Just being neighbourly!

Okay, so I have to own up that this Japonica is in the neighbour's garden.  The barbed wire is a dead give away.  

But don't you just love it? It always makes me think of Spring and Japanese floral arrangements.  (Note to self...get one of these)

Having shown you what is over one fence I didn't think there would be any problem in showing you over another.  Sadly the house belonging to the young couple on this side burned down in the bushfires, but some beautiful bits of their garden are  signposts that they hope to rebuild and return.  

Anyway, I can sort of claim these camelias because I can see them from the lounge window - just over the fence.  

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Oh, and I have an interesting chook tidbit to share.   This afternoon when I went to put the chooks to bed, one of the refugees was missing.  This is the same  girl who has been making regular visits to the neighbour (on the Japonica side).  So at first I wasn't too concerned.  They usually come running pretty quickly, to make sure they get their fair share of the mixed grain I give them.    However, after some concerted searching and calling on my part, she didn't appear.  

I had been out this afternoon and left the front gate open and as I was shutting it I heard the rooster over the road crow and I have to admit to having very unneighbourly thoughts about this Lothario and his possible role in the disappearance of  my hen.

But then one of the cats pointed out that something was sitting under bush.  The same bush I had passed several times clucking and generally making a fool of myself.  There she was, sitting as still and quiet as could be on an egg.  It wasn't her egg either, it was the wrong colour.  She didn't even try to run when I picked her up, although she did express her displeasure by pooping heartily down my front.

I so hope that her behaviour is a sign that she is becoming clucky. With Lucy's demise, I been   wondering who was going to hatch the eggs and be Mum. 

Don't you think this would be a wonderful thing?  A refugee from a chook farm, probably past her best laying days, finding a safe haven where she can live in a real chook society, who then offers to  become a surrogate mother.  Or,  perhaps she was just feeling neighbourly!