FairieMoon

In which we have fun with Eggs -- Part 3

My friend Karen raises chickens and they lay the loveliest eggs! They come in the most delicious shades of brown, green and white.

When I raved about the colors, admitting that they hardly needed dying for Easter, she agreed and told me that they do indeed call this variety of eggs "Easter eggs."

Being a city girl, I am always amazed by my friend Karen. They have so many different kinds of animals on their property. They raise truckloads of vegetables in the summer (I absolutely covet her tomatoes), egg hens, ducks, geese, ferrets, cats, rabbits, various types of local fish (most of these just for fun and observational purposes) and she uses all of these things to teach her children about hard work, sharing the load and biology. I must admit to barely being able to keep flowers blooming throughout the entire summer, although I have raised some pretty prolific crops of nasturtiums. Is there such a thing as a nasturtium farmer? I have always thought it would be very romantic to be a flower farmer and have fields of lavender and such. I can just imagine myself strolling through the fields in an airy and fresh white eyelet peasant skirt and blouse with my hair (which would need to be long to blow in the gentle breeze) flowing out freely behind me and twisting in tendrils around my face. However, this pursuit would probably prove to be too much work for me and the fact that I am far more interested in the complexity and texture of my outfit implies that I am better cut out for other tasks. I am far too driven to create "art" and it drastically cuts into the time that should be devoted to more homely pursuits. But wouldn't those fields of flower make a great backdrop for pictures?

Anyway, along with raising the chickens that lay these colorful eggs, Karen and her kids are fostering six ducklings. I took one look and fell in love. I would love to have a duckling or two.

They are so fuzzy and cute and I have just the home for them on my pond.

My kids fell in love with them as well.

I could barely get them to put these fuzzy little creatures down.

But Mr. MacGyver says no. He claims our dog would tear them to bits. And he probably would if I let him get too close, but I'd keep the ducks up at the pond and the dog down at the house. Big difference. But perhaps the ducks would muck up the pond...I don't know much about these things, which means I probably should admire from afar. Sigh...

The kids and I had a lovely wee outing to the park yesterday to fly their new kites. The wind wasn't very cooperative but we had fun anyway. I took lots of pictures and will share that adventure with you tomorrow. But for now, one more sign of spring.

I looked this one up mom; it is a crocus. The last white flower was indeed a snowdrop.

By the way, I have placed a photo album in which you can track the daily progress of our Egg Plants on the upper left hand corner of the sidebar, just below the 100 Dresses album...I need to get working on that as well...I am so ashamed.

In which we have fun with Eggs -- Part 1

As a part of their Easter Baskets, Punch and Judy received ceramic eggs with a growing mixture and seeds inside. You just crack the top of the egg, no a small feat as the ceramic cracked vertically rather than horizontally, add water and place them in a sunny spot to watch them grow. Punch is growing snapdragons and Judy pansies. Judy wanted me to track their progress here, on my blog. And methinks this is a grand scheme.

Here they are on Day 1:

We will update you on their progress. Perhaps I will make a folder to place on the sidebar rather than  posting photos of the egg everyday for 14 days before the seeds start to sprout. I will work on this and let you know how you can track their progress in our next installment of "Fun with Eggs -- Part 2" appearing here sometime tomorrow.

On another pre-Earth Day note, it has been a long time dream of mine to see, in person, a Luna Moth. They are so beautiful and graceful, at least in pictures. Since their lifespan is quite short and they only appear in one, maybe two cycles during the nocturnal hours of the spring and summer, I decided to see if I could purchase a living pupa so that I could observe the entire process. Luckily, I found a company that has the pupae for sale. Though I would love to see one naturally in the wild, I thought this might be a fun way to start my quest for the Luna Moth. I have ordered my pupa and will share the process of its awakening with you as well as soon as it arrives with its habitat. I am very excited.

Until tomorrow then...