...sometimes even a single feather is enough to fly. (Robert Maclean)

4.16.2012

heron + hawk nests!!!

A big thank you to my friend Sarah who told me today about these amazing live stream videos of local hawk and heron nests!  It's the best kind of screen time there is!!!  For more info go to All About Birds!  Thank you, Cornell Lab of Ornithology!!!







music for Monday morning

Some fun campy music to start Monday morning:


This is a clip from 8 Femmes (8 Women), directed by Francois Ozon (2002).
It's a who-done-it 'Clue' type murder mystery with lots of fun twists. 
 It takes place in a 1950's French country estate,
with all of the characters randomly breaking out into song.

It's complete eye candy, and I found it totally entertaining.
All of the characters are women, except for the patriarch... who doesn't last long.
With Catherine Deneuve (ooh la la!) and Isabelle Huppert, you cannot go wrong.


4.13.2012

Here Comes the Sun

Every spring when I feel the return of the Sun,
 this Beatles tune inevitably begins to take residence in my head:





And with the return of the sun comes daffodils, little suns in their own right:


And with the synchronicity only mother nature is capable of,
the goldfinches are flitting about with their brightening spring feathers, like flying daffodils:


(Makes me grateful to have eyes to see the beauty in the world.)

4.10.2012

Zen and the Art of Chicken Maintenance

Chickens need to eat little rocks and hard gritty things to help them digest their food.
(They don't have teeth, they swallow their food whole).

After months of putting little crushed rocks in saucers and dishes for them,
which they tip over and spill all the time --
I decided to make their grit-getting experience more fun. 

So, I created a Zen 'sand' garden for the chickens!

 Here's Lorpy checking out the new garden,
finding and eating the darker grit (crushed granite) mixed in with the sand.



Here's a close-up so you can see better.
I have a little wooden rake I use to rake circular patterns into the garden.



Thinking about the great mysteries and challenges of life...

1) Where do worms come from? 
2) How many more eggs will I lay?
3) Why oh why did the chicken cross the road? 
4) Are my mothers really too weak of heart to throw me in the soup pot?   
5) How can I find inner peace and calm when there is a fox that lives in the quarry,
and a pack of coyotes in the woods?


Maybe the answers to the great mysteries are in the garden...
If I just look long enough and peck hard enough, maybe I will find them...


But maybe there are no answers. 

I can live with that.

Maybe it's just about being. 

Every day I will keep being and breathing. 
I will stay centered, knowing...
I am a good chicken. 
I am loved.


Maybe it's that simple.
     One day at a time.

 

The chickens leave their mark.
Often their footprints follow the same path and pattern as my raking.
They naturally walk around the rocks. 

Watching them move through the space is really fascinating - like they're walking through a labyrinth.  With purpose and intention.
Even if the intention is to fill their crop and gizzard with grit!


And just like with any Zen mandala or garden,
we learn about impermanence. 

The garden never looks the same way twice. 
Each moment, a new one.
Full of all the stuff of life.

Yet there are some things
that even in the changing, remain the same. 

Like the calm place inside,
that is still there if you reach for it,
even when you're facing the mouth of the fox.