Alice is on the nest...

Alice is on the nest.  Well, actually, Alice has been on the nest for weeks, but finally, rather than shooing her off, I decided to let her keep some eggs.  Alice, our tiniest hen, is an Ameraucana that occupies the lowest rung on the flock's social ladder.  Except for color, Alice is the antithesis of Big Mama, our huge Buff Orpington that went broody in January.  Alice is shy, timid, and frail.  Big Mama is bold, buxom, and brassy.  I had no doubt that Big Mama would be able to handle the rigors of brooding, bring her clutch to hatch, and guard her chicks with her life, but Alice...Alice is an entirely different bird.  When Big Mama went broody, I was afraid of her, not for her.  But Alice, poor, sweet Alice, is just a wisp of a thing.

Although Alice has been struggling to keep eggs for weeks, Saturday was different.  When I went out to collect eggs on Saturday, Alice had puffed up bigger than I thought possible (which still wasn't very big at all), and she had a fierce look in her eye.   The broom and I tried to reason with her, but finally, I took pity on her and decided to let her keep the three eggs she had gathered.  In fact, I rewarded her tenacity with four more.  Alice and her clutch of seven have since been moved to the "broody box" in the vestibule.  Will Alice be able to go the distance in this heat?  Only time will tell.  My prayer is that she doesn't end up paying the ultimate price in her bid for motherhood.

Heaven "Scent"

I have always wanted to grow sweet peas.  I have been told time and again how heavenly their scent is.  I have tried to grow sweet peas for several years, and each time I've tried, I've failed.  I don't like to fail.  I can grow anything, so why not a silly sweet pea?  And the one year I came close to success?  The dogs dug them up!

After the dog incident, I was ready to throw in the towel.  "Who cares how glorious their fragrance is," I thought to myself. "They have ugly foliage!"  But this spring, I decided to try one last time.  This year was going to be the year...sink or swim, baby, do or die!  I decided to go for broke and planted every sweet pea seed I had ever purchased.  Why not?  It was now...or never again!  And guess what?  I got sweet peas!  And guess what else?  Their fragrance was worth the wait...ABSOLUTELY DIVINE!

Carpe diem?

Carpe diem?  Why carpe diem?  What does it mean?

"Carpe diem" is a phrase from a Latin poem by Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus). The phrase is part of the longer "carpe diem quam minimum credula postero"  from Odes 1.11, popularly translated "seize the day, trusting as little as possible in tomorrow".  Carpe literally means to "pick, pluck, pluck off, or gather", but Horace uses the word to mean "enjoy or make use of".

"Tu ne quaesieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi

finem di dederint, Leuconoë, nec Babylonios

tentaris numeros. Ut melius, quidquid erit, pati!

Seu plures hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam,

quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare

Tyrrhenum, sapias, vina liques, et spatio brevi

spem longam reseces. Dum loquimur, fugerit invida

aetas: carpe diem quam minimum credula postero."

"Don't ask (it's forbidden to know) what final fate the gods have

given to me and you, Leuconoe, and don't consult Babylonian

horoscopes. How much better it is to accept whatever shall be,

whether Jupiter has given many more winters or whether this is the

last one, which now breaks the force of the Tuscan sea against the

facing cliffs. Be wise, strain the wine, and trim distant hope within

short limits. While we're talking, grudging time will already

have fled: seize the day, trusting as little as possible in tomorrow."

Call me a fatalist, but even the the Bible agrees that time is fleeting and life is but a vapor:

"...What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." (James 4:14 NIV)

"As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more." (Psalm 103:15-16 NIV)

So carpe diem!  Seize the day--THIS DAY--enjoy it, make use of it, squeeze every last drop out of it, for this day is all you truly have!