It no longer freezes at night, buds are swelling on our trees, and our chicken Baracka wants to mate. Spring has arrived. For my part, I frantically plant seeds that my books tell me I could have planted last month, some outdoors, some in. Two weeks ago I planted tomato seeds from 2008 in egg cartons in the kitchen windows. I also started other longer season crops like onions, peppers, and eggplant (yes, I may be dreaming).

A week later the tomato seeds started germinating and I delight in logging the number of new sprouts to track germination rate. ‘Cause I’m like that.

Although enchanted by my tomato plantlets, the coolest result of the germination experiment was the various kinds of fungi speckling the surface of my soil after some very hot humid days under plastic.

Outdoors, Scott cut down the sad eucalyptus, which was irrevocably damaged by the unusually cold weather this winter. It reveals a startlingly unpleasant view of our neighbours’ house but we’ll plant a new tree and continue work on our composting fence (click on photo to see fence in more detail).

Finally, a chicken story. Of course. Baracka has started squatting for us. I had heard of this, but had not understood. It means she is ‘assuming the position’, as though we were roosters. When we reach down to pet her, she squats, bracing with her little feet, sticks her shoulders out, and raises her tail. We pet her and after a couple of seconds evolution tells her the deed is done. She stands up, puffing her feathers to twice her size. If her feedback circuits tell her it was particularly good, she swishes her tail back and forth as she walks away. Fascinating! And hopefully leading soon to eggs!

If I can get a photo of her doing it, I’ll post it here. Cheers!