the center of my life now. Nothing else. So sorry about that. Life is so strange. – Once you have time you have no money and getting a job means it eats you up completeley – no time ever. Not even for spending the money you earn. Crazy world that we live in.
Looks like it’s greening’ up real good! have a listen to Dave Mallet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Px_5yR164&index=18&list=PLahuWzNj9XuwAbAK7p0kBVU5F7ap4NM69 I did a blog last year about greening up and put this link in.
What a happy post! Love the soup recipe – have everything at home and should have time to make for the weekend! 🙂 ! After all our autumn also seems to have arrived: during the next week the nights are ‘only’ 12-16 C and the days will probably not pass 22-24 C: ‘cold’ here 🙂 🙂 😉 !!! Love green and so happy for you ; well, I usually vote Green, have green tea every night and have oft admitted to being peagreen reading some of the foodie and many of the travel posts !!
Yes the Green Party is still active in NZ! And grown much in the last election, taking votes from the Labour party.
There are a few irate farmers around this year, on the back of the weather boffin’s predictions of a long dry El Nino summer, they got rid of a lot of livestock. And this summer has been one of the greenest we have had for years! It has been hot but very wet, and it is still very green here, the grass hasn’t stopped growing.
Farmers – blame it on the weather man! Good for the land not to be so over stocked. Glad the Greenies are still flourishing! c
Birthing and greening, I can feel the excitement. I’m remembering what good grass you grew last season too. We have an active and successful Green Party here in NZ. It grew out of its origins in the Values Party and has several members in Parliament.
I read this post early this morning and looked for green while walking Max. Your area seems to b at least a solid week ahead of us. There’s not much green at all, although I did see a few crocus in bloom. Mine are still days away. I just hope they hold off until after the next storms roll through. It’s so disappointing to see them after a heavy downfall. Looks like 4 months from now, you’re going to have that herd that you once talked about. I think it’s moovelous. 😀
Divine soup .. Divine green. Perfect!