Nice weather

Today was beautiful. I went out for a walk this afternoon. There was a brisk wind blowing from the south, but the temperatures were in the 50’s and the sun was, at last, warm. Hundreds of sandhill cranes flew over in waves high, high in the sky. I went out to the wetland to spread some seed that I found when we were preparing the garden order. I collected seed from some of the native plants I have growing here and there, stowed it in lunch bags with my garden seeds, and forgot about it until it was time to inventory our stock and figure out what we needed for this year.

The wetland is very wet. Canada geese hang out there often. I hope some of the seeds we planted survived. They are supposed to be adapted to wet conditions. I’m pretty sure the birds have eaten all of the oats. I put more oats out along with native seeds. I also spread some coneflower and New England aster seeds in the drier bare spots. The coneflower seed head is wicked! I should have used gloves or beat the seeds loose with a stick while the heads were still in the bag. When I got back in the house, I pulled 5 splinters from my thumb.

The wet wetland

When I was done seeding, I walked back to the creek. The water is high, but nowhere near flooding. Not much sign of plant life yet.

The creek

Last week one of the Aracauna chickens laid a tiny egg. Hilda boiled it along with some regular sized egg. It was very cute. We don’t know if it means that one of our hens has started laying again after taking a break or is on the verge of giving it up forever. We have more chicks coming in May. When they reach maturity, we are going to have to make difficult decisions about the old girls. 

A tiny egg next to a large one.