Lazy Country Walks, Old Friends and New Eggs

Good Afternoon!

It's been another 7 planetary rotations since my last post.  Where do the weeks go?!  This past week has brought many happy activities and many more wonderful visitors to our little oasis in the country.

We hosted our Dinner Party Group last Saturday night.  It wasn't our turn in the rotation, but circumstances arose for us to take over the hosting duties that evening.  One of the couple's in our group had been patiently awaiting the delivery of their new home.  It had finally just arrived a few days before our scheduled dinner date.  As life sometimes has it, best laid plans can go awry.  All has since been resolved, delivered and hooked up.   They are finally the proud owners of their new home.  I can't wait to see it next month!  Meanwhile, we enjoyed a wonderful evening on our front deck, overlooking the pond.  We always have a wonderful time together.

Sunday brought our kids, grand kids and the Bee Happy folks out for a visit.  Our Bee Keepers did some hive maintenance and discovered that one of the two hives was without their Queen.  Emergency actions were put into place and a new Queen was ordered that afternoon - can you believe you can order a Queen Bee on line?  I never would have guessed!  Mr. Bee came back on Tuesday with the new Queen and a few of her attendants to which he then installed into appropriate hive.  Fingers crossed that they all play nice together!

While the Bee Keepers did their maintenance on Sunday, my DIL and I took the little girls for a walk to see the horses at the end of our lane.  It was a beautiful afternoon.  Perfect for a leisurely stroll.  Along the way, we discovered a frog on the road, a Painted Lady butterfly and a white spider.  The mares and colts had already dispersed by the time we had reached the paddock, but there were still a few other horses to see.  I don't thing anyone really minded.  It was a lovely afternoon for a quiet walk down a lazy country road.

Our littlest grand baby picked "Amma" a bouquet of wild flowers as she stopped to see the rocks, bugs and anything else that caught her attention.  We arrived back in time to prepare our snack and have a sit on the deck.

A slow stroll down a country road on a sleepy
Sunday afternoon

The littlest one with her bouquet checking out
what's on the road

"Amma's" bouquet of wildflowers in a beautiful
antique vase

While doing his morning rounds, Papa discovered some eggs in the pullet's quarters.  Our little girls are beginning to lay!  It is so exciting when the new hens start to lay eggs.  The top egg in the photo is a regular sized egg for comparison.  Imagine my delight when I went to crack the new pullet eggs the next day to discover not one or two but all three were double yolkers!  They are just so cute!

New production Team gearing up!

New production team are making double yolked eggs!
Aren't they just the cutest things ever!

And the best news is, is that the new little Roo is doing his job.  If you look at the picture of the egg yolks with the arrows, you will see a "Bull's Eye".  This is potentially a chick cell.  If given proper incubation conditions, it might have potentially formed a chick and hatched.  It is still absolutely safe to eat, which we did!  The other egg in the picture, is from our current production team. This one shows no egg cell or germinal disc, which means it is not fertilized.  So, either our Senior Rooster is "done" or he doesn't like this hen.  Great news for the new guy, bad news for him.

We never did try to incubate any of our older flock's eggs, as they are hybrid birds.  There is no guarantee as to what we would have ended up with for chicks.  Our new flock is a heritage breed, Plymouth Barred Rock chickens.  We will hopefully be able to hatch and grow our own chicks from here forward.  Time will tell.

Our new little Roo is doing his job 

Every now and again, we have to wash the big windows on the upper story of our living/great room.  This is a rather large undertaking at our house.  An undertaking that definitely involves scaffolding!  It's a job we try to do once a year.  It actually takes longer to set up and take down the scaffolding than it does to wash the windows.  But, I am pleased to report that we should be good for at least another year.  It is going to get to a point where we are going to have to hire someone to do this job.  But it sure looks great after it is done!

Papa washing the inside, upper windows of the great room

I washed all of the vintage jars on the transom window while
Papa washed the windows

And our visitors kept right on coming throughout this week!  

On Tuesday, a dear friend, whom we haven't seen in over 12 years, was passing thru our area on their way to Eastern Canada.  She very recently contacted me, to see if we were up to a visit?  Of course we absolutely were!  She, her partner, 2 cats, a senior dog, an SUV, and a truck & trailer camped over night in our driveway.  Oh, the catching up, reminiscing and a wonderful evening we shared!  It was the warmest day we have had all year, so dinner was again planned for the front deck. We visited late into the evening and enjoyed the cool breeze with a glass of wine, before calling it a night.

The next morning Papa made fresh waffles to be served with our strawberries, maple syrup and whipped cream.  We cooked up some sausage, had our eggs scrambled with green onions and enjoyed freshly perked coffee - made in two old Pyrex stove top peculators.  I was so sorry to see them go, but continue on their journey they must.  

Life has a way of bringing people together, then pulling them apart.  What remains is hopefully beautiful memories of time shared.  And we are richer for having had the opportunity to enjoy the time together.  I know they will have many wonderful adventures in their new home province.  How lucky we are to live in such a large and diverse country that we are free to live where we choose, as we choose.  Bon Voyage to you both!

My Wednesday then took a bit of an unexpected U-turn.  I had planned to spend the day with a fellow quilter as she manned her space to showcase her own small quilts display.  We had planned a day of coffee, hand stitching and a good visit.  Unfortunately, shortly after she set up, she wasn't feeling well and realized that a migraine was settling in.  I arrived in time to help her pack up her things and get her sent home to sleep it off.  My heart broke for her; not only for her sudden illness, but for all the hours and hours of work she invested into this day.  So, after seeing her off, I went home again myself.  I then spent several hours weeding the garden with Papa.  Not exactly what I had planned to do that day, but it was a good job done. We shall reschedule a stitching visit for another day.

Thursday had me busy in the kitchen, waiting for a friend to stop by later that morning for coffee.  It was her 75th birthday the day before.  Not wanting to let it pass with just coffee and a card, I decided a special cake was in order.  She, being lactose intolerant, can make baking a bit of a challenge for me.  I always seem to add milk and butter to everything I make! 

I searched and found this recipe for an old fashioned jelly roll.  Perfect!  No dairy in this one!  I got it made up and into the oven.  Now, what type of filling?  Down to the cellar where I found the gooseberry jam I made up last year.  This jam set up so well, it is impossible to spread on toast - but it tastes so amazing that I have been using it as a glaze for ham, among other things.  I grabbed a couple of jars and proceeded to heat it up while the cake cooled a bit.  It would become a delicious filling.  I squeezed a lemon, then mixed in some icing sugar to make a glaze.  Since this was a birthday visit, I got some china mugs out for our coffee.  These pansy mugs reminded me that I have pansies in pots in full bloom on the deck!  Bonus!  Pansies on the cake, pansy mugs and then I remembered I have pansy napkins as well.  A theme suddenly presented itself.  The cake was delicious and we had a lovely visit as well!

A Jelly Roll Birthday Cake for my dear friend
Filled with homemade gooseberry jam and a
lemon glaze, embellished with fresh pansies

The Crab Spider is apparently a reclusive and rare being.  I had seen a few pictures recently posted on a gardening group that I belong to on Facebook.  It appears they are not quite as uncommon as it's been reported.  Personally, I have had two sightings, in two different locations, in the same week!  The first sighting was during our Sunday Stroll.  It was discovered when we were closer examining a Fox Tail Grass in the ditch. 

White Crab Spider on Fox Tail Grass

The second white spider hitched a ride in a flower bouquet that I was gathering on Thursday morning.  I was quite surprised to see this little guy/gal on the lily leaf.  I quickly took its picture then carefully returned him/her back outside to let it get on with its day.  These spiders walk like crabs and aren't harmful to humans or pets, but will turn the insides of a wasp to liquid as they devour their prey.  Good on ya, little buddy!  Keep up the good work!

Crab Spider on a lily leaf

This morning, Papa decided that we should have a look at the raspberry patch to see if there's enough ripe yet to start picking.  We managed to get a small bowl full, but nothing that would require much of our attention at this point in time.  During the next few weeks however, we are predicting a huge flush of the red berries as the bushes are full!  We called it done.  He went to work on his pondscaping for a bit and I processed the first batch of stewed tomatoes.  And, with that, the canning season is officially under way.

I hope this finds you all well.  I am looking forward to a quiet weekend, but time will certainly tell on that one!

Enjoy your weekend.  

Until next time,

Gremlynn