weekending: long and sunny

we started the weekend the way we pretty much always do between May and October, the market.  it was a very full and lively market day with a great turnout, good music, and lots of socializing.  Mike collected his prize of one dozen eggs after correctly guessing the weight of an enormous egg last week.  how's that for exciting?  we ate pastries and drank coffee and then sat in the shade eating boiled peanuts (we) and sweet roasted nuts (she).  much of the remainder of the weekend turns into a big blur in which most time was spent either outside chasing chicks and gardening or organizing/shifting around furniture inside. 

that is buttercup in front there.  the scraggliest looking one, and the smallest.  but don't let her size fool you, she is one tough little bird.  these girls are somewhere in the vicinity of seven weeks old and just today we got the old chicken tractor cleaned out and ready for them so they can stop sleeping in a crate in the garage that isn't really a garage.  they have inspected it and seem to think it's alright.  tonight we'll herd them in there and close the door in an attempt to get them thinking it is home.  they get along alright with the bigger girls, and the hope is to eventually have everyone in the coop together.

Sunday morning was coffee outside in a lounge chair, with Claire at my side turning her chair into a fort.  there were magazines, a letter to write (her seventh so far, I write one to her each year at Mother's Day and on her birthday), and jam-making preparations.

today I made some jam while Mike was over at a friend's house seeing to some...... umm....... well, he was there to kill some chickens, basically.  they have more land than we do and so they raised several meat birds and we chipped in by buying feed and him going over to help out with the aforementioned deed.  fitting, being Memorial Day and all.  and yes, I get that I was swooning over baby chicks in the top photo and ending here with talk of chicken death.  I was a vegetarian for many years and though I do eat meat now, quite selectively, it is still a weird and heavy thing for me sometimes.  so much to think about there.  but alas, I'm not going to do all of that thinking here.

and so~  jam, chicken, eggs from the hens who will more likely than not live out their lives as pets here in our yard after they stop laying (see? weird stuff, I know- love some animals, eat others... makes no sense) and then some garlic scapes as well.  do you know about these?  they are like the flower buds of hardneck garlic varieties.  cut them off and cook them and they taste like garlicky green beans.  mmm-mmmm good.

right now there is an apple pie cooling on the counter and I need to get ready to go meet some friends for a little get together.  tomorrow is my seventh to last day of work before school (and therefore, after school art programs of course) are out for the summer.  wooohoooooo!


weekending with amanda