The Life and Times of the Plume — Page 261

Vesper, Judith & Butts

April 15, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

The girls are starting to grow feathers! Can you believe how much they have grown since last week? I’ve also noticed that they have formed a strong sisterly bond in the past few days. They do not like to be apart from each other which makes holding them a literal handful. If I take one chick out of the brooder the remaining chick will call and call for her sister and even leap up on top of the food and water jars where she’ll stomp around in great distress. When I return the missing chick to the brooder they snuggle up, as if to say, “Oh sister, I missed you…” It’s great. Their flocking instincts have kicked in!

Dog and chick friendship continues to impress and develop! I will be sure to film the experience for you sometime this week so you can witness, in person, Farley’s boredom with the girls.

I will confess, I think Judith has a cuter butt. Who gets your number one chicken butt vote? Judith (yellow) or Vesper (black)?

Filed Under: chickens, vesper and judith

So Let The Sun Shine In

April 14, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

The longer daylight hours have me in a tizzy.

I’m filled with energy this time of year!

Look at this:

When I wake up in the morning I step into my shower, into the light that pours through this large window, I water my plants as I deep condition. I inspect my orchids for new leaves and roots. I snap off sections of spent fern. I pour a couple of drops of sweet orange oil into the hot water as it falls and inhale deeply. But the most activating ingredient of all of these is the daylight — bright and new — falling in the window of this room.

The long smile of sunlight pours in the windows, sinks into my hair and skin. It thaws me, inch by inch. My creative river is flowing like a glacial torrent from crevices of blue and layered ice as far as the eye can see. It’s fare thee well to Winter, 4×4 traction, salts and shovels, wind like icy knives and forever expanding white in all directions.

There’s a buttery glow to all I witness. I take on more than I can handle in a day. I work until 7PM, absentmindedly (because the sun is still shining). When I come in for an afternoon snack, I’m shocked by the time on the clock. I leap into running shoes and shorts and take Farley for a quick spin on the side of the mountains.

The air up there is thick with the songs of meadowlarks.

There’s a brisk green pushing forth.

There’s the adamant cackling of pheasant and sharptail grouse spinning up like music from the height of the sage and cheatgrass.

Patchwork nests. Young things on wobbly legs or weak wings.

And all the time, that light, straining to have the last word as it settles lower and lower in the West.

I’m so easily romanced

by springtime.

I’m so flattered that she gives me so much bright attention.

I’m so honored that for me, she never wants to turn day into night;

she wants to beam down on me forever. And ever. Amen.

I’m drinking the springshine like it’s pricey contraband.

Bathing in it like a chinchilla in a dust bowl.

Wading through it like a shepherdess in the knee deep, curling white of lambs.

I’m essentially oblivious to all else.

I’m affected, I’m useless.

I’m glad.

I’m hardworking.

I’m a puddle of warm butter.

I’m full energy and bursting.

Yesterday in the studio I spent hours enameling.

My hands were sore, broken and chapped by the end of my work day.

My knee has recovered from its trauma and I ran in the hills, cutting in and out of the sunset like a bird on the wing.

I cooked dinner, took a hot bath, waited for RW to come home from the Gilbert Ranch.

I fell into bed exhausted.

I fell asleep in record time.

And today I’m going to do it all again.

I’m under the spell of spring and with all the sun shining in, I can’t help but face everything with a grin.

Love to you, one and all, on this very beautiful day,

Jillian Susan

ouch.

just stubbed my toe.

Filed Under: idaho, spring

April 12, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

1. I finished this beauty on Sunday. I started it last Thursday and forgot all about it (it was deep in the acidic depths of my pickle pot, you see). It’s so lovely. And it’s a fair representation of my creative positioning at the moment — I can feel myself rising up into a wave crest and there’s a generous pouring forth of fresh designs at the moment. It’s nearly too much to bear. I’m sleeping with my sketchbook on the bedside table for those moments in the night when an idea jerks me awake and I need to flip on the lamp so I can sketch it down, jiffily (not a real word).

2. I fell down a mountain yesterday. I do this every spring in Idaho. I go running and suffer a terrible wipe out. I’m icing my knee. Last year I couldn’t hold a hammer or bend my arm for a week after falling while trail running. I’m counting my blessings, despite the hobbling.

3. Vesper & Judith. That’s what I’ve named the girls. I had a moment of clarity, right when I woke up this morning. The springtime sun was shining in the bedroom windows and I knew exactly what to name my chicks.

Vesper = Ameraucana

Judith = Buff Orpington

These names suit them perfectly. Their personalities are beginning to emerge and we’ve noticed that Vesper is quite the sass. She loves to leap around, flap her wings like a wild thing and she’ll peck at anything that moves. Judith is quite calm and sweet in comparison and perhaps even somewhat cuddly.

4. Today I feel especially like a bird. Skinny legs. Beaky face. Pointy everything. Soft and wild feathers. If only I could sing like a meadowlark.

I hope you all had a sensational weekend! Mine was bursting with activity, peacefulness, cold mountain breezes and great food!

Open your wings wide.

The wind will do the rest.

PLUME

https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2010/04/12/655/

Filed Under: New Jewelry, running

Gilbert Ranch Branding Days: Volume II

April 12, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

[…they think her tractor’s sexy.]

[A rancher and his wife. A rancher and her husband.]

[Miss Lacey Gilbert gets the job done.]

RW and I spent Saturday out at the Gilbert Ranch, in the valley. I’ve shown images of this hard working ranching family before but none so action packed as these! It was an amazing day full of dust, sweat and blood — branding day at the ranch. One of the most incredible things to witness was the unified effort of a community! Horses and families were towed about in trucks and trailers to three different ranches throughout the day to get the work done in a single, skilled swoop.

The sociality was a thrill.

Lunch was a burly spread.

There was laughing, cussing and a whole lot of smoke.

Most of all, I loved capturing a few shots of men and women working side by side under the sun in the foothills of the Rockies.

And oh, those cowboys…

Filed Under: cattle, cowboys, cowgirls, free range cattle ranching, gilbert ranch, gilberts, idaho, inkom, roping