Backyard Chickens

My Chickens are very happy in the backyard. They have their own new shed and their own scratch garden with plenty of shelter. They also get into my flower garden for three or four hours most days. They are great workers, turning over the topsoil, and keeping insects and weeds down.

Bantams, Chooks and Chickens

My chickens are bantams, that is, they are a small variety of the normal size chooks. Normal sized chooks are called standard. In days past chickens were always referred to as chooks. Chickens were their babies, those cute little fluffy balls that grow up too quickly. Today it is fashionable to refer to your chooks as chickens, no matter how old they are. 

Chickens or chooks belong to a group of domesticated egg laying birds called poultry. So it is more correct to say that you keep poultry. Other members of the poultry family are ducks, geese and turkeys.

Hens and Pullets

Adult female chooks are called hens. Young hens from six to twelve months are called pullets. Pullets start laying from six months old. Their eggs are much smaller that an egg from an adult hen.

Words for the Chook Shed

Male chooks are called roosters or cocks. Young roosters are called cockerels. So we have

• chickens
• pullets
• chooks
• hens
• poultry
• roosters
• cocks
• cockerels 
• bantams
• ducks
• geese
• turkeys

Whatever the name, they are fun to have in the garden. They are great to clean up your scraps of leftover food. They will thank you each time you give them old lettuce leaves. I often collect the leaves that are cut off the lettuce at the supermarket. The hens love these.  

 

Creatures of Habit

Hens are creatures of habit and in my observation they also seem to have a short memory.

My chicken shed has two doors, one for me and one for the chickens. They have never tried to go in or out of my door. This makes it a lot easier when you are going into their shed with your hands full and trying to stop the chickens from getting out with your feet at the same time. I know because I did this with their old pen for fifteen years. 

When I go to open their little shed door, they are lined up waiting to get out. They also know that they are only allowed into their garden at first. They are not allowed to rush out into my garden, otherwise I would have chickens all around my feet and they might trip me up.

After they have had a scratch in their garden for a couple of hours, then they are allowed into my garden to continue their work there. 

I have moved my hens to a few different sheds recently. I am always worried that they will go back to their old shed when I let them out. To avert this, I keep them locked in their new shed for a couple of weeks so they don't get into the garden. In the evening, they have always gone back to roost in their new shed. They only seem to have short term memories. 

Fertilizer

Chickens are a great source of fertilizer for the garden. They add this to the garden as they go about doing their work. The soil in their shed is also good to sprinkle over the vegetable garden or around the roses and flowers to add extra nutrients to the soil. The most concentrated source on manure is from under their night time perches. Once this is well dried it is a powerful nutrient for the soil.
 

Frogs in the Backyard

I was heading out the back door to lock the chickens up for the night. It was already dark. 

Just as I was about to take a step off the step I noticed something on the doormat. Sitting there quite calmly was a brown frog. He sat still while I went to get my camera, waited kindly until I had taken some photos, and in a flash, quicker than a blink, he was gone. He was so quick, I did not see him go, only heard the rustle of a sound as he jumped into the plants. 

Little Aussie brown garden frog come for an evening visit

Frogs in the garden

I always like to see frogs in my garden because I know that the garden is healthy when this happens. The absence of frogs is one of the first signs to let us know when the land is sick. 

Froggy Restaurant

Many years ago when we lived in another house we had frogs climb up on the windows in the evening. The bottom of the windows were about 120cm (4 feet) off the ground. When the lights were on in the evening, the insects were attracted to it. The frog thought this was a free for all and enjoyed climbing up the windows and having their fill.  

When we were in China we were served a plate piled high with small mountain frogs. Not for me thank you!

The Crafty Frog

I was given this lovely frog that has had mosaics lovingly applied to it. He doesn't get outside much though. I'm afraid he might hop away.

China frog with beautiful mosaics on his back

Frogs in Literature

Frogs have featured in literature for hundreds of years. We have the famous story of The Frog Prince by Brothers Grimm and the Chinese story of The Frog in the Well. Aesop, who was a great Greek teller of fables from long ago told of The Scorpion and the Frog. The Wind in the Willows is another famous English story by Kenneth Grahame that has become famous with Toad and other characters living at Toad Hall. A toad is a variety of frog. 

In the Australian aboriginal history, the Dreamtime story of Tiddalick The Frog is an important and famous story.

Frogs are also remembered in music

A Frog went Walking

A frog went walking on a summers day

A hum, a hum

A frog went walking on a summers day

He met Miss Mousey on the way

A hum, a hum, a hum, a hum, a hum.  etc

See if you can find some frogs today.

Gardening at Easter

It was busy and yet quiet at Easter this year. Some days were very busy and others were quiet. On the quiet days I enjoyed pottering in the garden. It is Autumn time here on the south coast of Australia and the weather has been more stable. We had a week of light rain then a week of warmer weather and sunshine, just the weather to make plants grow.

I have been working on replanting a garden bed in the front yard. This bed faces south and so it gets pretty cold with icy southerly winds for six months of the year. The other six months of the year it gets baking hot. The soil gets so hard that it is impossible to get a spade into it.

I am not one to water my front garden much so the plants MUST be very hardy. There are a couple of roses that have lasted there for years, a daisy bush - can you actually kill daisy bushes? and some red valerian. That is so hardy. It has thick roots under the ground that nourish it whatever the weather.

It is a good time to plant bulbs so that they will be ready to flower in springtime. I had bought five big, plump, round hyacinth bulbs. I am looking forward to the deep purple colour and the magnificent perfume in the future.  

To get these bulbs ready for planting, I soaked them in water and homeopathic 'Plant Strengthener' for 24 hours along with a little hydrogen peroxide. These were then drained and left to sit for a couple of days. Tiny white roots started to emerge like a corona from the bottom of the bulbs. 

I took a sheet of paper towel, dampened it, and sat the bulbs on it for another couple of days while I watched the roots growing. 

Self Watering Pots

On one of the quiet days over Easter, the bulbs were planted in a self watering hanging basket. I just love self watering pots. The plant always has access to as much water as it wants yet doesn't get waterlogged. Air can still get in between the bottom of the soil and the water level. Also watering can be intermittent. They are good for the forgetful gardener.

Preparing the Soil

The soil was also especially prepared. I used the following:

• potting mix
• vermiculite
• perlite
• blood and bone
• water saving granules
• epsom salts

This was mixed up and the bulbs were layered into it. They were well watered and left to sit in a sheltered spot for a few days. They will find their new hanging space when they start popping out of the soil. 

Grooming Young Gardeners

One of the youngest members of our family, a little two year old, checks out some pots of bulbs each week when she comes to visit. She is so excited to see how they have grown each week. It's a great way to instil a love of gardening into the next generation.

Plant Strengthener is available here

Reflections on Easter, an Easter Song

I am doing an online course in Music at Berklee School of Music, US. A fellow student has a most beautiful video of her musical composition celebrating Easter.

EASTER SONG Nadia Cripps 

 

 

 Enjoy, and Happy Easter

Paintings of Pretty China

I love pretty china. When I was ten years old, my godmother gave me a beautiful cup and saucer.

My Mum didn't have anything pretty in her cupboard so I felt pretty special.

It sparked in my a love of old cups and saucers and pretty china.

Much later on I was lucky enough to inherit some cups given to my grandmother for her wedding.

One afternoon when I wanted to paint something, my eye fell on the cups and saucers. Why not? I thought. And I did a series of paintings of some old china.

 

I also inherited a creamer jug and bowl from my Mum.  

 

These can be viewed with more details about them on my Ebay store

Easter Baskets

Easter baskets ready to collect coloured Easter eggs

Easter

Easter is almost with us. It is the main Christian time of the year. It is a remembrance of the time when Jesus was crucified, giving up his life in support of us, taking the sins of the world on His shoulders. 

We remember Easter in different ways. Easter in the northern hemisphere comes in Spring time. This is a time of new growth in the fields, chickens starting to lay eggs again after their break over winter, and rabbits coming our of their burrows and leaving their foot prints in the snow.

Easter in the southern hemisphere comes during a time of lovely Autumn weather, blue skies, calm days and chilly nights.

Easter Eggs

Easter eggs and bunny rabbits are on the minds of all the children in the Western world. They are hoping that the Easter Bunny will hop on by their home and leave them lots of chocolate Easter eggs in brightly wrapped coloured foil. It is a time of fun and preparation.

Families gather together as at Christmas time for a celebration meal. It is a time of joy. 

Christian Religious Celebrations

Holy Week

Holy Week refers to the week before Easter. It is the busiest time for Christian Churches, especially the Catholic Church. There are Masses held on Holy Thursday evening (the Thursday before Easter Sunday) celebrating the Last Supper of Jesus with His disciples and the Washing of the Feet when Jesus washed his apostles feet. Holy Thursday is also referred to as Maundy Thursday.

No Mass is held on Good Friday. There is a service commemorating the death of Jesus.

Holy Saturday evening is the Big Mass of the year. It starts out in darkness and with a bonfire outside the church to bring the new light of Jesus amongst the people. From there a procession wends its way into the Church where a joyous celebration takes place with lots of singing and bells ringing and sometimes, incense rising. 

The children go home to sleep and give Easter Bunny time to make his rounds. In the morning, on Easter Sunday, they are up bright and early to search for their Easter eggs. 


Happy Easter to everyone

Crazy Patchwork and Collage

Crazy Patchwork

I have always loved crazy patchwork with all the little pieces of beautifully coloured materials carefully sewn together by some diligent hand, then embroidered and maybe beaded as well. Just the thought of it sends me meandering in the clouds. 

Photographic Collages

Reviewing the photos in my blogs 

windowlane.blogspot.com.au
allergiesandcfs.blogspot.com.au
www.allergiesandcfs.com/lets-talk-health.html
www.mygardentreasures.com.au/garden-blog.html
www.mygardentreasures.com.au/the-bantam-blog.html

I realized that I make a lot of collages of photos to put in them. At first I thought it was because I like to get in as many photos as possible into the one space, but on reviewing that, I think that it is really the fact that a photographic collage looks just like a piece of patchwork.

 Even the tray in one of these paintings is painted with a patchwork design. 

Here I did some digital patchwork art. 

Even the headers of my websites consist of collages of photos.

Mosaics

One of my good memories of doing art was the time I spent making a mosaic with very tiny pieces of coloured tiles in an earthenware bowl. You can see it above. The white fluffy Silkie hen is eating out of it. 

Studying Digital Art

I recently finished a course in Computational Art, Digital Design at Stony Brook University, New York where we were encouraged to look at our art to find out what sort of artist we were.

So now I have discovered that I like putting pieces together again. Perhaps I have something in common with

All the King's horses 

And all the King's men

in the Humpty Dumpty verse only I succeeded where they failed.