Thursday, 21 July 2011

An exotic visitor and Lenna's postcard

For several weeks now there has been a pea hen in our neighbour's field. He did his best to find out where she had come from and eventually discovered she had flown away from people at the opposite side of West Linton. Apparently a fox had killed her chick and she had disappeared. These birds have a wil of their own and somehow she had managed to make her way to our neighbours. And you can guess what happened next! This morning she was on our flat roof. I was of course delighted and have been following in her footsteps with my camera for most of the day. You can tell she is used to people as she let me come quite close!

A bit of a sad story but it doesn't seem to have affected her present appetite. We put out bird seed for her, as well as peanuts and layers' pellets (our usual food for the chickens) and she nibbled away on it all, as well as getting her greens by munching on some of the wildflowers. She is poking her head into the greenhouse and was seen sitting on our pergola very contentedly. The cockerel wasn't quite as pleased with her visit as we are and John had to rescue her from their enclosure as he prepared to attack.

They are amazingly beautiful birds. I know the hen is not considered to be as gorgeous as the peacock and he does make wonderful displays which his tail feathers, but she is very lovely too. She has spend her day around the house and is presently sitting on the shed roof, looking around as if she owns the place, not realizing there is a greyhound on the ground who would consider her as dinner if she came down from there! We will have to sort something out as she must be lonely and it will be hard work to keep her and Troi (the greyhound in question) separated. It would be best to return her to where she came from but so far she does come close but not close enough to capture her and we don't want to stress her. Will have to see what we can do.


And finally there was good news, Lenna has received my fabric postcards on the theme of a Summer's Day, including the one I made specially for her and which went directly through the mail. You can read about that on the Creative Swaps site here and more about the other postcards and how I made them on a previous blogpost.

5 comments:

creativelenna said...

The pea hen is so very beautiful. I think the feathers on her head look like a crown! I would love to do something artistic with an image of this beautiful bird . . . her feathers are so very pretty!! She looks like she is almost smiling in one of the photos, as if she likes the attention of your camera. I am glad she came to visit you! And equally glad to have received all of your postcards. The one in my mailbox was such fun . . . and they are all gorgeous and getting rave reviews on the blog!
xo lenna

Georgina said...

Goodness - I am sure that last time I dropped by you said you were in a creative lull! You have certainly made the most of it and returned with extra verve! I love the summer colours of you current work, especially the 'I Am' ATCs.

Jewels said...

Well Frieda I learned something new today (what rock was I under). I of course knew about peacocks but never associated the female as a pea hen. I agree with Lenna, what a lovely bird to fit into art...I hear it is cooler temps where you are compared to the heat spell we are going through in the US (I am a fan of BBC Radio 1 so get the updates on my way to work)...J

Sanity, Politics & Public Service said...

She looks like a beauty to me...:)

Maggi said...

Wow, you have the most amazing creatures that come calling at your house, she is beautiful! Glad the cards arrived safely, they are so pretty!

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