We've had a cooler summer than usual, and some of the flowers have bloomed a bit later as a result. Here is a photo of South African crocosmia lilies from last year:
Here is the same patch this year:
It's much thinner this year, because earlier this spring I dug most of the plants out and spread out through out the farm. These are the few that got left behind. They should multiply now that they have more space. The transplants have been doing pretty well:
I wasn't sure if they were going to bloom this year because of the transplanting and the cool weather, but they have.
I expect they will be larger next year, when their roots have become more established.
Here is one of the clumps I planted near the edge of the forest:
The three small birds in the foreground are the last of the baby chickens that hatched out this year.
Speaking of chickens, my favorite one, Turenditto, the Cochen-Bantum hybrid, died last night. It was sad because she was the most tame chicken I had. She was the first one to hatch this year, and I had to raise her because her mother abandoned her. Here she is at 3 weeks old:
She turned out to be really interesting, and I had hoped to breed her. But she had some trouble integrating with the other chickens. Somehow, she got an injury on her wing joint. The injury was hidden, I didn't notice it until she started acting droopy and listless. I think she got an infection. I put her in a cage and moved her inside to keep her warm. We put neosporin on the injury. She was eating and drinking yesterday, so I had high hopes she would recover, but this morning she was dead.
I don't have a photo of her all grown up, but she turned out beautiful. Her feathers grew in two-toned. I wasn't expecting her to die so soon, I thought I had plenty of time for photos. This video clip from a few months ago is the only footage I have of her at her oldest:
Farm Report: two chicks in a screen test
Well that's life on a farm. Things are born, and things die. I'm glad I had her while I did, it was a real treat. I'm going to bury her this afternoon, under a clump of crocosmia lilies.
End of Farm Report.
For more farm photos (better ones, actually), see Pat's recent post:
Garden report - our first naked lady of the year
