Who Knew?

Did you know that today is World Egg Day?  Nor did I!  Every second Friday in October since 1996 in fact.  I am quite impressed with this because, as you well know, we embrace the egg.  Our girlies have laid 156 eggs in the seven weeks they have lived with us, averaging two dozen a week!  Here are some fascinating facts about eggs, I know you are just dying to read about them...

• A large egg contains about 5 grams of fat and 70 calories.  Egg protein has just the right mix of essential amino acids needed by humans to build tissues.  It is second only to mother's milk for human nutrition.  The yolk contains all the egg's fat and half its protein.
• It takes a hen about 25 hours to produce an egg, about half an hour of fussing around just before laying the egg, and the actual laying of the egg takes about a minute, and this is done with the hen standing up.
• You can spin an egg to find out if it is hard boiled or raw.  If it wobbles it's raw, if it spins smoothly it's hard boiled.
• The mathematical description of an egg's shape is 'oblate', or a 'prolate spheroid'.
• The people of China and Japan eat the most eggs, about 350 per person per year.  Australians eat about 220 per person per year and this number is growing.
• Egg yolks are one of the few foods that naturally contain vitamin D.
• The record for the most yolks found in one egg is nine.

We chose to celebrate World Egg Day by scoffing this delicious pavlova that Steve made.  Just look at the colour of the custard he made from the yolks, so so yellow!

I've been in a bit of trouble this week.  First I was being a bit gung-ho on Helga, doing some mowing in the outer edges of the forest.  I was doing some clearing of the undergrowth, bracken and such, in preparation for summer and reducing fuel.  Anyway, as I said,  a bit gung-ho, and I hit a stump with the side of Helga and proceeded to bust off the cover that protects the mower blades.  Steve patiently repaired it for me..... then I did exactly the same thing half an hour later.  I try to live and learn but obviously I'm a bit slow. :-)

Then the next day I did this.  Can you see that hole in the middle of that pipe?  That is the water pipe the Steve laid a couple of weeks ago when he piped water and installed a tap to the chook yard.  The pipe travels through my fenced garden, and Steve asked me to bury the pipe along the fence so, a) it would be protected and b) I would know where it was so I could avoid it when gardening.  Well.  All I can say is that I forgot.  And when I rammed that big garden fork into the ground to lift some grass, the big fountain of water that shot into the air, that was the reminder I needed.  Bit late though.  I am sheepish, truly...

Moving on from transgressions, we seem to have our very own resident wedgetail eagle.  I think it might be a youngish bird as I have seen bigger ones.  It is to be found either flying overhead our place or sitting in various trees most of the time.  The crows give it merry hell, ganging up on it in midair, trying to shoo it away.  It's a beautiful bird and if it catches some of the abundant rabbits around here, we will be most pleased.  Check out the talons in the blurry flying photo, sharp and long!

As the cold and wet of winter passes we have both decided that no longer can we ignore the ever increasing waistline, so we are hopping out of bed earlier in the morning and have started doing a morning walk.  We often walk around our own boundary but as that is a little hilly and rough, it is hard to do more than 'stroll' which I don't think counts as exercise really.  Anyway, we are taking ourselves for walks further afield, including the beach, which is where we went this morning.

This is the entrance to Perkins Beach.  Isn't it pretty.  There is a permanent freshwater stream, stained with tannins, that gurgles its way through the dunes and across the beach, sometimes breaking through to the ocean.  The coastal wildflowers are in abundance and it all looks lovely.

 

Early morning sun is gorgeous on a beach, I love the way it glistens across the water whilst at the same time creating silhouettes.

It was a lovely walk, and just as well we went early, as within an hour of getting home, the wind and torrential rain turned up.  Very glad we experienced a beautiful early morning on the southern shores.