Saturday, August 01, 2009

Hippychick

Unfortunately, these girls are not mine. Fortunately, though I was able to see that they got taken to a good home. I did the taking actually. One of the carpenters I work with had chickens but didn't want them anymore. I don't remember how I discovered this but I knew that Rurality or Peapie or Country Experience would want them so I said bring 'em on! There were nine in all and Rurality has recently suffered a great chicken decline so this replenishes her stock pretty good. Maybe I'll get a few eggs out of it!

Ain't this one purdy! Forgive the horrid southern vernacular but something about chickens makes me want to talk that way. The guy said this was a Speckled Sussex. I want these kind! Supposed to be very friendly, happy chickens too.
My coneflowers attract a wide variety of bees and butterflies. I don't know what this bee is but I have not seen a single regular honeybee this year. Not one. That makes me uncomfortable. They were late showing up last year but I did see them eventually. Everything seems to be getting pollinated fine due to the large number and variety of bumblebees etc. but I like to see the honeybees.
I have a small collection of coneflowers going on. I have the tag that came with these white ones but can't recall the name right off. If you want to know I can look it up. I have a yellow variety too. Edit: this variety is White Swan.
Anybody know what this is? This is the first year that I have noticed this flower around here and they are only on the edge of the drive where there is spotty sunlight. It's a vine (I think) and the flowers are about 1 1/2" across.

I had a nice time this morning going to our local farmer's market. I bought several things since my own garden is a veritable wasteland at this point. I stopped by a local plant nursery and found the perfect rose bush to plant above the stone wall I'm building now. I didn't buy it today but will go back soon and get it. The lady that runs the place kinda irritates me. She follows you around everywhere; like you're going to steal something. Yeah, I'm going to snatch this 20 lb. potted hydrangea and run for the truck! OK, I could do that but gimme a break! And it's not like you're going to smuggle something out under your clothes either. Ouch! I know she is probably just trying to be there in case you have questions but it drives me nuts. I like to just look and if I want to know something I'll come find you.
Later, I managed to find and bring up 2 more very large stones for the wall I'm building. It was too muddy to do any work over on the wall so I thought I'd stay on the gravel drive and do a little cleaning and clearing with the machine but it suddenly got dark and big rain drops started falling. I throttled that thing all the way up and headed for the house but those machines were just not made for speed. I could have walked faster! And do you know, leaning forward doesn't make it go any faster!? I could hear thunder above the noise of the excavator and I'm like, faster dammit, faster! Something about that metal arm sticking up in the air makes me nervous.
I think it is going to rain most of the day tomorrow so I may go visit my mom. I haven't been up there in a while. Hope ya'll are having a good weekend.

*Soho / this song was hot when I was in college (we won't talk about how long ago that was) and I hadn't heard it in years! love it!

9 comments:

R.Powers said...

That flower is blue pea.

Great lookin' chicks and I'm sure Rurality was pleased. Nice shots of a great plant too ... love coneflower for it's beauty and toughness.

Rurality said...

Of course you're going to get eggs out of it! If I can train them to lay in the coop. Some of them aren't with that program yet. And someone among them is an egg-eater. We've found several broken ones.

I forgot to ask you if you knew how old these chickens were. I'm assuming about 1 1/2 years old but that's just a guess.

I can't manage to get any decent photos of them, my lens keeps fogging up in all this weather!

One of our roosters left the original group and joined these gals. He seems ecstatically happy. I'm planning a post about them if I can ever manage a decent photo.

Thanks for not telling everybody what a slob I am, lol.

MamaHen said...

Hey FC! thanks for the ID. To claim you don't know many plants or birds you sure know lots of plants and birds!
Yeah, the coneflowers are great and tough plants are what I need.

Hey Karen! Oh, I forgot! Hey, everybody! Rurality is a slob! A pure pig! Haha! I'm just kidding; you're far from it!
Chris said some of the chickens were around 2 years old and some were about 1, so you are about right on.
I bet that rooster is happy; a new bunch of exotic looking ladies! woowee!

Unknown said...

Hey, I was thinking that flower was a Sweet Pea, maybe it's the same thing...just different names, I googled it and did find some images like that...

MamaHen said...

Hey Linda! Yeah, some other people have said sweet pea and that's what I was thinking but didn't know if I was recalling the info correctly. I imagine sweet pea and blue pea are the same.

countrypeapie said...

Chickens -- yay!!! We've been thinking about raising bees. I suppose we'd have to be stricter with their living arrangements than we are with the chickens' -- can't just let bees fly up in the trees at night!

Jenn said...

Heh, that lady at the market reminds me of a time. We had one of those tent stands on the corner of a road we traveled often.

They had a sign that had a horned cow in a dog-like posture and and a sign that said 'no bullsh*t' - that shoulda warned me right there.

They had Howell melons on the sign the day we finally went in. I picked two out to buy, and pointed to another one on the table - 'that one's bruised' I said.

'It's not bruised,' she snapped, 'that's where the fruit lies on the ground while it ripens.'

Well, now. Apparently I didn't look like someone who weeded and watered my family's garden while growing up on the fringes of Detroit.

Would've loved to seen her face when she picked that melon up - it was oozing, it was so rotten.

We never went back. Imagine that.

MamaHen said...

Hey Pea! you know, I just don't think I'd have have the kahoonies to keep bees. But ya'll would do a good job!

Hey Jenn! Yeah, some people are just weird and after you meet some of them (by the way they act), you wonder why they would want a job dealing with the public!

Anonymous said...

Hey FC, thanks for the identity. Just last week I saw this bloom (and only one) on the bank of the Suwanee River. It being a new one for me, I was curious but the family didn't know its name. It definitely isn't a Sweet Pea for those are prolific here in Tennessee and the SP here has pinkish flowers. There was another small blue flower blooming profusely around the river area also; another one I had never seen before. No one knew its name but it was beautiful and so tiny.

Don't ya'll just love ER's blog? Such diversity and some great reading. I'm catching up today as I've been offline for a month and more, having been down in Live Oak, Fla. and a long ways from the library's computers.