Friday, April 25, 2014

Painters and landscapers were here this morning by 7 AM, putting the finishing touches on this week's work, just in time for an afternoon of rain, and even some lightning and thunder.  The timing of the rain was great, as it soaked all the new plantings, and was followed by some late afternoon sun.  Stephen went out to do some driveway maintenance after the rain, and we walked around all the garden areas before dark to make sure nothing had been damaged by the heavy rain.  Everything looked fine, and I took some pictures of some of the little "vignette" areas Patsy and Heather created.  The wide vistas of lawns and mountains here are beautiful, but I do appreciate all the little mini-landscapes within the larger property.

Entry at The Cottage

Next to the sidewalk, The Cottage

Walkway to the Carriage House
 (I call this area the Secret Garden)

The Birdcage and its garden

Next to the door into the Carriage House

This morning, all the hens were quite lively, all enjoying pecking in the grass and gobbling up their feed.  They seem to have become accustomed to all the activity here.  This afternoon while it was still raining, I looked out to check on them, expecting them to be sheltering in their upstairs boudoir, but they were all sitting in the grass looking out, seemingly unperturbed.  Here are a couple of pics from this morning when I had just opened their upstairs door to let them out.  You'll note that Stephen devised a clever way to fasten the door open, with a string which has a washer tied to the end, to we can fasten the door open in the morning and not worry about the wind blowing the door shut and keeping the girls from being able to get into their upstairs room.

So far we have kept the coop within sight of our windows
so we can keep an eye on them.