Chickens will cross the road. They’ll also cross your yard, your driveway, and your neighbor’s lawn. Why? To get to the blueberry bushes. To see what’s under the leaves in the woods. To investigate the sparkly thing in the overgrown weeds in the gravel. Chickens are active and curious animals. Don’t expect them to stay on your property just because you think it’s a fine place for them.

Some hens cross the road simply because they like to wander. I have a very large backyard, with plenty for the girls to do, and yet once in awhile Buffy decided to walk down the driveway. She wasn’t looking for tasty things to eat. She wasn’t looking for a place to hide her eggs. Buffy walked down the middle of the driveway with the leisurely insouciance of a lady taking a stroll.

Unlike Buffy, the hen in this card looks to be going somewhere. Perhaps she was on the way back to the coop to lay her egg, but got distracted (so easy when you’re a chicken!)

Buffy no longer lays, and she no longer goes for long ambles down the driveway. I’ve installed a fence to keep her and the girls in the backyard. You can never be sure of why a hen decides to cross a road, but it’s usually a bad idea. I’m keeping the chickens close to home.

After all of the talk about coffee on my blog this week, I thought I’d show off a tea kettle.

He looks angry, doesn’t he? No cheerful “rise and shine” from this fellow. His shrill whistle will get you going in the morning.

I’ve yet to  boil water in him. My excuse is that I’m worried that my gas range will melt his tail. But in all honesty I can’t face this rooster’s attitude.

Swedish and Norwegian communities in the upper midwest are known for their deep nordic culinary roots and their food-focused church socials. In the days when inexpensive coffee was brewed up in big urns, the church ladies came up with a way to smooth the flavor, reduce the bitterness, and make sure that the grounds didn’t end up in the cup. What they did was to add raw eggs, ground up shells and all, to the pot. If you’ve ever clarified a consommé with egg, then you know that this makes sense. This egg coffee was also called Swedish Coffee, Hungarian Egg Coffee and Norwegian Coffee, but my favorite name for it is Lutheran Church Basement Coffee.

I found out about Egg Coffee because of this tin that I have in my collection (look closely and you can find it in Tillie Lays an Egg.)

I love the lettering in the yellow egg, the cheerful polka dots and that busy hen.

Here are the directions.

Does anyone have memories of Lutheran Church Basement Coffee?

Last weekend, Steve and I went to Salem, a small city on the north shore, to go to the Peabody Essex Museum to see the Ansel Adams exhibit. The photography was beautiful, but didn’t move me. What did surprise me, and stop me in my tracks as we walked through a gallery, were a few pieces of porcelain. The museum is known for it’s collection of export Chinese ceramics, which is not an aesthetic that usually interests me. But, there was a small teapot (?) with a charming face. I looked closer. A crawfish held onto the spout. On it’s head was a lotus seed pod. It was an object that made me first ask, “what is this?” and then “who would think this up?” and then “why?” And then it made me smile. That, to me, is the perfect museum-going experience.

We wandered into another gallery, an old, high-ceiling room with ship figureheads mounted onto the walls. There were also display cases that held what appeared to be Victorian-era items of curiosity. There was this taxidermied bird:

The label (quite high-tech on a computer screen) stated that this was a jungle fowl, captured by a Captain Wheatland in 1846, and that (although disputed) this very rooster was the progenitor of the Rhode Island Red.

Here are my RIRs, Ruby and Garnet. See a resemblance?

You never know what you’ll come across when you visit a museum.

I’m in love with this mid-century chicken.

I found her on a set of paper coasters and napkins from this store on Etsy.

I do think it’s a hen. The tail is rooster-like, but she reminds me of my late, great and crazy Speckled Sussex, LuLu.

This turquoise and black beauty would make for some fun stationery. I’m also thinking of printing her image on an apron. What do you think?