what a truly blessed Samhain - a little bit on the quirky side

[I walked among the graves today.. accompanied by many an ancestor I am sure.. some of them maybe wondering what the hell i was doing]

I woke very early this morning - [4am to be exact] to Moonlight as brilliant as the sun but not as harsh.. a softness and I sat and gazed out the window remembering how Daisy loved to do the same.. the ancestors had arrived for Samhain... dozing off to sleep for awhile... this time, I woke to bird call.. so got myself out of bed, wandered out to under the pine tree & did my morning greeting of the day and as I did.. a blackbird flew right past my face.. and sat in the tree - just looking at me.. as I spoke to her, she cocked her head this way and that..yes, the ancestors were with me today to help me walk my path [the blackbird has not been seen in my garden for at least 2 weeks... the blackbird is Daisy telling me she is here with me.. she may not have been blood related in this life.. but she is certainly one of my ancestors as she was part of my tribe].

[a home crafted celtic cross and an old rusted arch on one of the old graves in Springwood cemetery]
I decorated my altar with the gathered leaves from yesterdays walk, a few walnuts & a black candle.. and of course some photos of the wise women in my family.. plus an old purse & china tea cup to represent my Nan.. and a piece of jet. I burned my last stick of Samhain incense that Daisy had sent me before she died.. [she bought it from an online shop the Goddess & the Greenman.. a beautiful scent]. You know, I am not even sure why I do this kind of thing .. I don't understand the symbolism of it all nor do I know the history of it all or the lore of it all - but when I gather bits to put on my altar, it makes me feel connected to something alot older than I am. & it resonates with my soul.

then I went for the walk around the cemetery in Springwood. I gathered sticks, sometimes looking at the headstones.. noticing the various decorations that people do for their loved ones, wondering if it was really appropriate to be taking photos in the cemetery.. but maybe people would think I was tracing my family history & I wasn't doing any harm.. just following the wheel of the year..... & I spied this across the way:

a cross, marking an otherwise insignificant grave... it took my breath away.. [what a strong sign from Daisy that she is with me..]

the soft, cool, autumn early morning sun, shining on the colouring chinese pistachio tree, chicken with port & raisins for our Samhain dinner, my altar decorated for Samhain, the celebration of the ancestors, walking in Springwood cemetery collecting sticks for kindling for the coming cold weather.. meditating holding a honey calcite crystal.. this was my day.

[old man Banksia.. growing among the graves.. a native tree of Australia ~ even he is going into autumn time]

Chicken with Port and Raisins
1/2 cup dark raisins
1 cup port wine
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
4 breasts of chicken
1 leek
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 cup heavy cream, or evaporated milk
1/4 tsp grated fresh nutmeg
1 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp water
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Fresh herbs for garnish

Soak the raisins in the port wine at least 1 hour or, preferably, overnight.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a saute pan, heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil. When hot, saute the chicken breasts on one side until golden brown. Turn the chicken over and transfer to an ovenproof dish. Bake for 10 minutes.
In the meantime, in the saute pan, heat the remaining 1 tbsp olive oil. Add the leeks and sweat them for 5 minutes. Add the vinegar and reduce until almost dry.
Stir in the raisins and their soaking liquid. Cook until the liquid is reduced by half. Add the cream or evaporated milk, nutmeg, and cornstarch mixture. Cook for 2 more minutes, but do not bring to a boil.
Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Spoon the sauce onto serving plates, set a chicken breast on top, and garnish with fresh herbs.
I served ours with mashed sweet potato, steamed carrots and brown rice

an autumn stroll for Full Moon

killing a few birds with one stone...and taking a stroll today for the Full Moon, a weekly walk that I have committed to with Julia Cameron's 'Walking in this world' as well as coming up to Samhain tomorrow.

I was disappointed to find that the trees were not as colourful as they should be by now. O'yarrang covered the branches.. this can be used instead of sage to smudge and cleanse.. I gathered a little for tomorrow.

I wanted to collect an array of colourful leaves for my Samhain ancestral altar but all I could find were dry brown leaves. I suppose I could have picked leaves from the branches.. but I like to leave nature to take its course.. not interrupting the flow of things. so I gathered some dry brown leaves.. after all, it is the intention, is it not?

a far cry from the gorgeous & brilliant burgundys, clarets, orange and golds from last year.

Our autumn is very mild this year.. some days are still reaching record summer temperatures... I even spotted an agapanthus flowering in a garden today.. very odd indeed...but I can relate to Mother Nature.. she seems to be having hot flushes just like I am!

a soothing voice is all it takes

early this morning, I woke up and went outside to water the vegies - a beautiful time coming up to Full Moon today & then Samhain this weekend.... after tending my plants & going back inside, dutch husband was making me a cup of tea & I casually mentioned that we needed to weed along the neighbouring fence.. he didn't know which fence i meant.. and I could feel frustration inside rising up and coming out of my mouth in hysteria [actually, it was more like mass hysteria except there is only one of me].....
all it took from him to calm me down were the words.. 'shhh, relax'.... he is good at calming my storms.

the emotional rollercoaster.. a lovely mix, Full Moon and Menopause, going hand in hand to make a woman some kind of irrational being, totally out of control of not only her bodily functions but also her emotions.. today, I even got to the point of thinking i may need some kind of counselling.. but later tonight, when I had my bath.. soaking in the herbs.. I heard my inner voice say to me : I am enough..... a lovely mantra I think. I am enough.
I have also decided to work through a book i have had for quite some time.. Walking in this world by Julia Cameron.. it kind of fell from my bookshelf this morning while I was looking for something else.. and the page fell open to 'anger'.. I took that as a strong sign from someone. so back to morning pages, artists dates and weekly walks...

home made chai latte.. white light protection under the pine tree with my Earth healing disc, crystal and a rose ~ a Full Moon Earth Healing. a blackbird on a park bench. yoga to beautiful flute music, stretching those hip joints, a cleansing lavender and sage bath and a cup [or 3] of oatstraw tea... this was my day

this menopausal journey to becoming a butterfly

you know, much as I might complain about chin hairs and moan about hot flushes.. I am actually enjoying this menopausal journey.. it is taking me back to the wise women of old.. the wise women who use to brew their teas just like I am doing each night with my oatstraw tea.. where I measure dried oatstraw into a flask, pour hot water over it, seal it and leave it infuse overnight, to be sipped throughout the next day to help soothe my adrenals..

I love reading up on crystals that may help my anger & past life issues that are surfacing.. finding those crystals and healing myself much like the village wise women did in times past. And that bloodstone is actually a very good crystal to use for menopause.. so I tuck one into my medicine bag that I carry on my waist.

I love that my reiki healing is coming to use once again in the healing of my own body. I am sure that I am being prodded to use this healing gift that i have long ignored.

I love that I am discovering that my base chakra is actually linked to my adrenals & the solar plexus is the liver which are the organs often connected to menopause.. and that if I go and sit on Mother Earth each day, she will help me through my menopause as I can help her through her change of life that she seems to be going through at the moment too... very connected to each other...

I love finding that cedarwood and lavender essential oils may sooth my shattered nervous system and bring it into balance or to use dried sage and lavender in a bath.. or if really stressed, use an oatstraw bath to soothe the menopausal nerves.

and as I discover each of these and much more folk lore, I am finding that I am actually more intune with my body than ever before...

so instead of fighting this 'change of my life'.. why not embrace it? like my Nan use to say.. if you can't beat it, join it.. and my Nan is yet another wise butterfly in my life, even if she is on the other side

[I see myself walking through life, not as I look now, but as a village wise woman, with a bag of herbs and crystals on her waist. dressed in a brown robe with a rope tie around her waist.. going about her business, gathering herbs to dry]

[the first post is up at Villa Maria..dutch husband and I made a quick visit tonight, but it was overwhelming for me to see how much work we really need to do.. my first reaction was: 'what have I done?'.. but as I walked through the house, discussing renovations & design & colours, I could feel the excitement returning.. and once i go back in the daylight and see the garden, I am sure all will be ok.. sometimes, I wonder why I do this to myself.. but it is all good. all as it should be]

collecting butterflies

today we jumped on the back of the Harley and went south, for a ride.. to a little town on the seaside called Berry.

met up with friends, Carol & Rob who had ridden down to meet us.

[Carol, isn't she beautiful? she has the most divine brilliant blue eyes]
Carol is 10yrs older than me and is becoming a fast friend..another butterfly in my life. a wise woman.
[Susun Weed advises that a woman going through menopause should have female friends who are older, whom you want to grow up to be, who don't take hormones..Daisy was another and funnily enough the last thing she sent me before she died was a butterfly mobile.. she obviously knew I would be needing it]

[butterfly woman from Daisy's blog]

Carol and I wandered through the crystal shops.. I was looking for a lepidolite pendant. the crystals really affected my energies.. I needed something to eat, to ground myself. so lunch it was along with a glass of champagne [found out that was not a good idea for menopause, brings on hot flushes].. after lunch we went to another shop to try on a moonstone ring.. and the first one I tried on fitted perfectly! Plus they had a gorgeous lepidolite pendant... it was like I was led there by persons unseen.

the shop owner and I began to talk and our words got around to menopause [as it often does these days.. when others notice me fanning myself furiously].. and she told me that she had gone to see Amma,the Hugging Saint and that she had been sitting fanning herself furiously just like was and throwing off her clothes.. an old indian lady leaned across to her, didn't say a word and sprayed rose water on the inside of her elbows and proceeded to pour about a quarter of a cup of the water over her head.. she said it cooled her down immediately.. and she said that the indian woman had given her the bottle and it goes everywhere with her now.. [more butterflies in the guise of wise advice from women]... it seems that I am being helped alot in this kind of way.. and I like it. I like that I am accepting the wise ways of the ancestors.. hard as it is with these symptoms.. it kind of makes me feel like I am connected to a very big web of wise women.. YOU included

[tomorrow, I do believe we will be getting the key to Villa Maria.. finally it will be ours!]

ANZAC day, ANZAC biscuits & earth nurturers

today we attended the ANZAC march in Springwood...
here is a link to an older post at a previous blog.. ANZAC day 2007
[nothing much changed.. my heart swelled with pride as we clapped our heroes and the ladies still had ANZAC biscuits for sale and we bought a few packets.. yum. ]

here is a recipe for Anzac biscuits:

1 cup each of plain flour, sugar, rolled oats and coconut
4 oz butter
1 tablespoon treacle (golden syrup)
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 teaspoon carbonate soda (add a little more water if mixture is too dry)

Grease biscuit tray and pre heat oven to 180C. Combine dry ingredients. Melt together butter and golden syrup. Combine water and soda add to butter mixture. Mix butter mixture and dry ingredients. Drop teaspoons of mixture onto tray allowing room for spreading. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool on tray for a few minutes before transferring to cooling racks

now that life has settled down into some kind of normalcy.. I am going to re vitalise the Earth Healing collective .. some of you may know about it, others don't.. but here is a link to the blog..
Healers of Earth
every now and then I will post a prompt for some earth healing.. and of course you can always do the healing/nurturing of Mother Earth yourself at anytime..

great - call me hirsute

not only do I have to battle rage, hot flushes, night sweats but now I have a hair on my chin, which I was horrified to read is yet another 'symptom' of menopause... I was sitting eating dinner and casually brushed my chin and felt an odd thing on my face.. raced to the bathroom and horror of horrors a hair was poking out of my chin!

Hirsutism (from Latin hirsutus = shaggy, hairy) is the excessive hairiness on female humans in those parts of the body where terminal hair does not normally occur or is minimal - for example, a beard or chest hair

I can remember when I was a little girl seeing a hair poking out of my Nan's chin.. it horrified me.. I wondered why she didn't either pluck it out by the roots or at least have a shave...she seemed so old back then.. but now I realize that she must have been around my age and suffering from menopause!

lord, what next? liver spots?

yesterday.. is it all related to Pluto? oh - & Marion's boiled fruit cake recipe..

yesterday, I had a menopausal breakdown. I am trying so hard to cope with all the symptoms but I am not doing so well.. then I get blogging angst as we all do.. and wonder what the hell it is all about.. so I put a post up about taking a break and took it down again then went to bed.

You see, I am so dreadfully angry. I am irritable and sometimes sad. there is a rage inside me that bubbles beneath the surface.. sometimes I feel like running away from my responsibilities and living as a mad woman in a cottage... and I know it is all related to either menopause or else Pluto is in my chart somewhere which is bringing up repressed anger from times past.. whatever, I need to do something about it.. or else, dutch husband will no longer be a husband.. cause I am sure he must be getting sick of it all.. but he has the patience of a saint..thank Heaven. [if you have suffered menopausal madness.. pray please tell how you dealt with the anger & rage]

[anyhow.. blogging... comments.. they twist and turn my mind. I love to blog. yes I do.. but I do get the angst that we all get about comments & the followers.. I have followers who I have not a clue who they are.... & that is all I am going to say. ]

and here is Marion's recipe for
Boiled Fruit Cake [this is exactly how she told me to do it, have no idea what size pan to cook it in]

125g butter
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
2 cups mixed dried fruit
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp mixed spice

[heat the above ingredients in a saucepan until butter has melted. Marion adds 1/2 pkt dried cranberries]

add
400g crushed pineapple

then mix together [and add to the above mix when it has cooled slightly]
1/2 cup sherry
1 tsp bicarb soda

beat 2 eggs
and add to mix when it is cold

sift and add
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup plain flour

stir. put into greased cake tin

then cook in a moderate oven for 1 hour

hopefully tomorrow when I see my acupuncturist & herbalist.. I will get some help.. then next week I am going to an energetic healer.. please God, let me find some help...I don't like myself when I am like this

such a fun day at Mt. Wilson

[my friend Marion, strolling through the autumn leaves at her sister's home in Mt.Wilson]
my friend Marion lives down the road a little from Inglewood. She is like a big sister to me. we share recipes, seeds and garden love.

I arrived at her home early in the morning and we drove the hour across to the other side of the mountain to visit her sister Ann. Marion had baked a cake.. her famous boiled fruit cake.

we arrived just in time for morning tea and Ann set up a tray of tea and cake and we went outside to sit on the patio amidst the autumn leaves and cool mountain air. [very good for those hot flushes that I kept experiencing throughout the day, tossing off my cardigan constantly - but they understood with knowing laughs]

[Wendy the artist friend]
after morning tea, we wandered up the lane. climbing over a barbwire fence, through a paddock of walnut trees [noting to selves to come back and gather the fallen walnuts] and went to visit Wendy. a very talented and zany woman

[Ann, watching Wendy as she finished off some knitted hats for a craft show on the weekend]
Wendy was a delight, a collector, a bower bird. She had old wares for sale too.. I bought an old door knocker for Villa Maria and two cushions for my Lloyd Loom chairs.

she had also gathered walnuts and had them drying in the sun.

like I said, Wendy is a bower bird. a collector of stuff. .. and she has shelves and cupboards overflowing with fabrics. her paintings hang around her home.

after a lovely visit, we wandered back home to have lunch. a simple feast. cheese, salami, avocado, crackers & Marion's home made hummus. washed down with a cup of my oat straw tea

after lunch a stroll through Ann's garden. five acres of pure bliss. absolutely brilliant autumn colour

and then

gathering walnuts
[here is Marion filling her bag with the fallen nuts]

mine are now on the floor in front of the fire.. drying out. then I will store them to make cakes, muesli or just eat them straight from the shell! It was such a fun day. 3 women. 3 menopausal women, sharing stories. and an artist who inspired me to be comfortable with who I am.

a fantastic day

a long day for me today.. I am tired.. so a little bunch of flowers will have to do - these were on the artist Wendy's table, ready to be thrown into the compost

an early trip tomorrow.. nothing to say today

nothing much to say today...but tomorrow, I am leaving early on a day trip with my friend Marion, to visit her sister at Mount Wilson on the other side of the mountains. [Marion's sister is lucky enough to live there].. will have lots of photos and stuff to tell tomorrow!
so you can see where I will be visiting.. here is a link : Mt. Wilson

lazy Sunday

a short bike ride to the Ori Cafe for breakfast. The Ori Cafe is situated in an old hotel in Springwood and is an award winning restaurant.
poached egg, sauteeed mushrooms & baby spinach leaves served on a homemade sweet corn fritter. soy latte.
then home again to sort through the 40 odd pot plants I have scattered around my garden & courtyards.

[the Ori Cafe where our daughter Sophie wishes to have her 21st birthday party in August. celebrating with a champagne breakfast.]

an autumn day in April

a long walk in Springwood, cup of chai latte with Phil & Wendy under their old persimmon tree, raking leaves, harvesting pumpkins, planting spring onions...

a few peeks into my life...

a gift

tonight, we had dinner with our friends Phil & Wendy who are moving down to the coast to start a new chapter in their life, in their new home ~ I was sitting there, fanning myself furiously with my hands while having a hot flush.. Wendy reached into her bag and gave me a fan. "from one menopausal woman to another" she said... 'this is from Japan, I carry it with me always, would you like it?'.....
we both giggled and nodded, understanding each other completely... I am going to miss them alot..

[today we chose all the bathroom fittings & tiles for Villa Maria... ]

a few things

[early this morning, I was hanging the first of my washing on the line, the cool autumn sun, shimmering through the colouring leaves and a bee snuffling amidst the borage, reminding me very much of the Lion among the poppies in Wizard of Oz]
I have two old flannelette pillow cases... what is it about them that is so comforting? the worn, soft pillow case against my face today as I napped in the sun in my sacred space...

[today, I had lunch with Avis and Bill & in return, I took a bowl of eggs from my chickens.. Avis was making zucchini fritters for their dinner and the eggs were put to good use]

I wrap my Avalon Wisdom oracle cards in an old hanky that was my Pa's. an old white hanky with 'P' embroidered in one corner. P for Percival. I wonder if that came from an Arthurian connection. I like to believe it did.

[the swedes have come up very well in my autumn vegie garden.. I hope we have enough cool weather to make them sweet for winter soups]

and I bless my drinking water ever day and place it on my altar.... because I read this recently:
Storing your water in and drinking from blue glass, restructures the water.
Sing into the water. Place it into a crystal bowl each morning and sound the bowl. Bless it. Put notes of intention beneath it. Speak your prayers to it.
And then drink it…..and feel it nourish and nurture you. That is the greatest blessing

so there is a little mix of my day today.

a little bit of blog housekeeping

at the moment, I am going to have to withdraw my energies from visiting blogs so much. I will still visit as I can, but
with the task of keeping Inglewood like a show home, and the garden tidy & ordered
and the wardrobe! [oh the wardrobe.. if i venture in there, I may never be seen again]..but it must be tidied and clothes sorted through..
& other sorting of all manner of things to be sold..
needless to say. I am finding my energies scattered. very scattered. I did consider closing the blog for the time, but I find it is a creative outlet for me...

but of course, then I feel guilty about not visiting your blog and repaying the kind comments, so if you feel that you don't wish to comment here, please don't feel obligated..
I guess this is what is known as blogging without obligations. however, your comments are still very welcome and I will try to reply by email..

while I was writing this post, I remembered 'blogging without obligation' from a few years ago.. and found the post & badge and I have put it into my sidebar..

and some words that i remembered from Daisy's blog:

" Blogging without Obligation, to me it means we are all busy people, we blog to put our thoughts down, to make friends with other bloggers and to receive and reply to comments. Now some people are lucky and can do this on a day to day basis, but some whether through family, jobs or just plain business doing things we enjoy, are not so on the ball as every day. Then that horrid sense of guilt and obligation creeps in, oh I better not go to bed until I have commented on so and so's blog, they might think I am not bothering anymore. This badge showing on my sidebar means, I am still visiting you and commenting, some days and weeks more than others, I work up my list and down my list of contacts, so not everyone gets a comment everyday. If I am busy I won't be around as much, but if it was anything drastic that was happening and I was not going to be around for a while I would somehow get a quick posting up to inform people. Let's keep blogging heartwarming and not let it descend into stress and disenchantment my motto will be WE LIVE FIRST, THEN WE BLOG, otherwise we would run out of things to blog about."

gee I miss Daisy.

a day spent with Jack

school holiday time here in Woodford..Jack my grandson came for the day.. and we did something fun, of his choosing . . .a trip into the valley via the Scenic Railway.

it all started here.. at the top of the stairs where Jack wanted his photo taken with the 3 white cockatoos that were feeding with the beautiful 3 Sisters behind him ~ we walked down the steps to board the carriage where Jack decided that he really didn't want to go through the tunnel into the dark. I promised him that i would hold his hand and used a reward of something at the shop if he was brave..

so we boarded the train, making sure we didn't get the front seat and off we went.. accompanied by Indiana Jones music and a multitude of tourists..


[he tried ever so hard to look brave]

arriving at the bottom we walked the short 10 mins to the other ride back up the mountain.. through ancient rainforests.

stopping every so often to look at the wise old trees and hoping to spot a native animal

[or even a lyrebird if you are very lucky]


and the promise of lunch...so what will we have?

Jack chose a pie and I thought the chicken wraps looked tempting... how very wrong I was. one bite into the chicken revealed a mouthful of fat. so it was promptly wrapped up and thrown into the bin.. I drank my soy tea in a paper cup.. amidst the legions of tourists and school children. oh how i hate those kind of places.. the things you do for your grandchildren!

but of course, no pies.. so what will it be? a sausage roll of course! which Jack ate with relish.. concentrating so very hard as he enjoyed every single mouthful.

following on from yesterday

not much happening today in Woodford.. the day was chilly ~ but a blue sky..
so I thought I would share some photos I took at the place where we had afternoon tea yesterday..
it was an old stone inn.. called the Black Swan.. gorgeously decorated with old bits..
some things that caught my eye:

this was an old wooden table that had a flour drawer underneath.. I love the chipped green paint.. with the scrubbed pine top.

mirrors always catch my eye..

the big branch looked brilliant surrounded by old bits of silver..

and like i said.. it was afternoon tea.. the cakes were all home-made.. so much to choose from. I was heard at one stage saying ' I will have one of everything'.. but of course, common sense won.. and I chose a coffee tart.. it was deliciously sinful. dutch husband shared with me and our friends each had a white chocolate cheese cake. i tasted it and it was a moment of absolutely pure pleasure.

just wondering if you would like me to take you for a walk around my vegie garden? video it and a commentary just like in my chook house?
hope your Monday is as glorious as mine!

what does an australian girl do on a lazy Sunday?

why, go on a bike ride of course!

for lunch,

via the beach road. [Austinmer Beach on an autumn day. Surf lifesavers sit and watch the swimmers and surfers]

with friends.[dutch husband & Fang (otherwise known as Rob) - not in the picture are Moi and miss Carol, Rob's partner who is a kindred sister soul ]

to a small village pub in the southern highlands..

'what would you like to drink?'... champagne cocktail for me.. thankyou.. so off to get drinks while we wait for lunch.

a quick look at the General store...

then back on the bikes to another little village for afternoon tea!

AND just what does it mean if you see two cars. two different cars. one in the morning and one in the afternoon. both had number plates with the letters GAB.. but numbers were different.. one had the numbers 111 and the other 444... I am thinking this is a sign from the angels.. GAB could mean Gabriel.. and triple numbers according to Doreen Virtue have a meaning... [tell me what you think]

a chandelier in the chicken house?

[my girls today, enjoy the comfrey]
(and at the end of my post, is a little video of my girls. If you listen carefully, you can hear my voice ~ what do you think of that?)

I love vegetable gardening! I cannot wait to get the keys to Villa Maria at the end of this month and then I can start to build & prepare a new vegie garden [ with the help and muscle of dutch husband of course!] but for now, I lovingly tend the garden of Inglewood. which is a beautiful thing to do, don't get me wrong. just it is time to move on and my spirit is that of an impatient person.

I watered the vegie garden early this morning.. my swedes are just poking their little leaves up out of the ground ~ peas still not to be seen and the leeks are starting to stand up

but the blackbird has discovered that he can fit through the wire and caused havoc among my beetroot seedlings.. not sure what I can do about that.. maybe lay some twigs across the ground around my plants?

[today, dutch husband & I cleaned out the hen house & yard. I raked up all the spent leaves & vegie scraps from the past week. And I washed the chandelier. Joe cleaned out the nesting boxes and replaced all the straw with nice clean bedding]

[they love their greens]
I harvested my comfrey that i have growing along the fence and gave the girls a big pile of it.. very good for them.

[and yes, I do have a chandelier in the hen house]
[the hen house, by the way, is known as Villa Eggplant from now on]..
it is not connected to electricity, it is more to make the room pretty. because we all know that chooks love pretty things... and of course, this is not an egg production hen house where they need light 24hours a day to produce. oh no! this is more like a retirement house for old hens.. because most of my hens are elderly [I guess we could call them crones].. sadly one of my little bantams died just last week.. about 8yrs of age.

and the little home movie from Villa Eggplant:



(let it load first, then watch it.. you can hear dutch husbands voice as well!)