The Peacock Returns

Happy discoveries! The peacock remains - apparently our chickens are the most likely females he's found. One can't help but feel, watching him pace around the chicken run at sunset, that he'd like to be inside with the others. I don't think our pen or run will be sufficient for him and fear that he'll injure himself trying to fly up into the covering. As is, he's made himself comfy on the roof of the old dog runs next door and seems content to spend the night there. True to the hints on the web, he seems to enjoy dry cat food. He did one full display, which I missed, but there's no question that he's on the mating quest.

The Chinese chestnuts are in bloom. If things move as per usual, this is my warning that the Japanese Beetles will come up as adults next week when the temperatures warm again into the 90's. Drat. Time to get the Surround spray back on everything before the beetles can wreck their usual damage.

And we're in long shirtsleeves. Typical for the temperature that surprises everyone each year at this time. I wonder why the TV weather forecasters never seem to make any connections between one year and the previous years. Do they just not know? After a decade of keeping records here at the farm, nothing seems much out of sync. The schedule continues, almost unerringly, from year to year. It will be very cool this week and will pop back into the 90's next week.