“’O where are you going?’ said reader to rider,
   ‘That valley is fatal where furnaces burn’”
 
Meeting riders like this hen every afternoon. They especially like to wander in the golden hour, before sunset. Where are you going?? There may not be ‘furnaces burning’, but there is Reynard or Tod, and his Vixen, and Foxen litter, and Eagles and Baza, and Falcon… “Don’t worry,” she tells me, “I come back for supper” :)
 
#runaway #escape #pastured #eggs #freedom #running #chicken #hen #pasturedeggs #freetoexplore #explorer #freerange #explore #comeback #intime
--from the poem "O Where Are You Going?" by the great W H Auden

It was an egg inside an egg! Our MONSTER egg we found on Friday, was an egg inside the egg, and it weighed a whooping 182grams!
 
Some young chicken was getting confused, she forgot to lay the egg yesterday...
#monster #egg #egginsideegg #double #twins #nestingdolls #pastured #weirdegg #bigegg #giant #giantegg #pasturedeggs

"I bought a Maserati
and a new Mercedes-Benz,
plus a brand new Lamborghini
I could show off to my friends.
...
For though it’s fun to be
the richest [dog] alive,
I’m sure I’ll like it better
when I’m old enough to drive."

-says one of our Maremmas, the only dog in the world who LOVES to get car rides. All of our Maremmas are either suspicious of the car, and only interested to 'mark territory' on the smelly tires, or scared of the car, they hate the vibrations and the noise; they also suspect a visit to the vet is coming! (trying to get a wild Maremma to the vet in a car is a WHOLE other story to tell).

But this guy, the minute you leave a car door open, he is up and inside, and he is settling comfortably, ready for some backseat driving!
#doginacar #backseat #driving #lovecars #Maremma #sheepdogs #pastured #eggs #farmlife #cars #showoff #dogdriver


from the poem "I Bought a Maserati", in the book "My Hippo Has the Hiccups" by Kenn Nesbitt, with modifications by Hilltops free range

Photography by Haydn