Sunday Still Life...

I spent a good part of the day trying to reclaim part of my house! It has been thoroughly trashed by the construction process -- everything both upstairs and down has been coated with several kinds of dust. I vacuumed all the floors and wiped down the furniture I could reach (there's still a lot of stuff from the basement in piles upstairs, so I can't get to a lot of it). The dining room area windows were done, so that corner could be set up for use again. What a relief!



When I got it finished, I took a break to practice fiddle for the first time in a long time and while I was playing, a nice woman from church drove up with a beautiful bouquet. She told me that, since I had a birthday this past week, I was chosen to receive some of the altar flowers! What a nice treat! When I put the fiddle down and placed the flowers on the table, it looked so much like a perfect still life that I thought I should take a picture and share it!!

Turning over rocks....

While I'm turning over rocks to try and find a solution for the PZ Kut production problem, I thought I would entertain you about some other rolling stones... The chicken loves it when someone turns over a rock for her so that she can look for tasty morsels that might be hidden underneath. She makes the funniest happy little chirping noises while waiting for rocks to be moved.

Once the rock has been lifted, she gets right in there and looks for bugs and worms to eat, moving really fast so they don't get away. She doesn't miss much!

When she's found everything tasty there is to find (she doesn't like ants), she waits for the process to be repeated, chirruping and talking the whole time.

By Popular Request...

I bring you part one of the long awaited Chicken Update!

First, anyone who has ordered from me this month will recognize this face from the invoice stamp I'm currently using. I was really pleased with how the carving of this portrait came out. As you can tell from the chair rail in the background, she was being a very contented lap chicken -- she really loves to roost in a friendly lap.

Of course, she also tries to do her part in contributing her bit to the household. Here she is hard at work:

Cheeken has a lovely little roost out in a big outdoor cage, but she won't lay eggs out there. She prefers hiding in the dark under the desk in the dining room. I think she also likes to hear people milling around in the building, even though she likes her privacy curtain. She makes some pretty strange noises when she's trying to lay an egg. I wonder if it is uncomfortable, or if she's just giving herself a pep talk!

And isn't that something to be proud of? Don't you think she earned her tomatoes and pears (both particular favorites with her)?

I understand that she's slowing down on the eggs as she gets ready to molt again. Poor, scruffy chicken....