Small Stones & Big Eggs.

The Easter holidays came and went and seem a blur on reflection.  Even though we are well into the new term already, we are all still a little tired from the all too short but rather feral downtime.

We are such homies.  We have to remember sometimes that there is more to life than our lovely farm and green fields.  We sometimes even force ourselves to venture further than the end of the lane.

One amazing holiday excursion worth a mention was a day trip to the Jurassic coast.  The small girl had a class topic last term of dinosaurs...the Ologist, well, the clue is in the name.  This was a trip down memory lane for him. As a young student of Geology he was sent here for the day to explore and came home with a prize ammonite that he carried for about two miles to the bus (and still moans about the weight!)  It sits proudly at the entrance to his father's cottage and is a great reminder that if you really want something it is worth the sweat and tears to have it.

The small girl seems to have inherited the Ologist gene from her father and together they are thick as thieves when it comes to exploring craggy rocks and examining bits of stone.  They spent the day probing the cliff face, gouging out lumps of clay-like mud and then hammering them gently apart to see what the inside might reveal. 

We were not alone.  I'm sure if we'd been there after a fresh rock fall at dawn we may have found that elusive dinosaur bone, however, we did carry home lots of lumps of rocks - some with fossil evidence, some with glittery fairy dust in (fools gold: iron pyrite).  She even managed to have a good kick about in the sea in the glow of the afternoon sun.  All in all a thoroughly good day out and well worth a trip for anyone else with budding Rock-Doctors in the family.

I was told recently by a farmer friend that he reckons its a 'faulty gene' in his family that makes them all return to the fold with a love of farming so ingrained in their pores.  It takes more than one hand to count the generations of his family that have lived and worked the land here. 

I think its wrong to call it 'faulty' - its a blessing - a calling in a way.  Most people spend their life wondering what to do and how to make themselves happy.  Being happy should be quite easy but oftentimes its hard to achieve.  Not only that, but making a crust or two lists high on the agenda.  So, to be able to achieve both is quite impressive.  And to keep the family lineage firmly rooted in the same earth is highly commendable. 

On that fine subject of family and genes, we have a new experiment on the go.  One of our bantams is currently broody, and a broody hen is one of the best ways to hatch and raise new chicks....or goslings as it might be. 

It was this time last year we first tried our luck at raising some new chicks under a broody bantam and it worked a treat.  We got fertilized hens' eggs from a neighbour and now Rusty and Sunshine are doing very well.  They are 'big girls' compared to our Columbian Black-tails, but nevertheless they have integrated fully in the feathered family and we get six eggs a day currently from eight hens which is pretty good going.

Another of our neighbours has a flock of geese, they are domestic geese either Emden or Pilgrim.  They are coupled up therefore most of the eggs will be fertilized.  Our bantam is being stoic as the eggs are gigantic compared to the size she would usually lay.  We may be pushing our luck with three, but she's sitting tight and showing all the right signs so far.  Incubation of geese eggs is 31 days.  The small girl has marked our wall calendar with a big circle on hatching day, and crosses through each subsequent day as the countdown continues. 





We use shredded paper to line the laying boxes of the hen house (junk mail and the like).  I could almost write a wry blog based on the random words that appear on small pieces of shredded paper stuck to the egg. 

Today's message, however, is very clear.  This is Thursday's egg.  It always makes us chuckle when we come in from the hen house with an armful of eggs and a random word.











One very nice Spring surprise was this flower that greeted me one morning in my growing room.  It was left behind when the previous owners vacated, together with a handful of other pots with various plants all crammed in together.  Most of them I have tried my best to nurture and tickle back into life. 

This Clivia (clivia miniata) is a spring flowering house or conservatory plant in Europe.  It is frost-tender.  It is a native of South Africa and grows by the clump-load on the sides of the roads.  It is almost considered a weed and is as plentiful as our spring daffodils. 

Having previously spent many years living in South Africa promising not to create myself an English cottage garden (filled with lavender and roses), I think I will have myself a little corner of Cape Town with this clivia.  It should grow well and with some help I can propagate it and help it to thrive.