The tulip was almost past its best and since that picture was taken (a week ago) I chopped off its head.
How did I get to be this many years old and not know that spring bulbs, especially narcissi, should have their blooms cut off when they begin to fade. This is to prevent them from making seed. Gardener's Question Time educated me on this point several weeks ago and now I know why my daffodils don't do as well in their second and third years. I don't know if it applies to tulips but I decapitated them as well. Just in case.
I am expecting amazing results in Spring 2022. If I live that long.
Martha took this picture of me feeding Helen, my favourite hen. Judy and Ziggy are terribly jealous of her. Martha thinks I should change Helen's name to Henlen. She came up with a plan to photograph and name all the hens. I am to start a Word document as a record. We armed ourselves with a camera each and headed into the run. Oh, she was full of ideas. Martha loves naming animals.
I urged caution. Perhaps best not to name them all at once. If we rush into it I'd only get mixed up. So far we have,
Helen or Henlen, so-called because she is blind in one eye. For I was taken with the story of Helen Keller when I was a girl.
Jacqueline - a very posh hen we got from Clint.
Sugar - named by Martha after she hatched from an egg laid by her mother Flour, a bantam long since dead. There was another hatchling she named Fudge but he sleeps with the foxes now.
The other 'rooster' who might actually be a hen or gender fluid, Martha named Artemis. Martha reads a lot.
And a pale hen is to be called Peach.
The other six chickens are to be named another day.
