There was an article in today’s Boston Globe about how to extend the life of your jeans. The gist of it was that you shouldn’t wash them too often – every other week is fine. And put them in the washer inside out and use delicate detergent.

Do these people only stroll in clean places? I’m sure they don’t have chickens. Or mud. Or dogs. I’d rather have worn out jeans than a life that doesn’t require laundering.

However, I suppose that infrequent washings would work for teenage boy jeans – my fifteen-year old son seems to outgrow his clothes every few months. I could simply buy new jeans, never wash them, and toss them when they get too short. Easy!

I’ve been getting such a nice warm response from librarians to Tillie Lays an Egg.

Librarians love chickens. I get emails every week from librarians who tell me, in a quick sentence, how much they like the book, and then they go on for quite a bit longer, telling me all about the chickens that they grew up with, or now have, or that a neighbor keeps. 

I’ve been thinking about this affinity of librarians for chickens. There are a number of similarities. Chickens are naturally curious, as are librarians. Chickens have an optimistic nature. Librarians do too. After all, don’t librarians believe in their ability to change the world through books? Chickens believe in magic. At least mine do. The food magically appears, the waterer never goes empty. It’s like the story of the magic pot. Librarians believe in the magic of books. Their well of stories never goes dry.

A stretch? I’m not so sure. Anyway, a big shout out thank you to all of the librarians who are sharing Tillie with the children in their community. My chickens love you as much as you love them.