Meet Claire

Okay, a little blurry...but this is Claire. She is the only chicken I've named so far. Truthfully, I can't tell most of them apart. Claire is the lightest yellow and still has a really fuzzy head. She is also the one that comes running as soon as she sees me and hops into my hand. If I am wearing something longsleeved, Claire runs up my arm and sits on my shoulder where she proceeds to pull on loose hair strands and peck the sides of my mouth and ears. The bigger Claire gets, the more this is starting to hurt. She is pecking pretty hard now.
Right here I am sure she is looking at hair strands just waiting to hop back on my shoulder. I probably shouldn't encourage this behavior. Buff Orpingtons can weigh up to 10 pounds when fully grown. Having a 10 pound chicken flying up on your shoulder and pecking the sides of your face will quickly convert me to a shut-in.









And here are some more photos of the rapid progression of Spring in the yard. I feel like I'm missing it half the time.

Do tulips multiply? I didn't think they did. I swear there were not this many red tulips in this bed last year.










My little "Jane" Magnolia that I planted last year. She had 8 blooms on her this year. And I didn't realize that Magnolias were fragrant. I can't wait til she grows up.










I seem to have the perfect environment for violets. They grow everywhere and I pull literally hundreds out of my beds and in the garden every year, yet come spring new ones pop up everywhere. They are slowly taking over parts of the lawn. I have white violets, purple violets and variegated ones. While lovely, they are becoming a bit of a nuisance, bordering on invasive. If left unchecked in one of my perennial beds, they would choke things out in one season. Who knew violets had a dark side?