Jan. 24, 2012

My friend Skeeter brought a gift to my house last night that made me blubber like a baby.  Skeeter’s mom & dad have a farm.  They have a garden and animals and Brenda has regularly blessed our house with gifts of food from her home.  In return she’s sampled some eggs from my little stamp of earth and not much else.  We’ve swapped stories about our animals, families and the current movement in some circles to find wholesome, humanely raised food for our table.  The woman is smart, funny and incredibly generous.  Skeeter has kept her abreast of my battle to keep the girls and the unfortunate result we got on Friday.  The timing of my friend’s present did much to lift my spirits at a time when they needed lifting.  Get a load of this…

Click on it to get a closer look.  This is an old timey cheese-wheel box.  Brenda lifted photos from the chickendiary to make a decoupage masterpiece.  You can plainly see enlarged photos of Violet, Rosie and Daisy and other images from my posts.  Look carefully at the broken pieces of egg scattered throughout the scene.  These are actually fragments of the eggs I sent her in weeks past.  The background is green grass and chicken wire.  But this is just the outside….

Inside she lined the box with chicken fabric which is also decoupaged to a lovely sheen.  She included a sweet note as well.  I would show you the back, but it has a little return address sticker on it with her home address as well as a photo of a jaunty rooster.  She painted a pink breast cancer ribbon (I had no idea she knew about that), and the date of the gift.  There are even little felt feet on the bottom of the box.  Needless to say, when Skeeter and her daughter Hudson brought the gift, the dam broke and I boo-hooed.  It’s not the first time I’ve had a bit of a pity party over this whole thing, but the kindness of this one person edged out (for a moment) the whole frustrating, painful experience of giving up my pets.  And here’s the kicker folks…I’ve never even met her.  Thanks Brenda, and thanks Skeeter for introducing me to your very cool mom.  We’ll meet in person after the weather clears when we can make the journey to your little slice of heaven.  “Thank you” doesn’t quite cover it.  I’ll find some way.  🙂