Well, ok.  It is not really in Africa — it just over the Georgia line in South Carolina. And on this farm she has some chicks — eee eye eee eye oh!  Meet one of them:

These feathers belong to Earl, who is a Yankee Chicken — Rhode Island Red.  We were hoping that he would accidentally shed some of these tail plumes for a collection of ephemera; alas, it was not to be.

Next, we shall meet Star, whose full name is Star Light.  She was busy eating dinner when this shot was snapped.

Some of my favorite little critters on the farm were the Bantee Chickers, the star attraction of whom was Russell Crow!  His little “crow” is so cute and sounds like he’s only halfway into puberty (I hear him out in the chicken house now!).  He seems to be doing this job, however — as the henhouse is full of eggs!  Meet Russell and his friends:

And THIS is the egg that I found in Russell’s henhouse:
 This does not look like a hen’s nest … and it isn’t.  I put the egg in the stock tank — turned Iris garden (where the asparagus is planted) for safekeeping while we fed the horses.  It is a tiny egg.

Of course, it’s important to meet the “farmer” — and here is Debra.  She’s in the kitchen (not with Dinah) cooking up an Orange Pot Roast (more on that story later) while dabbling with her new watercolour paints.

This shot was snapped out at the little barn in the rosemary patch.  Russell is just coming into view around the corner.  We call this picture “Rosemary Chicken”, but it is so not edible!

It has been such a lovely visit at Debra’s farm, and I am sorry that it has come to an end.  She has assured me that I will be invited back again.   I am looking forward to being here in the spring to see some wildflowers blooming at the edge of her woods — and maybe there will be baby chickens!

And so for now, it’s The End!  This is the other end of Paddy, one of my new horsie friends.