Does anyone remember the movie, “The Egg and I,”  that starred Fred McMurray and Claudette Colbert?  You have to be really old to remember it although TMC may show it once in a while. It’s about a man and woman who move from the city onto a farm to raise chickens and all the problems they had and all the crazy neighbors they had.  I use to love watching it.  Perhaps you could see it somewhere online.

I’m living a sort of Egg and I life right now.  Raising chickens has been more fun than I could ever imagine.  I feel at one with the chooks.  They are my peeps.  They cluck and I cluck back. They ruffle their feathers and I….well, maybe not.    Now we are reaping the rewards of all the time and money we have spent on them by gathering eggs every day. They are still small, but I live in hope they will get bigger as we go along.  We ate some yesterday for breakfast.

Look at that bright orange yolk.

The store bought egg is on the right.  It was a double yolker however.

We ate our breakfast al fresco by the pool.  Yes, that is Spam on our plates.  I do like a slice or two of Spam occasionally.   Spam has gotten a bum rap.  My doctor is stocking up Spam for the end times he tells me.  If it is good enough for my doctor, it’s good enough for me.

We enjoyed the garden as we ate.

Belle joined us. These are her begging eyes.  Can’t you tell?

The other day I received a wonderful book in the mail.  I found a blog over a year ago written by Susan Branch.  I had never heard of her before that, but I absolutely loved her blog.  She calls all her readers her “girl friends,” and always has something wonderful to write about.  She gave a tea party for the new Prince George for her friends and neighbors.  It was quite something and looked like so much fun.  Anyway, she writes books.  She handwrites them and water colors them and they are just amazing.  They include recipes and sayings and Susan’s outlook on life.  As she says about others, she has the “happy” gene.   Susan and her husband, Joe, took a two month vacation to England last year and she chronicled it in a diary.  They went over on the Queen Mary2 and rented a car and drove all over England.  That is exactly what David and I want to do.

Her diary came out in hardcover just last week and as I had pre-ordered the book, I got mine last week.  It’s signed and everything.  This is a book you cannot read on Kindle.  It is a book you need to hold and smell and leaf through over and over and read excerpts from it and stare at the pictures and read some more.

Susan handwrote the entire book and drew her wonderful water color pictures.  This book is a travel guide of sorts and tells all the places they stayed and what they ate where and how crazy it was to drive on the left side of the road.  David and I did that when we visited the Virgin Islands and David thinks it is easier to drive on the left side of the road instead of the right.  He even said the other day he wished he could find a car with the steering wheel on the right.  My guy is crazy like that.

She called her book A Fine Romance.  It tells how she met her husband after she had pretty much given up ever getting married and her love of the English countryside.

I have read this book and am reading it again.  It’s that wonderful.  If you love England, you will love this book.  Here are some of Susan’s watercolors and pictures from the book.

She loves Beatrix Potter, the author of Peter Rabbit, and visited her home called Hilltop.

She and Joe walked through many fields with sheep in them.

Love these phone booths. Are they really used anymore or are they just for atmosphere now?

They sailed on the Queen Mary2.  There were over three thousand people on the ship.  David and I want to sail across to England, but David said we will probably have to take a freighter.  I’m not sure about sailing on such a big ship.  We will have to see.  We want to go over on our fiftieth wedding anniversary. I really don’t want to fly.

Still picking cucumbers.  Fifteen yesterday and four today because I really didn’t want to look for them.  Also we are getting tomatoes.  They are so good.  Nothing is as good as that first tomato from the garden.

Here’s to English diaries, dining al fresco and laying hens..  Bye.