Every so often, one of the ladies lays a strange egg – unusually shaped, colored, or, like this one, sized. It’s just a reproductive quirk, but fairy eggs are always fun to find and this one was ready for an adventure around the farm!
A “fairy” (or less whimsically, “fart”) egg looks like an egg laid by a tiny chicken, and it’s even smaller than a pullet egg. This one was about the size of a WHOPPER malted milk ball, but it had the classic coloring of a Copper Marans egg: deep brown with even darker speckles.
With a very warm spring upon us here, the plants are in full growth mode and many flowers have begun to bloom. The violets are notably prolific this season, dotting the landscape with their amethyst beauty.
The clove currant seems to be blooming particularly early this year. Two years it ago, it bloomed in early May; last year, in mid-April. I can certainly understand it being confused – temperatures here have been unseasonably warm, reaching into the 80’s already.
The hardy lemon balm has reasserted itself after the winter. Seeds it dropped last fall are now germinating, and tiny plants are sprouting in pots where last year’s mature plants grew.
Lovely Virginia bluebells were demurely bowing their heads in a shady spot near an old yew tree. They bloom for a couple of weeks, then are gone until next season. While they attract pollinators, I haven’t seen many around to enjoy the bluebells’ nectar.
Our adventure concluded with a moment atop a very old stone, one of many used by the masons who built walls, hearths, and floors here from it. The stone contains traces of past lives, like embedded seashells, as well as supporting current life such as moss and lichen…an interesting dichotomy of old and new.
