Chicken Bonding

My chooks gravitate around me whenever I’m working in the garden. Being a sunny and warm day today, I definitely made progress on the planting front. Looking up from my intense concentration about which flower to put in which container, I felt a presence of chirpers and cluckers around me. It’s no wonder. Some were even under the rustic table I was trying to work at and others were just a few feet away. Apparently, it was cleaning time for feather pruning and most had their heads in their hard-to-reach places, almost mirroring my own focused concentration, chicken style. Just like me, really. I’ve imprinted on this mob of unruly poultry.
Neurotic mistress, neurotic flock. But I don’t care anymore. So what? There are worse crimes.
So, while I dithered endlessly over which task I should do (quickly but rather poorly) next, a group of about 20 chickens enveloped me in every direction. Good thing I like birds. But they were just doing their thing and sitting where there was maximum sun. Some looked all puffy and comatose. Others were cleaning their feathers to beat the band.
And by the by, my darling mate suggested that I pick up the countless chestnuts that he threatened he’d feed to the rats (wherever they are) and so before starting my garden regeneration project I stooped over for at least a half an hour and walked like that for most of the day afterwards. But I did find gorgeous chestnuts to roast, if we so choose, and I’ve taken a few shots of them to prove it. I am always a bit gobsmacked to see the formidable hull covering the nutmeats inside. They resemble little lime green maces when they first develop in spring and now, by the end of autumn, they are a reddish brown color and still look quite daunting. Most of the chestnuts were outside of these hulls but I captured a few and snapped them for posterity. So, all in all I had a pleasant late morning and early afternoon outside on a very pleasant day for a change that was almost balmy.