Happy Easter! This message has been delayed; most of the pictures having been taken on Good Friday, March 25th. The management of Westwood, our residence, does so many things for our pleasure, often things that bring back happy memories of our earlier years and experiences. These newly hatched chicks are an example.

Many of us grew up on farms and of course, the arrival each spring of newly hatched chicks were one of our memorable experiences. So each year a small egg incubator and several fertile eggs arrive on a table in an upstairs lounge, the Country Kitchen, and each year a contest is held--to guess the time that the first chick will hatch.

 Whether we enter the contest or not, we are all interested to drop by the display and check on the chicks! I have attached several pictures of the sequence of stages, from pipping of the egg to the hatched and dried chicks photographed on Good Friday.

The other pictures were taken in the old burn on Goats Peak on Good Friday.

The first is an unknown plant with shaggy red leaves and red blossoms.

Each leaf is divided into three near its tip. If anyone can tell me the name of this plant, I would much appreciate it. 

There are several species of Chickweed. This one, found in the old burn, is very tiny, only an inch or two tall. Each of the four petals is deeply divided. For size comparison, the oval grey objects that look like stones are deer fecal pellets.

The Woodland Star, another small and delicate plant was also blooming in the old burn.

Also another spring flower seen for the first time this spring, Gorman's Desert Parsley. 

A pair of Spotted Towhees moved about in the bushes along the lower fence line. These quick-moving little birds are always hard to photograph because invariably, they are found in brushy places, often near the ground, where you see them scratching about in the litter, using both feet simultaneously in a backward sweeping motion.