Myriad Me

What comes first?

The chickens of course!

The eggs came 6 months later, and 3-4 eggs a day are still an absolute joy to collect each morning in our egg basket. There's always a 'thankyou ladies', a handful of corn and wheat (and strawberries several times a week) and a feathery cuddle in exchange.

The egg on the left is the same size as what you'd find in a shop-bought carton labelled 'large eggs' and comes from Speckles. The slightly larger egg in the middle comes from my one-egg-a-day-without-fail girl Yeti. And the egg on the right? Penny skips a day, then lays the most enormous eggs I've ever seen!

Those two orange yolks at the bottom are from a Penny-double-yolker extra-extra-large special. We bake, boil, fry, poach, grill and eat eggs every which way, savouring the fact that they are free-range and organic from our girls. Our chickens might have come first, but the eggs are equally loved and appreciated.

Crazy Chicken Lady

  

I have made a conscious effort not to turn into a crazy chicken lady, but oh how I do love my chickens. Henny, Penny, Yeti and Speckles are fast heading through the gangly teenage chicken stage towards feathered fluffy adulthood, dropping feathers aplenty along the way. We won't ever have to buy feathers for our craft projects again, as long as we like black, white and speckled ones.

I don't think I quite appreciated what lovely sociable quirky animals they are to have as pets.They're not big on cuddles but they don't mind being picked up and given a scratch and a pat. They come running over when they see us, turning their heads inquisitively to look us up and down, making grown up chicken noises. It's only in the last week that they have matured enough to graduate from peep-peep-peep young chick noises into the more familiar bok-bok-bok, which still makes me smile. I'm sure they still surprise themselves at the sounds they can now make.

I never knew that chickens have sand baths - they find a nice warm patch of sand, and using their feet and wings fling the sand up and over themselves until their feathers are drenched with granules. They bask in it, eyes half closed, a little shimmy of their wings in the warmth, and after a few minutes abruptly stand to attention and shake shake shake sending a cloud of sand in every direction. It fascinates me that they know how to do this. We've had them from 3 weeks of age, they haven't seen any other chickens doing it, but they just know. That's definitely nature - 1, nurture - 0.

  

By my reckoning we can expect the first egg in about 6 weeks' time. I'd best start stockpiling some egg recipes (and egg cartons!). Four chickens, two breeds of chickens, two different egg colours, 4-5 eggs a week each, I wonder what they'll look and taste like? No more shop bought free range organic eggs for us, we'll be walking for 60 seconds to pluck our own from the laying boxes.

Here's to creating our very own Good Life under Perth's blue skies.

And then we...

It's been a busy few weeks. More gardening and some harvesting as well, play dates, baby cinos, a very important 4th birthday, trips to the beach in the winter sun, and more reading about chickens - I'm harbouring suspicions that one of the chickens is actually a rooster.

 Oh, and clearing our shipment from the UK. Customs did you really think I'd pay you the best part of $100 to dispose of Sophia's bike? Of course I'll pay more than that to get it cleaned. Through gritted teeth. Although where you think my little girl rode it to classify it as contaminated I don't know. Regardless, I can't wait til Monday when an enormous removals truck will complete the journey that started all those months ago. And then I'll have my computer back. And then I can upload the several thousand photos I've taken. And then send to Getty the 9 new photos they want to add to their books. And then...

It is Sophia's first day at her new school today. My first school lunch. I'm told the novelty will wear off! I am so proud of my little girl. She couldn't wait to go into the room, and was so excited. The Montessori style worked for her in the UK, and I think it will work for her here too. I would have shared a photo taken outside her school but I was a little too misty eyed to take a half good one!

Lots to do, let's get going...

 

From little things (big things grow)

There were two things I wanted for myself after this epic relocation to Perth. Well, there were more than two but definitely two that were high on my 'I want this as soon as I've landed' list.

1) Chickens. You've already met Henny, Penny, Speckles and Yeti. Sophia wanted me to show off their new home. Dedicated enclosure, coop, sand, weeds = chicken paradise. They were a little bit overwhelmed by all the space, preferring to huddle along the wall but as they grow, I'm sure they will enjoy their new home.

 
And we'll enjoy their company and eggs. Goodness but they are cute!

 
2) Veggie patch. I have had to annex a quarter of the chicken run for a second vegetable patch as I bought too many seedlings for the original space I had. Keen, no?

 

We are growing carrots, red onions, sugar snap peas, regular peas, broadbeans, spinach, beetroot, peppers/capsicum, aubergine/eggplant, 4 kinds of lettuce, parsley, basil, leek, kale, mint, ummm, and I'm sure there are a few others...

 

From tiny chicks to chickens and eggs; from inch high seedlings to crops ready for harvest...

From little things, big things grow. And we grow and change with them.