I revealed most of my personal chicken history in this show. It is an ongoing saga, though I am much more in control of my crazy love for chickens. I finally recycled all my old hatchery catalogs. Okay that’s not quite true as I kept one Murray McMurray catalog…just for reference…really. Oh I love to look at the pictures – almost always paintings, by the way – of the different breeds in those catalogs. And no, I do not read them at night under the covers with a flashlight. That’s frowned upon. But oh my gosh, Australorps, Delawares, Wyandottes, Polish, Cornish and Buff Orpingtons! You know what I’m talking about!
The photos are mine. That large black chicken is an Australorp. They are so friendly! The hen above is a Golden Laced Wyandotte. She’s pretty but not so friendly, especially when she goes broody. Oh well, but listen, if you like chickens too and would like to add a book about the history of chickens to the shelf where you keep your “raising chickens the right way” books and your hatchery catalogs, I recommend Why Did the Chicken Cross the World by Andrew Lawler.
False Solomon’s seal (and a dozen other common names!) was formerly in Liliaceae, but is now in Asparagaceae. There are…
Some personal history in poem and song. The photos are mine…well, I dug them out of the archives. That’s the very beginning of the...
Desert Rosemallow is the official common name I think, though I see it called Coulter’s Hibiscus as well. The latter name makes a lot...