Weekly Photo Challenge: Future Tense

2013-03-25MerlinsHouseFor those of you following the story, here in the Archives, our family has adopted a chicken. I’ve been embarrassed to publicly admit this truth, on an island where feral chickens run rampant, invading gardens and frustrating farmers. With everyone constantly shooing these fowl off their property, it seems outrageous to actually coddle and feed one.

But when a little chick wandered up to the Bohemian one day, no mother and barely alive, he couldn’t help but bring it home to save its life. Nine-year old Jeb was thrilled. We gave the chick a box, a heating light and named him Merlin.

I’ve been chronicling our first weeks together on various posts here. Merlin’s feathers are coming on, and as his surrogate mother, I’ve got my eye on the day he’ll be ready to leave the nest (meaning, our living room).

Over the weekend, the Bohemian and Jeb crafted a chicken-version of a palace for Merlin. A temporary safety zone, outside, until he’s old enough to roam freely on his own.

I look at the sign Jeb made for Merlin’s new domicile and realize his handwriting won’t always be such a youthful scrawl. One day, he too, will be residing at an address of his own.

But that’s the future (and my submission for the Weekly Photo Challenge:  Future Tense). For now, it’s just a chicken that’s readying to fly the coop.

2013-03-25MerlinTreeofLife

Cattywampus

Cattywampus.

That’s the word I woke to this morning. There it was, like some kind of dictate, skittling about, all askew in my just-waking mind.

It’s a Dad word. Some adjective he’ll toss out once in a while to describe something not quite in order.

No school today for Jeb. He rode as a passenger. I attempted to execute errands. Providence, it just scoffed at plans.

Three scheduled meetings cancelled, and I discovered the health insurance company has been trying to call me for three weeks but dialing the wrong phone number.

I kick myself only after being excessively honest to the medical reviewer by disclosing I had mono when I was fifteen. A minor fact that is something, like, twenty-five years long-since past. Talk about over-sharing.

2013-03-22merlin_guitarThere was no traditional 4am post to the Archives this morning. Heck, I’m here drinking coffee at 6:20 pm, while a precocious rooster chick stares at me, chirping from a nearby perch in my living room. Huh?

Am I suggesting that, perhaps, there was some harbinger of the day with that whispered word the minute I woke? Maybe.

Here I am, at day’s end calling on the Muse. Trying to write something meaningful about how today has been just a little different than the norm.

My iTunes library is on shuffle (though, I never usually listen to music and write). In this moment, what’s been selected is a Jeb single from the Black Eyed Peas, “Boom Boom Pow”.

Like I said, cattywampus.

courtesy of www.blackeyedpeas.com
courtesy of http://www.blackeyedpeas.com

 

Budding

Just on the other side of the Vernal Equinox.

Mangos, plumeria and lavender.

budding mangos
budding mangos
plumeria
plumeria
more mango buds
more mango buds
fruiting
fruiting
lavender
lavender

Okay, okay.  And a spring chick…

Merlin in the Lychee tree
Merlin in the Lychee tree