HILLTOPS FREE range eggs

Cloud illusions

1/15/2026

“Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way”

The hens and I, enjoying some ice cream castles in the air

#clouds #illusion #sky #farmlife #pastured #eggs #cloudy #lookup #up
—from the song”Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell

Hiding hiding

1/8/2026

“I'm hiding, I'm hiding
And no one knows where;
For all they can see is my
Toes and my hair”
..Lost all my hens in the summer grass today
#chickens #hiding #pasture #pasturedeggs #summer #grass #hide #hiding #poetry #farmlife
-from the poem “Hiding” by Dorothy Keeley

Merry Christmas!

12/25/2025

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!
Hope you have Joy in your heart, and plenty of Eggs to cook up a storm!

#eggs #christmas #cooking #christmastree #pasturedeggs

Behind the clouds, and after the rain

12/19/2025

“…Behind, clouds of glory are sailing,
Sunbeams, golden, are trailing;
Through the gloom, a smile I see,
The sun is shining on me,
...
Therefore, have no fear of clouds,
In the calm of the morning they shroud;
For behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the sun, and its glory entwining;
Take heart, and have faith in the morrow.”

After every hard rain, the sunshine comes sparkly shiny and glorious!
There have been so many long days of hard work at the farm lately, we are ready for the sparkly sun rays now, we have faith in the morrow 😊

#hardwork #pastured #eggs #farmlife #sunafterrain #aftertherain #sunrays #glorious #sun #pasturedeggs #poetry
--from the poem "The Rainy Day" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Photography by Haydn

Butternut squash egg

12/5/2025

The butternut squash egg :) special #thanksgiving edition . #butternutsquash #egg #pastured #eggs #weird #eggs

Photography by Haydn

The Face

11/27/2025

"If one could have that little head of hers
Painted upon a background of pale gold,"
...
Then her lithe neck, three fingers might surround,
How it should waver on the pale gold ground,
Up to the fruit-shaped, perfect chin it lifts!
...
All heaven, meanwhile, condensed into one eye
Which fears to lose the wonder, should it wink."

#face #theface #cuteface #chicken #eggs #pasturedeggs #pasture #freedom #poetry #farming #beauty #hen #cute
-- from the poem "A Face" by Robert Browning
Photography by Haydn

The Grass is Happy

11/20/2025

“The grass is happy
To run like the sea, to be glossed like a mink’s fur
By polishing wind.”

It’s hard to show but I can be completely hidden by the grass at the farm right now! Can’t find any chickens 😊 #tall #grass #pasture #pasturedeggs #highgrass #farmersdream #green #eggs

-from the poem “Hay” by Ted Hughes

View from my office

11/13/2025

The view from my office :D #myoffice #farmlife #eggs #pastured #pasturedeggs #view #window #office

Wash away the dust of everyday life

11/7/2025

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
Thank you to Emilie and Marnie from our team, for washing away the everyday dust and bringing a smile to us all. We love the doodle eggs so much, but if some survive until the weekend, we will bring them for you at the farmers markets this weekend 😊

#eggs #art #pastured #doodle #pasturedeggs #farmlife #inspired
-- quote by Pablo Picasso

Be drunk: on wine, poetry or virtue

10/30/2025

“You have to be always drunk. That’s all there is to it—it’s the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually drunk.
But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. “
Our newest flock, all drunk on fresh grass, sunshine and cool water 😊
#drunk #pastured #eggs #freedom #alwaysbedrunk #poetry #farmlife #newlife #new #explore #pasture #green #pasturedeggs #virtue

-from “Be Drunk” by Charles Baudelaire

Under the Tree

10/25/2025

“I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.”

Both alpacas and chickens agree. There are bugs plenty, shade is lovely in the hot October, and the ‘Roman’ dust baths are one of life’s highlights. 😆 This week our alpacas joined the chickens in one flock; their work with the lambs is finished for the season.
#tree #lovelytree #alpacas #chickens #pasturedeggs #eggs #poetry #shade #undertheshade
-- from the poem “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer

The 'sausage egg'

10/16/2025

Have you seen the sausage egg? 😊
It’s an egg that’s long like a sausage. A real ‘weiner’! 😊 How do you make an [egg] sausage roll? Push it down a hill 😊 That’s what this chicken must have done 😊

#fun #egg #pastured #eggs #sausage #eggsausage #sausageegg #longegg #funnyegg #jokes #weirdegg

A Single Flower

10/9/2025

"A single flower, and nothing more,
a single flower is all we'll be.
...
grass in the wind, and nothing more,
grass in the wind is all we'll be."

Miraculously, this purple poppy survived the chickens pecking, the cockatoos grabbing, and the sudden heavy rain and wild winds we had this week.

#survivor #flower #singleflower #poppy #purplepoppy #grass #oneflower #poetry #pastured #eggs

--from the poem "Give me your hand" by Gabriela Mistral

Photography by Haydn

On your toes, and over your shoulder

10/2/2025

“When [chickens] aren’t asking questions
They’re making suggestions
And when they’re not doing one of those
They’re either looking over your shoulder or stepping on your toes
And then as if that weren’t enough to annoy you
They employ you.”
This is the reality of who runs the farm always on our toes and in our faces #theboss #eggs #pastured #therealboss #inyourface #poetry #pasture #green #grass
—from the poem “More About People” by Ogden Nash, with slight modification by Hilltops free range @hilltopsfreerange

Freedom for the soul

9/25/2025

"A league and a league of marsh-grass, waist-high, broad in the blade,
...Somehow my soul seems suddenly free"

We could not find a better way to say it, Spring is in the farm.
#pasture #pastured #eggs #chickens #grass #green #waistdeep #spring

--from the poem "The Marshes of Glynn" by Sidney Lanier

Dinner Banquet, farm style

9/18/2025

The Presidential-Royal State Banquet Dinner, Australian farm-style version, all pomp and circumstance , is served.😊 We also have chicken and eggs on the menu (‘Eufs’ et ‘Poulet’, to be exactly as they wrote on the menu); we also have 160 distinguished VIP guests; we also have the finest local Spring paddock produce 😊. And of course, some uninvited guests lurching behind the fence!

#statedinner #banquet #farmstyle #chickens #eggs #pasturedeggs #pasture #bestproduce #pompandcircumstance #royal #dinner #dinnerisserved #kangaroos #roos #joke

Raw Snacking

9/11/2025

“A Bird, came down the Walk -
He did not know I saw -
He bit an Angle Worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw”

The wonderful news from the second week of a wild, wet spring, with tornados(!) near the farm: plenty of raw fellows for the hens to snack on!
#worms #snacks #rawfood #pastured #eggs #pasture #freerange #spring #bird #grass #green #rawsnacking
--from the poem “A Bird, came down the Walk” by Emily Dickinson

Green skin after winter

9/4/2025

“Patient, plodding, a green skin
growing over whatever winter did to us, a return
to the strange idea of continuous living despite
the mess of us, the hurt, the empty.”

Yes, we will take it all, all the different shades of green, Spring! And we are not giving up. Despite whatever winter did to us all.

#spring #green #mess #pastured #eggs #farmlife #greens #poetry #notgivingup

-- from the poem “Instructions on Not Giving Up” by Ada Limón

False Spring

8/28/2025

Fake Spring, False Spring, we are so over you. Chickens ran with joy at the golden wattle and the warm evening we had on Monday, only to have frostbite, blistering wind and rain today.
“In those days, the spring always came finally but it was frightening that it had nearly failed.”
Nearly failed this week, dear Spring, please try again next week!

#failed #spring #falsespring #fakespring #failedspring #wattle #bloom #golden #farmlife #eggs #pastured #pasturedeggs #waiting

-- from Ernest Hemingway, “A Moveable Feast”

A Little Love

8/21/2025

“Give me hunger, pain and want,
Shut me out with shame and failure
... [but]
Let me go to the window,
Watch there the day-shapes of dusk
And wait and know the coming
Of a little love. “

At the end of the day, a hard, hard day, all we need is to look at a window: a little love is coming. #sunset #littlelove #hardday #poetry #farming #eggs #pasturedeggs #pasture #aftertherain #dusk #beauty #beautiful #sun #light #sky
--from the poem “At A Window” by Carl Sandburg

The colours of the farm

8/15/2025

“My skin is kind of sort of brownish
Pinkish yellowish white.
My eyes are greyish blueish green,
…
And all the colors I am inside
Have not been invented yet.”

The favourite colours at our farm: brownish blueish greenish wonderful #colours #eggs #pastured #farmlife #favouritecolours #allthecolours #colors #brown #blue #green #pasturedeggs

--from the poem “Colors” (American spelling of course!) by Shel Silverstein

Photography by Mario

The world is created again every morning

8/7/2025

“Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange
sticks of the sun”

Starting early with frost on the paddocks, the orange ball in the sky, going until the sun goes down, and getting ready to do it all over again tomorrow.
#farming #hardday #work #eggs #pastured #pasturedeggs #frost #inthepaddocks #winter #alloveragain #again

-from the poem “Morning Poem” by Mary Oliver

"If you so much as dare to speak"

7/31/2025

"The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with [a July thing]
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of [Spring].

But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of [June]."

And dogs, and hens, and humans are back to needing extra fur and new thick jackets, don't we ever dare to speak about Spring again :)

#cold #winter #frost #snow #pastured #eggs #farmlife #poetry #freerange
--from the poem "Two Tramps In Mud Time" by Robert Frost, our favourite chicken farmer and poet. Slight modifications by Hilltops free range to suit the southern hemisphere seasons of the year.
Photography by Mario

Loss

7/24/2025

"There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?

Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.”

We lost one of our dogs. Lost part of our heart. Poetry always puts it in the best possible way. RIP.
#loss #dog #sad #farmlife #poetry #Maremma #bestdogs #grief

--from the poem “The Power of the Dog” by Rudyard Kipling
Photography by Haydn

A rock, A Tree, A Chicken

7/17/2025

“A Rock, A River, A Tree” and “The dinosaur, who left dry tokens | Of their sojourn here | On our planet floor”: it’s all here at Hilltops free range farm.

Chickens are in essence what we have left of dinosaurs, isn’t it? Just looking at them, with the red rock, and our red earth and the tree, feels prehistoric and primordial. Solid and unwavering.

#tree #rock #chicken #dinosaur #earth #pastured #eggs #pasture #farmlife #poetry #prehistoric #land
--from the poem “The Rock Cries Out to Us Today” by Maya Angelou
Photography by Haydn

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