It's a gray, cold, rainy day here at my place today. This has been a long and cold winter. Part of me is glad to know that this means that there will be fewer mosquitoes, ticks, and other pesky insects that like to eat up our vegetables. My daffodils and grape hyacinths are up and blooming in the yard, though, creating bright splashes of yellow and intense points of blue on the hillside behind the house. It's a day for staying inside and looking outside.

Spring is coming and with it my hens are beginning to lay more. Always, a couple of weeks before Great Lent begins, my hens start laying. I have only ten hens now, and lately I've been getting four or even five eggs per day now, with the occasional day of getting only one or two. (That's because hens lay every 30-some hours and not every 24.) So, today I get seven eggs. I've always said those hens were "heretic chickens." I shouldn't be surprised; they're Marans--a French breed. They must be Roman Catholic! My daughter, who doesn't go to Church any more, loves them since she gets most of the eggs during Lent. Oh, well.