30 days of beautiful: day 30

~happy to have a homestead~

I am really glad to have our lil' farm. Well, chickens and a vegetable garden. :) I'm glad we can provide our own eggs and some of our produce. It really is a joy to take care of the hens and garden. I love being in the sunshine picking beans, searching for strawberries, or laughing at the chickens' antics. I have beauty in my backyard everyday.

30 days of beautiful: days 28-29

I procrastinated, it got later and later, and before I knew it, the lighting was bad. So I waited for this morning to take yesterday's picture. Here's what I meant to take yesterday. 

~feather fresh~

Aaand today's.

~bean bee~

30 days of beautiful: day 27

~this book...warm, funny, colorful, real~

This book is by Willa Cather. I'm reading it for a summer book club, and you should read it too! It has been excellent so far. It makes me want to visit Nebraska. :)

30 days of beautiful: day 26

~harvest~

30 days of beautiful: day 25

~that lavender from day 1, now decorating my room~

30 days of beautiful: day 24

~the Celestial City~

30 days of beautiful: day 23

~the calm after the storm~

It was a beautiful evening. The air was cool. There was a pink haze everywhere. The sky was like a cathedral's ceiling, except for a band of bright sunny-afternoon-blue. Two lovely does visited the field behind our house. 

Thunderstorm day.

30 days of beautiful: day 22

~moonlight~

30 days of beautiful: day 21

~glow~

30 days of beautiful: days 19-20

Stuff happened, but mostly I forgot. This was taken today, but it is what I meant to take yesterday evening. 

~the aftermath of a jolly good time at my sister's house: lemon meringue and chocolate pudding pies~

 Aaaand today's.

~she's a comin'~

30 days of beautiful: day 18

~dinner al fresco: crispy fish, basil-parsley pesto, broccoli, sweet potato fries, and coleslaw~

30 days of beautiful: day 17

~elephant pants is happy~

(picture courtesy of my brother...pardon the chipped nail polish that is fortunately blurry)

Feelin' hippie in these, especially when I was hanging out with my chickens and doing stuff in the vegetable garden. #crunchy

30 days of beautiful: days 7-16

I decided to do a collage of our trip, since one picture a day wouldn't cover it all. 

Oh The Places We Went: Montreal, Quebec city (old and new towns), Chateau Frontenac, visited the White Mountains of NH, Dover NH, a little town in Maine, the Marginal Way, Portsmouth NH, Danbury CT, and back home.

Oh The Things We Saw: puppies, lots of smokers, runners/bikers/general athletic activity, old architecture, cobblestone streets, window boxes, a donkey, chickens, pigeons, cute little schoolchildren, tourist traps, cannons, rooftop gardens, Fiats, bicycles, carriages, rivers, mountains, a porcupine, flowers everywhere, the Atlantic, and big rocks.

Oh The Things We I Ate: duck leg confit, créme brulee, crepe, POTATOES, gelato, french onion soup, bread and butter, eggs Benedict, yellow watermelon, and all sorts of deliciousness cooked up by my brother and sister-in-law (including more créme brulee).

It was grand.

Here are yesterday's and today's pictures.

~fennel in the garden~

~in my own little corner~

30 days of beautiful: day 6

~golden beans~

Tomorrow I'll be off for Canada. I will try to remember to take a picture a day--I'm sure there will be lots of beautiful things! 

30 days of beautiful: day 5 / Update #11

~poor Bella~

Why a chicken, you may ask. Even more so, why a bad picture of a chicken? To answer the last question, the camera was running out of batteries, so I had to do it quick. The first question will take little longer.

Li'l Bella has sour crop crossed with impacted crop. Or something like that. It's a little gross, so be warned. I isolated her (on our front porch) for two weeks, giving her only water with apple cider vinegar, yogurt, and olive oil. I also massaged her bulbous crop everyday. I was trying to make her throw up, but it only worked twice. She seemed to get better at one point, but in the end we were right back where we started. I let her rejoin the flock (where she was pecked almost incessantly) to see what would happen. Yesterday, I successfully made her throw up four times, and this morning she looked so much better. 

As the day wore on, her crop filled up with food (like it should), but it got bloated again (like it shouldn't). I think earlier in the spring (it's been like this for at least a month and a half) she ate really long grass and then ate straw in her little cage, which created a hard ball in her crop. It can't pass on, so she still looks big.

After lots of hard work, it's wonderful to see her doing even the tiniest bit better. I hope and, yes, pray that she will continue to be all right. Update later.

30 days of beautiful: day 4

~Zephaniah 2:11~

I've been reading through the minor prophets lately, and it has been really good. They are constantly describing God's might and works. It makes me in total awe of our Lord.

30 days of beautiful: day 3

~lone flower~

30 days of beautiful: day 2

~wind art~

30 days of beautiful: day 1

This month I'm going to do a blogpost a day highlighting at least one beautiful thing I saw that day (though I'll probably have to write a combined post for the days we will be in Canada). I came up with this idea in March, when I was just longing for color and light (you know how dreary that middle month can be...). Enjoy!

~some of my favorite colors~