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Penelope Bianchi

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baby chicks

The inspiration for our French chickens!!

September 13, 2017 By //  by Penelope Bianchi 5 Comments

Our granddaughter feeding the chickens!

About eighteen years ago;  my husband Adam and I went on a trip to France.

I had read a lovely review of a new hotel opened in Burgundy that sounded wonderful.

The name was” Chateau Vault de Lugny”.  The owner was a young woman

who had grown up in the Chateau as her family’s country home.

She wanted to turn it into a country hotel; and described to us all the work and all the requirements

to qualify for a ”Relais and Chateau” member.

Our room was beautiful;  and best of all;  the labrador retriever “Licorice” slept on our bed!

(We missed our dogs; so we were encouraging him.  Not everyone’s cup of tea!)

This is the moat that surrounds the Chateau.

This is a view of the chateau from the air.  I remember at the  time there were only 6 or 7 rooms.

My favorite thing was in the morning seeing all kinds of birds!  Not wild birds;  although there were those,

but turkeys, ducks, geese ,chickens and peacocks!

Here are some peacocks, chickens,and maybe a turkey on the left. They wandered about on the lawns and driveway!

So much fun to watch!

The geese were especially friendly and vocal.

This is what gave the inspiration to do something like this at home in Pasadena!

Why not??  I just needed a predator-proof coop for them to go into at night!

So I remembered my friend Eddie!!!

Eddie and his family had these beautiful bantam speckled chickens with feathers on their feet!

He was in San Diego training race horses at Del Mar when I found out there were some “bantam Mille Fleurs” chicks

at a feed store in San Diego!

I called and asked him to pick some out for me.  He said, “I’d be happy to;  but how are they going to get to Pasadena?”

(about 3 and a half hours away)

I said, “You’re going to send them in a taxi”!

Dead silence.

Then, “You are serious!!!!”  Indeed!

When the taxi arrived in the driveway, we were taking photographs,(unfortunately not digital!) and there were

4 small hens and 1 rooster about  4 weeks old in a cardboard box on the back seat!

I asked the driver, “What do I owe you?”

He said, “Mr Gregson told me to tell you that it’s on him;

because  he’s going to be telling this story for the rest of his life!”

I never even knew what  it  cost!

I can’t even tell you how much pleasure these chickens have given me for all these years!

We had them in Pasadena when were there;

and people would be walking up the street and hear a rooster

and stop dead in their tracks thinking they were “hearing things”!

And for the fourteen years we have been in Santa Barbara!  Our grandchildren love them too!

We have hatched 14 this summer!   They eat all the slugs and snails, fertilize the garden,

provide delicious eggs and wonderful entertainment!

The inspiration for our French chickens!!Read More

Filed Under: Blog, Landscapes, Travels Tagged With: baby chicks, bantam mille fleur chickens, Chateau Vault de Lugny, chickens in a taxi, French chickens, garden, geese, grandaughter feeding chickens, peacocks, predator-proof coop, roosters, turkey

French Lavender Oil

May 12, 2013 By //  by Penelope Bianchi 21 Comments


When we were building our house;  we went on several trips to Provence.

We stayed on one trip at a wonderful hotel in Aix-en-Provence called La Villa Gallici.

http://www.villagallici.com/en/hotel

It smelled absolutely divine;  so I looked everywhere for a housekeeper who spoke English!

I found one and asked her what on earth smelled so good!

She explained that they used drops of pure lavender oil on the carpets and rugs throughout the hotel!!!

It is a natural insect repellent;  it is a anti-anxiety treatment, and I have been using it at least 4 times a week ever since!

This is a big bottle;  but to use it on our rugs, it is convenient to have it in small bottles that release just drops at a time.This

bottle is to refill the small ones!


photo 1

photo 2

I don’t know how to make it!  I do make sachets out of our lavender!

Surprise!

  

chichoto

And our little hen hatched 5 baby chicks just in time for Mother’s Day!!!

I transported her chicks to the “maternity ward” coop in this basket!  She is taking great care of them!

Ichicks

Happy Mother’s Day!

French Lavender OilRead More

Filed Under: Blog, Design, Family, Gardens, Landscapes Tagged With: baby chicks, chicks, lavender, lavender oil, mother hen, Mother's Day, roses, spring

Renee's Kitchen

July 2, 2012 By //  by Penelope Bianchi 4 Comments

The very first time I went to Renees house;  I got so excited I forgot to take pictures of the kitchen and dining area!

I thought the design was so creative and practical that it really should be shown!

So, back I went!  How divine is this bicycle?!  She rides it with “Bittersweet” the Yorkie in the basket!

The trumpet vine amazes me more every time I  see it!

The green cabinet makes one half-wall;   It seems like it was a counter in a butcher-shop or some kind of shop.  The crack in the marble makes it even better!

Her French press and espresso cups are on the adjacent counter with a farmhouse sink in between.  Note the green lantern and sweet chandelier!

The window with the shutters on it look out to the ocean!  The outdoor dining area is straight ahead;  and the most charming fireplace is  in the corner.

Here is “Bittersweet ” on his bed!

On my way out;  just look at the roses…..and she also has the cutest car!

Renee's KitchenRead More

Filed Under: Blog, Design, Dining Room, Gardens, Landscapes Tagged With: baby chicks, bantam chickens, duck houses, ducklings, floating duck house, mallard ducklings, Mallards, mille-fleurs bantam chicks, Winston's duck house

Spring is Springing in Santa Barbara!

April 15, 2012 By //  by Penelope Bianchi 28 Comments

I posted the very beginning of Spring a while ago.  Some people say we have no “seasons” in Southern California!”

Yes we do!!  Spring is in full swing!!

DO WE HAVE SPRING???

YES!!!!!

We have a handsome new deer trophy!  (wrought iron)  in a proud position!

The house is fully cloaked with ivy!  (People ask me why I bothered to pick a color of the plaster!)

You can see the plaster in the winter;  all the leaves turn colors and fall off!

I found a wonderful “dovecote” from the estate of the wonderful artist, Jack Baker!  I’m hoping doves will make nests!

The arbors are covered with different roses!

This giant azalea is as old as I am!  There are pictures of me as a child next to it!  It is in a big pot!

These roses all came from the wonderful place “Rose Story Farm” in Carpinteria!  They only have old roses;  and roses that have fragrance!!

(I learned there  that you have to leave your nose smelling for a full ten seconds to get the fragrance!)

This is the stupendous  (I think!) view from the window by my husband’s desk in his office!!

“The maternity ward” has a hen with five chicks!

They are so fast!

Can you see the wisteria in the tree?

Our grandchildren’s clay art works are displayed on this table!  It’s their “Art Gallery”!

This is the “olive allee” with its focal point of an Anduze pot we bought in Provence!

and our lovely “faux bois” bench from my friend Janice who owns “Janus et Cie”!

 Our proud “trophy “!

I

at night….I learned from Tara Dillard!!  Pretty to see in the windows!!!

Another angle!

The roosters are so happy to have their tails back!

I love the damp and mossy stuff on the pots!  and the other rooster!  (I AM SO SO lucky to inherit pots !!)

Tara says to buy pots and garden accessories that people will “fight over, at your estate sale!”

A happy rooster!

We really do have Spring , Summer and fall in Santa Barbara!

The only thing we really don’t have is “Winter”!  I must admit!

I almost forgot!  Here are the “Spring slipcovers”  They go on the first day of Spring!!!

A lovely little bird took a tuft of our cat’s fur (I put it on the bushes when I brush her) and flew off to put it in her nest!

I’ll do another post  about the garden when it’s Summer!

And we have a mallard sitting on at least 8 eggs in the floating duck house!  I will show you right away when they hatch!!!

HAPPY SPRING!!!!

Spring is Springing in Santa Barbara!Read More

Filed Under: Blog, Design, Gardens, Home, Landscapes Tagged With: Anduze pot, arbor, baby chicks, bantam chickens, Boston ivy, cat fur in the bushes for helping birds make nests, dovecote, duck house, ducks, faux bois bench, focal point, fragrant roses, gravel, Janus et Cie, old roses, olive allee, Penelope Bianchi, Provence, Rose Story Farm, roses, Santa Barbara, slipcovers, spring, Spring in Santa Barbara, spring slipcovers, trophy deer, trophy deer heads, vines in trees, wisteria, wrought iron deer head

Hatched in the wild!!

August 4, 2011 By //  by Penelope Bianchi 11 Comments


Three weeks ago,  a hen of ours went missing!  I was afraid a coyote or hawk had taken her;  but I couldn’t  find feathers anywhere!

About  ten days later, I found her outside the coop in the morning, and I knew she must have made a nest outside of the coop!

…

Hatched in the wild!!Read More

Filed Under: Blog, Design, Gardens, Home, Landscapes Tagged With: baby chicks, Backyard chicken forum, Balinese chicken coop, chicken coop, chickens, gardens, millefleur bantam chickens, predators, Radisha

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