Little Chicks

This posting is especially for Margaret. Today the chicks got to go outside to play for a while. How I wish she could have been here for the fun. Since she is unable to ramble with Grammy and Grandpa, we will do the next best thing - send her movies. While the world at large is certainly welcomed to enjoy our chicks, Margaret, my dear, these are for you.


Once upon a time, Gramdpa of Briarwood wanted to raise chickens. He needed a place for the chicks to live, so he bought a chicken caravan for them to live in. He was very proud of his chicken caravan.


A few days after the chicken caravan arrived, he went to the feed store to pick up the baby chicks he ordered. They were very small and their feathers felt like fur. He made the chicken caravan very warm and snug for the 12 little chicks. He took very good care of them. He gave them food and water every day.


Then, one sunny day, it was time for the chicks to take their first walk out side. So, Grandpa made a safe playground for them by putting up a small cage around the chicken caravan so the chicks would not wonder off.... and so the dogs would not chase the little babies.


The chicks had never been outside before. They had never used a door. And, they certainly had never used a ladder. OH, NO! There were so many new things to learn at once!


However, Grandpa of Briarwood was a very nice man and he helped the chicks out the door.

The chicks were not sure about the ladder at all. So they were a bit clumsy, but Grandpa of Briarwood encouraged them.

Soon the little chicks were very comfortable in their new playground and were happy.

In the next field, munching grass, was a an Anglo-Arab named Princess....

...and a Hackney-Shetland named Squirt.

They think chicks are very silly animals. The end.

"A Primrose By A River's Brim ..."

I love John Wayne's and Maureen O'Hara's movie, "The Quiet Man". John Wayne's character, Sean Thornton returns to his native Ireland after misfortune in America. The local vicar, The Rev. Mr. Playfair and his wife welcome the new-comer by taking him a primrose. It is a romantic beginning to a rather tempestuous love affair Wayne-O'Hara style. And so, began my own love affair with the primrose.

Since it was a beautiful week end, Bill indulged me to allowing me to interrupt his tasks and helped me prepare the "Fairy Garden" for the primrose. Then, off to Lowes for 30 primrose plants -- which I got off the clearance rack! The sales clerk looked at me skeptically, but I assured her that with love and water, the primroses will be absolutely beautiful in June. I am not sure she was conviced. However, they make a very happy outline to my "Fairy Garden". More on the "Fairy Garden" in another post.

Each time I pass my long a-waited bulb bed I have to stop to take it all in. All those flowers just bursting from the earth. Each day the bed looks different from the day before. The crocus and dafodils are gone. The hyacinths have peaked. However, the tulips and narcissus are rebust and the promise of irises loom in the background. The picture does not do the foliage justice and I do wish there was a way to include scent via internet! I wish I could bring myself to cut some for bouquets for the house. I just cannot bring myself to do it! It seems sheer vandalism. I wonder if I can get Bill to create another bed just for cutting bulb.

Yesterday, the apple tree in the back yard suddenly burst with blossoms. Thankfully, none of the fruit trees lost any blossoms during the frosts of last week. There is hope of cherries, apples, apricots, peaches.

Now, I must go tend my garden and tomorrow is veterinary day for the horses. Shhhh, don't tell them!

And Ashley, I have taken 3 videos of the horses and none of them will upload! I think Squirty has an "in" with the blog service!

Ahhhh .... Spring

I truly cannot decide which of the seasons is my favorite. I love all of them and I am thankful I live in a climate that has 4 distinct seasons. However, spring has a special place in my heart. After the long winter and deep snows, earth begins again. How wonderful! How glorious -- especially during Easter. As our Lord has risen, so his creation begins life again.


Briarwood is especially busy this time of year. Gardens are tilled, reorganized, updated and planted. Each year our briarpatch is more tame than the year before. Bill and I have been hard at work - and I have the aching muscles to prove it! The area around our green house is shaping up beautifully and our "kitchen garden" is being planted there. I have also added a tea rose garden and in just a few days my longed-for wisteria lodge will be in place. The production garden has been moved to a different location where it is fenced in and Ellie, our darling goat, cannot eat the tender plants to her heart's content.


Princess and Squirt, the horse and pony, are free to run in the pasture all day and munch the new grass. They love being brushed as they shed their heavy winter coats. Then, of course, after all the brushing they have to go roll in the mud again! We "lovingly" call that their facial mud pack!


Quincy and Rawley suddenly look like little lions and I am reminded that I need to arrange an appointment with the groomer.


BUT, the most fun is the arrival of the chicks. I was in the post office Monday and the building was filled with the little "peeps" of the little chicks. Not long after, Bill arrived with a little travel box carrying our 12 babies. This year the chickens will get to live in a "chicken caravan". It is darling and if I was a chicken, it is where I would want to live.


Our joys would be more complete if we could share these wonders with our wonderful granddaughter, Margaret. However, since she is miles away, we will use the wonders of technology. Margaret, dear little Margaret, these videos are for you. Enjoy.


Here are the little chicks.




Here are Quincy and Rawley. Pat did not want to be a movie star.

Here is little Ellie. She is getting old and does not spend quite so much time stalking cats.

"All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all."