Monday March 12 2007

Lynn Feeding Our Chickens

In front of the house was Kalmia Street, either of dirt or with a lot of dirt on the pavement. There was a lot of sandy dirt everywhere. The sidewalks were buckled and had big cracks in them. This was caused by the earthquakes and the big cement squares might be an inch or two higher or lower than the one next to it and tilting crazily. The quiet shady street was lined with pepper trees, which had rough brown trunks, lacy leaves drooping on long limbs, and clusters of dark red peppercorns hanging among the leaves. I always thought pepper trees were the most beautiful. And there were tall graceful eucalyptus trees. Their smooth multi colored bark peeled off like paper. Sycamores and oaks also grew on the hills.

The Kalmia Street neighborhood didn’t have many landscaped yards. Of course that was my limited view, since at that age I never went beyond our own yard unattended. You could often see the nostalgic image of women hanging their laundry in back yards and visiting over the fence. I remember running through the clean sunny smelling sheets and clothes and feeling them blow about in the breeze and hearing Mother scolding me about getting the clothes dirty or causing them to fall in the dirt. The lines were supported where they sagged too low with vertical boards that could be moved about. So the whole laundry could go cascading to the ground if the boards were knocked down. It was a comforting, natural feeling to be close to my Mother and the routine of her work.

In the back yard were grass, fig trees, a tall weathered unpainted wooden fence, some rabbits in their cages and….the chickens. They were white with bright red combs. Sometimes I got to feed the chickens grain out of a pail or coffee can. The chickens seemed very big and tall and frightened me if they got too close. They seemed quite fierce when they came pecking after the grain. They scared me, but I kept asking to feed the chickens each day. I loved that, and its one of my best memories at that age. One of my favorite pictures of me at this age is of me feeding the chickens. They look nearly as tall as my waist.

Lynn and Chickens on Kalmia Street

Above are a few paragraphs from "The Book" and the photos are me feeding those chickens - just for fun!.....Wow, I just noticed........I STILL have that same stupid cowlick that sticks up in back.

Its a beautiful blue sky day here, there are some puddles out the back door. But I don't have much new to write about at the moment. Getting prepared to go down to Rock Springs tomorrow for Joe's Laser treatment with the eye doctor. So will catch up in a few days.