Komorebi (木漏れ日): 'tree,' 'escape,' and 'sun' put together in one word. The untranslatable Japanese word, which is easy to translate - pictorially - on the farm, on a frosty winter morning.
It means the light that shines through the trees, that intricate interplay between sun and branches.  The one that author C.S. Lewis called “shafts of delicious sunlight” and “pure and spontaneous pleasures”. How lucky the chickens and us are, to enjoy them.
 
#pure #pleasures #farmlife #images #untranslatable #Japanese #oneword #delicioussunlight #translate #winterlight #eggs #pastured #lightandtrees
 
 
--Photography by Haydn

"…so Nature’s wastefulness seems quietly obscene.  
It’s been doing that all week:
making beauty,
and throwing it away,
and making more.”
 
 
The chooks and us are trying to catch the beauty, and the fallen fence, very, very quickly, all week: beauty of the moment, before it is thrown away, to make some more, and again and again. 
#beauty #throwaway #pastured #chickens #bluesky #clouds #pasturedeggs #themoment #farmlife #liveinthemoment 
 
—from the poem “A Color of the Sky” by Tony Hoagland
Photography by Paula

A whole apple pie, two chocolate brownies with custard creme, two Spanish omelettes with sage and chopped onions, fifteen macarons with vanilla and raspberry crème in the middle - mmmm– all the things we can eat from the biggest egg we have ever had: 182g one egg!
It was, indeed a triple yolker!!!
 
#food #hungry #eggs #pastured #guinessrecord #biggestegg #thebiggest #worldrecord #big #giant #enormous
 
Photography by Haydn

“Aren't you cold and won't you freeze,
With branches bare, you winter trees?
You've thrown away your summer shift,
Your autumn gold has come adrift.

Dearie me, you winter trees,
What strange behavior, if you please!
In summer you could wear much less,
But come the winter – you undress!”
 
With our youngest flock, watching the bare arms of our winter trees, and wondering: Australian native trees undress their bark, European planted tress undress their leaves: why, indeed, in winter?
 
#trees #undress #winter #eggs #pastured #pasture #farmlife #wintersun #chickens #poetry #farming #poetryandfarming
 
--from the poem “Winter Trees” by Zoltan Zelk, a Hungarian poet.

“Be glad your nose is on your face,
not pasted on some other place,
for if it were where it is not,
you might dislike your nose a lot.
Imagine if your precious nose
were sandwiched in between your toes,
that clearly would not be a treat,
for you'd be forced to smell your feet.
…
Within your ear, your nose would be
an absolute catastrophe,
for when you were obliged to sneeze,
your brain would rattle from the breeze.
Your nose, instead, through thick and thin,
remains between your eyes and chin,
not pasted on some other place--
be glad your nose is on your face!”
The most magnificent nose – in my face – from The Apprentice (our Maremma who worked so well with our oldest dogs while in training, that he learned forever the name ‘The Apprentice’).
#nose #face #inyourface #Maremma #sheepdog #pasturedeggs #farmlife #poetry #farmingpoetry #poetryandfarming #yournose
--from the poem “Be Glad Your Nose is On Your Face” by the wonderful Jack Prelutsky (who also wrote the glorious poem “Last Night I Dreamt of Chickens”, on our blog since 2020).

"If I were short it would be fun,
I'd never bump my head,
And my feet would not get chilly
'cause they stick out of my bed."
 
[And] sometimes when you're trying to hide,
It's better to be small"
 
The sweetest moment when the puppies are just short enough to hide in between a flock of chickens 😊
 
#short #puppy #pastured #eggs #Maremma #puppies #lovepuppies #poetry #farmlife #hide #flockofchickens
 
"Tall and short poem" by Big Bird and Little Bird, The Sesame Street Treasury. Volume 14 Starring the number 14 and the letters U, V & W.
 
- Photography by Carla, with her favourite puppy

Can you see the chickens walk with a new swagger? 😃
Three new ribbons just arrived, from the Royal Easter Show 2024: we won the Champion award in two categories, as well as the Grand Champion award overall!
 
#swagger #awards #ribbons #sydneyroyalshow #showoff #eggs #pastured #awardwinning #again #champions

“The sky is all covered with cobwebs,
wisps of them, drifting so high
that probably no one could reach them
with a rag on a broom, and not a soul
is trying. How did it come to this?
Hundreds of people with time on their hands,
and not one broom in the air!”
 
This is all it takes sometimes: just be the first one to reach up 😊
 
#clouds #cobwebs #reachup #sunset #clouds #pastured #eggs #freerange #lookup #afternoonsky #poetry #farmlife #howcome #lookingforabroom
 
--from the poem “June Afternoon” by Ted Kooser and Connie Wanek, from their book Marshmallow Clouds

There'll be days like this, my mama said"
 
...when not one, but two tyres of the collection ute go bust, the chain on the machine breaks for no apparent reason, the gas bottle that looked heavy is actually finished.
 
Best time of days like this: the evening sunset, egg collection is done, eggs all packed, and truck is on the way.
 
#farmlife #breakdowns #pastured #eggs #freerange #tyres #utes #dayslikethis #mamasaid #lyrics and #farming
 
--from the lyrics to THE SHIRELLES song "Mama said"

“You ask for a poem.
I offer you a blade of grass.
You say it is not good enough.
You ask for a poem.
 
I say this blade of grass will do.”
 
Yes, the chook and I agree, a blade of grass is a whole poem. With the last two weeks left of summer, we can sit all sunset and contemplate the blades of grass, each taller than the car bonnet.
 
#bladeofgrass #summergrass #grass #hidden #pastured #eggs #pasturedeggs #farmlife #poetry #endofsummer #tallgrass #chicken #freetoroam #sunset #farming
-- from the wonderful poem “A Blade of Grass” by Brian Patten

Feeling eggstra special today at the egg farm. Enjoy a holiday to dye for 😃
#easter #eggpuns #pastured #eggs #dyedeggs #artandfarming #art #farm

We won the Grand Champion prize and the First prize in the 2024 Royal Easter Show Egg Competition! The winning eggs are still at the Judging table, if you would like to visit this Easter long weekend. The Poultry Pavilion is a lot of fun, with all shapes, sizes and colours of feathery creatures.
 
A massive THANK YOU to the whole farm team, without all of your hard work, this would not have been possible!
 
This is a third first prize for us at the Easter show, and we are grateful to all customers for supporting the best eggs in NSW 😊
 
This year, we also have a stall at the Royal Easter Show, would be happy to see you there!
 
#champion #eggs #pastured #2024royaleastershow #besteggs #hardwork #reward #teamwork
 

"When [feathered] wings are glistening in the beam
Of the low sun, and mountain-tops are bright,
Oh, let me, by the [Lachlan] valley-stream,
Wander amid the mild and mellow light;
And while the redbreast pipes his evening lay,
Give me one lonely hour to hymn the setting day."
 
My favourite time at the farm, when all the eggs are collected, and the evening light is golden on the feathered birds, and it’s time to look up at the sunset, for one lonely hour, and just breathe.
 
#sunset #hues #sunrays #feathers #glisten #mellowlight #pastured #eggs #farmlife #chickens #sundown #attheendoftheday #lonelyhour
 
--from the poem "A Walk at Sunset" by William Cullen Bryant
 
Photography by Paula

 Our farm stamp and a tasty egg for a blank canvas: that's all it takes sometimes to create art.
 
From our own budding Barbara Kruger (the American artist with words on her thought-provoking works): Lily, the creative talent.
Look out, and you might be lucky to find her creations in the packages this week :)
 
#art #farmlife #eggs #pastured #stamp #artist #creativity #thinkdifferent #wordsonart #letters #code #food

One is hiding and all twenty-three are seeking: they got the hide-and-seek game all wrong these chickens 😊 😃
 
Found this pretty fluffy bottom inside the hollow tree in one flock – the favorite place for games for our young chickens. All twenty-three friends were calling out and looking for her, and this one was hiding all the way inside the hollow tree trunk.
#hideandseek #backwards #pastured #eggs #chickens #hiding #treetrunk #play  

Incredible, exorbitant, extravagant, extreme, immoderate, inordinate and enormous: we have run out of words to describe this record-breaking egg, which tipped the scales at 138g this week! All records are broken, Guiness is preparing a completely new book, a new champion is crowned.
 
And we are in search of a new word for this specimen - 'egg' is too simple. We need something grander! Eggosaurus?  Egg-ephant? Gig-egg?
What is your word for this champion?
 
#giant #egg #champion #thebiggest #pastured #eggs #doubleyolk #worldrecord #enormous #extreme #incredible #recordbreaking #thebiggestegg #hugeegg #newword #nowords 
-- Photography by Haydn

"Joy does not arrive with a fanfare,
on a red carpet strewn with the flowers of a perfect life.
Joy sneaks in, as you pour a cup of coffee,
watching the sun hit your favourite tree, just right.
And you usher joy away,
because you are not ready for it.
Your house is not as it must be,
for such a distinguished guest.
But joy cares nothing for your messy home,
or your bank-balance,
or your waistline, you see.
Joy is supposed to slither through the cracks of your imperfect life,
that’s how joy works.
You cannot invite her, you can only be ready when she appears.
And hug her with meaning,
because in this very moment,
joy chose you."
 
We've had a lot of long days lately, crawling on hands and knees, settling our new chickens in. Early mornings, late nights, stressful emergencies.
 
And then you come across this: the perfect egg, perfectly placed on the perfect grass in the perfect light. And you realise: THE JOY! It does not matter that your clothes - and hair - have mud, poo, dirt, dust, grease, thorns, and gaping holes.
 
The perfect joy has arrived.
 
#thejoy #perfectegg #pastured #eggs #farmlife #perfectfind #hardwork #young #chickens
 
--from the poem "Joy" by Donna Ashworth

POV: when all your friends think it’s a shade, but you believe it’s a hammock 🤣🤣🤣
 
To be young and to think differently, this is all it takes to change the world. Just one hen with a vision, and just enough bravery to think outside the shade 🤣
 
#think #different #bebrave #bebold
#pastured #eggs #freedomtoroam #theview #hammock #topoftheworld #hen #young 

The best real estate on a rainy day: under the tractor, room with a view, watching the grass grow with every minute
 
#rainydays #pastured #eggs #freedomtoroam #tractor #dryplace #theview #grassgrow

"Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, anything."
 
After the chickens have been roaming through each paddock, they move to a new paddock, and we use the area for putting crops in. Chicken fertiliser is like gold, and with the recent wonderful rains, even in day or two, the ground is turning into a sea of green. Who wouldn't give anything for this brown-red gold?
 
 
#ploughed #chickenfertiliser #after #rain #green #grass #eggs #pasture #rotational #farming #cropping #browngold #soil #farming #sustainable

--quote from William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 1

That moment when you break 6 eggs and get 12 yolks 😊
Our double-yolkers, giant eggs, are often more than 100g each egg, and they always make me smile! 😊  The biggest one we measured so far weighed a whooping 128g! (see our blog with the biggest egg so far)
 
May everyone’s New Year be starting with double the joy - and double the rain for our Hilltops Area!
 
#giants #eggs #pastured #yolks #records #doublejoy #newyearjoy

"Ring out the old, and ring in the new,
Another year passes, but one thing is true,
A thousand small blessings have slipped through my hands,
Moments uncountable, vast as the sands."
 
Looking forward to a new year of green pastures, clearer skies and uncountable small blessings!
Happy New Year to all.
 
#newyear #newday #Maremma #farmlife #pastured #eggs #hens #happynewyear
-- from the poem "Happy New Year!" by Angela Jelf
 
Photography by Haydn