Forest of “Weeds”

As it turns out, a “weed” is a very relative term.  While most of us see a foxglove as a beautiful flower to admire and enjoy, there are others, particularly those who ride or care for horses, who see them as weeds.  These anti-foxglovers, if you will, in fact, yank them out of the ground when they see them!  I learned this from my friend Jenny, an avid equestrian, who saw my “The Gloaming” post and mentioned to me how she was surprised that I liked the foxgloves since she pulled them whenever she saw them.  “Why in the world would she do that?” I asked.  She informed me that they are poisonous to horses and she has always seem them as weeds.  Who knew?  I certainly did not.

Well, anyway, I think most of us can agree that they are indeed a beautiful flower and these photos below are something out of a wonderful dream.  An entire forest of foxgloves!!!!  Beatrix Potter wasn’t exaggerating when she included them all through her stories and illustrations.  They are just gorgeous!  (Sorry, Jenny. ;)

Summer Chicks

While Joel was out mowing the lawn a couple of weeks ago, our kind neighbor Ken invited us all over to see some freshly hatched baby chicks.  Of course, we jumped at the chance and scurried over.  What a delightful surprise to see a beautiful mother hen, protectively and proudly showing off her day-old chicks.  Ken knew she had been sitting on eggs since she would be gone one day and back the next, but he could never find her nest.  Clever girl, she was determined to be a proper mama and now she gets to care for all seven of these chicks.  Ken tells us he’ll keep all the hens and sell the cockerels (he already has two of those).  The Sprout was able to hold two of the chicks and then we stayed and watched them all until the mama hen put them to bed, as you will see.  I love living in the country!!!

Ken has a special food for the chicks to eat starting on the day they hatched.

The Sprout LOVED holding two of them. They were squirmy little things and one even jumped out of her hands.

She’s so proud and she should be. They are beautiful!

The mother hen then went and sat close to the fence.  Watch how the chicks know just what to do. I’ve never seen this before…

One by one, with a lot of pushing and shoving, each chick dove underneath her feathers for a spot underneath Mama’s wings.

There they go. I didn’t believe that they would all fit!

All warm, safe and snug now. How they knew what to do, just by instinct is so amazing and beautiful. Ken now has the chicks with their mama in an area that is fenced in from top to bottom so they can grow safely in a protected area. The Sprout and I check in on them every other day to watch them grow.

The Gloaming

Now I get it.  After reading all of Liz Curtis Higgs’ novels and always trying to imagine “the gloaming” she would describe…well, I get it now.  And I love it!  Wikipedia defines gloaming as “the time after sunset and before dark” or “twilight”.  In the States, I’m used to this period lasting an hour or so on a typical summer evening.  However, where we are located so far up north, the gloaming can last up to 3 hours!  It makes it very difficult to settle down and feel like going to bed at a decent hour, but it sure does make it the perfect time to get out and go for long walks while Joel is at home with the little ones sleeping.  Here are some photos of a recent walk.  They were taken on June 25th, so that was 4 days after the longest day of the year. I’ve included the times that I took them in the captions.  Enjoy the walk with me!

20:50 (8:50 pm) I’ve had to learn to tell 24-hour time here.

An extra friendly cow. He was HUGE!!!

21:00-Flowers grow EVERYWHERE here. These, I can assure you, were not planted. They came up by seed.

21:25-Thank you God for this incredible sunset.

21:35–Fox Gloves. Again, a wild flower and I have learned recently that they only bloom every other year. They were glowing in the gloaming!

21:55–Almost 10:00 pm and back home.  The laundry was dry. I still had over an hour before the stars would emerge.   I found two itty bitty spiders spinning webs on the clothesline.

Wildflowers

With so many “obliging fields” filled with all sorts of wildflowers, we couldn’t help but pick a small bouquet on our walk to Pateley Bridge today.