I went into the chicken coop yesterday afternoon and heard this little guy (above) peeping. He’s been living in the “nursery” with his Mom since he hatched at the beginning of February. But I was hearing LOTS of peeps, so I looked over to the other side of the coop where Society had been sitting on nine eggs. There she was, sitting on brand new chicks (below) that peeping like mad.

When I picked her up, I found six new little chicks underneath her, all scrambling to keep warm.

They are so tiny and frail.

This morning, Society still only had six babies so we got rid of the three unhatched eggs so she could focus on taking care of her little ones, and stop working to keep the remaining eggs warm. So the little rooster and his Mommy, Abby moved out of the nursery, and we moved Society and her six chicks in.

It is SO fun having little baby chicks around.  They are so doggone cute and the mommy hens are wonderfully fierce protectors. We haven’t had this many chicks at once in a long, long time, as we usually limit the number of eggs the hens sit on to manage the size of our flock. This time, we didn’t limit the number of eggs and voila – six new little ones. We won’t be able to determine what sex they are for several weeks.

In other news, the bees are busy loving up the rosemary blossoms.

And the pear blossoms just burst open the other day.

Finally, here are a few links that I’m loving right now:

I am not much of a gardener.  We grow lots of things, but none of them take a ton of work. I do, however, like reading about people who do love to garden, and I recently discovered this blog, A Sonoma Garden. It might just inspire me to get a bit more creative this summer.

The Fern and Feather blog is so well done and creative and thoughtful that it inspired me to try my hand at blogging and taking photos of my life here raising bees, chickens, lemons, petite sirah grapes, apples, pears, pomegranates, figs and olives with my dog and husband.  Poke around and let me know what you think.  I find that her every post stirs me in some sweet way.

My Mom thought everything I ever created was beautiful and an obvious and glaring indication that I was uniquely and profoundly gifted. My friend Erin’s Mom was not that Mom. Erin’s post on her blog, Treasure Seeking, offers her hilarious, insightful, kind of painful and profound lesson on having a creative, talented but not-so-sentimental Mom.

Happy Weekend!