A very happy Grannie Day...

This is my favourite photo of my mum and I. She adored chickens and set everyone she could up with broody hens and a roosters! Here we were going to her brother's house for a birthday party and this was her present!

It's her birthday today and "Grannie Day" on October 18th is one of our most festive days of the year. My children look forward to it all year long! Me too! Annika ran around gathering photos of Grannie this morning and they'll be getting surprise presents throughout the day. My mum had a wonderful sense of humour and LOVED dressing up and scaring people. One of my earliest memories of her is coming to the door of our house in Calgary with a scarey mask on and tricking me! Another time she came back from overseas wearing a rasta (dreadlocks) wig and tie-dye outfit and huge sunglasses -- in perfect disguise and I didn't recongize her at the airport! She LOVED to laugh and make other people laugh and play tricks. When I picture her in my mind she is laughing with her entire face and body. So most of our surprises today are masks and silly hats, with a big scarey jumping spider and whoopie cushion thrown in for good measure.

Aaah, the memories of a good mother...

Happy Birthday, Mum. We all REALLY love you!
And here is a little mother of our growing family. She hatched 6 eggs (from chickadoodle), and is a very inspiring mother in her own rite. Her little chicks are under her here (4 have survived, through no fault of hers) and we'd just picked some herbs and dug some worms for her to eat. This raising tiny ones is HARD work!!