Backyard Chickens and Solace

One of my neighbor friends has a lovely garden and it is always a treat to pass by her house to see what she has been planting.  She works tirelessly and it shows.  Along with a lush perennial bed and fantastically prolific, vegetable garden that are just beginning to come into their prime season, she also has a little spot cut out of a back corner that seems to me to be the perfect spot for solace and meditation.  Keeping her company are her sweet, little, egg layers who enjoy a bit of supervised free range time while she, the neighbor, is busy shoveling compost, weeding, digging, planting, seeding and, well- you know- all the work that gardeners do as their own special, sweaty labor of love.

On occasion, I have the pleasure of tending the chickens, a chore which takes a minimal amount of time and gives me the satisfaction of not only engaging with the birds a bit, but also collecting a few fresh eggs.  There is nothing quite like a fresh egg from a well-fed, happy chicken.  I am very picky about my eggs and try hard to not buy them at the grocery store.  I will wait to find good, local eggs.

BTW- her home is lovely too, of course.