Bursting

Wildlife and domestic pet night before an ice day..

Inside the house my tabby Toby is wandering and meowing restlessly.. maybe because the office is closed while I block a new sweater on the coffee table. He likes to chew on wet wool, and I like to keep my projects safe since they take so long to make. His sister Jewel has decided to spend the night and is crouched under the kids low art table so he can't pounce.

Outside the hens are locked up safe (and hopefully warm). The bantams have gone broody again, taking up the third nesting box together and squeaking indignantly when I feel underneath them (for the eggs they've stopped making). Houdini's tail feathers are growing back in and she and the other big girls are laying regularly. Unfortunately my Crossbeak (aptly named for her craniofacial deformity) died last weekend. Carl heard a 'thunk' on the back window about an hour before he went out and found her- he thinks she may have flown into the back glass door. It may have been the cold or her nutrition (she always pecked and pecked at food but lost half of it out of her beak), or something she ate. We comforted ourselves with the usual "she lived a happy life (perching on Carl's shoulder looking for treats)", though who knows what really constitutes happiness for a chicken. She got to free range, scratch in dirt and sleep with her sisters- maybe that was good enough? So now we have 7 girls, three laying, two small goofballs playing house and two younger girls almost almost about to give me blue eggs..

Crossbeak as a chick

After an oatmeal feast last week. 

I've admired everyone's beautiful wildlife photos of birds today- cedar waxwings, robins, hawks and doves. Our bird feeder fell off its stand (and my husband has taken to feeding the extra bird seed to the chickens) so our backyard has mostly doves, chickadees, bluejays and the occasional grackle. In the front yard though I saw an early Frittilary butterfly a few weeks ago on a warm day. In typical fashion it flew off when I got close, so all I have is a grainy photo to remind me of the spring that it coming any (wet icy) day now..

 And I am late to post my Wide angle, but this pic of my front yard has one of my favorite semi-domesticated pets sitting in the front yard :)  My eldest is all flash and movement, except on rare days that he tucks under a tree to read and read and read..

It was a couple of weeks ago- the elm trees on the right are budding out now and the yellow bearded irises just barely starting to peek up..

Stay warm and cozy everyone!

Flowery cheer

Texan-grown ranunculuses and a rescued narcissus (languishing in the dark chicken coop).. Using their colors to brighten the grey damp cold!

February Bloom Day

Some pretties peeking up to brighten up the cold day.. Celebrating Garden Blogger's Bloom day hosted by http://www.maydreamsgardens.com

Meyer lemon blossom

Forgotten ranunculus bulb planted last fall..

First coneflower of 2015!

Love the charteuse of the gopher plant echoed in the tips of a diamanita

My Mexican plum

Abbreviated chicken

Houdini looks a bit different than her flock mates..

She is the middle chicken.. missing every single one of her tail feathers. Note her sister Silverwing's fluffy tail feathers by comparison.. 

Let's do a close-up- no tail feathers at all.

The story is that she escaped the fence one morning and encountered a neighborhood dog. Carl heard barking/yelling and went outside to find her hiding in the bushes, feathers strewn around the front yard. Lucky for her, while her rump was completely plucked she avoided any major injuries. We've fixed the fence since I'm not sure she's sharp enough to have learned a lesson.

In garden news, I have finished a late winter grass-removal project- expanding and re-doing a messy bed in the back yard. This is an after picture:

Much tidier compared to before which was last year (below). Giving away the bright pink starter coop and chicken tractor helped too. A perk of the chickens is that they have decimated any winter weeds that might try to pop up (the streaks of green last year were annual bluegrass..)

The after view from the other side. I shortened the inner bed and dug out all the latent weeds so hopefully I will have definition between my salvias and asparagus. I also planted a kidneywood bush/tree on the right. It should be short enough to not block the view off the balcony but will hopefully be full of bee and butterfly attracting white flowers in the spring. I also planted a pomegranate tree down the slope that will fill the bed when it grows in.

It won't be as lush as it was last spring (see before pic below)- but it was a waste watering and mowing the extra strip. It was the first part of the grass to shrivel up and turn brown with the drought in late summer. The inner bed was completely taken over with passionvine and carolina snail seed- to the point that my mealy blue sage flopped over by June and the oregano had become sparse in some spots and invasive in others.

The chickens have left the new transplants alone so far- two pink skullcaps near the border, tiny pots of mexican feather grass, lambs ears and four nerve daisies in the full full sun area and new herbs such as scented geraniums, oregano, grapefruit mint (planted in a bottomless pot) in the afternoon shade area. It took discipline to space them appropriately (so tempting to mash them together!) but luckily I have a few full size specimens to remind me of how far they'll spread.

 Tiny lambs ear

Just specks of plants!

I hope they'll do well if it freezes next week (their larger versions have held up fine). I have a few other plants I hope do well if it freezes, too:

Asparagus spears-  I've been eating them one by one already.

My Mexican plum is getting ready to blossom- probably next week!

Busy-ness..

Pondering my To-Do list..

- trim trim trim the plants back

- chase my chickens back across the fence (they've been hooligans this week)

- mulch

- plant ...things now so they can get established! This counts dwarf pomegranate bushes, Mexican feather grass.. Those plants that can tolerate a freeze or two 

- weed

- fire in the fire pit?

- wait, keep knitting the sweater I started..

Low on my list is work emails :)

My hooligan chickens are busy, too. I proudly announce that for the first time ever, all my grown up ladies seem to be laying eggs! The three juvenile Americaunas are still too young, so they get to keep mooching off of me :)

I hope everyone enjoys the gorgeous day!

Happy rainy day..

One wide-angle view of the back (slowly slowly converting grass into beds). The half-mulched bed is my latest project. I managed to get the remaining grass out, weed-block fabric and mulch down before getting too muddy today. That gives me time to get some water-friendlier ground covers and plants in in the next few months so they can set roots down before summer. I'll have fun browsing all the local gardeners sites and blogs to get inspiration :)

I was so busy from Oct-Dec that I didn't plant much winter color. My new raised veggie bed (repurposed from my son's forgotten sand-box) and a few chard and broccoli seeds I threw out in late fall have some spots of color though. I've had to create wire fortresses to keep the girls from eating them..

They are equal opportunity grazers, eating salvias, fennel, plumbago, mints and garlic chives to the nib. They've left my winecups and re-located rock rose alone though.

My younger chickens (Pumpkin above and Walnut below) are getting large. Their combs are starting to get red, which makes me wonder if I'll be getting blue eggs in the next months or so.

Ruby has started laying again, despite looking mad and wet.

And when the rain started coming down heavily I worked on a baby shower present (it seems someone is always pregnant at work!). I'm still missing a second sock (and the sweater needs cute buttons). I always avoid grown up projects (scarves, shawls, sweaters) because they take too long. My poor kids only get  hats from me since I only took up knitting after their baby years- oh well!