Saturday, April 7, 2012

"Crazy Chickens"

One of our favorite places to visit, in the heart of Cabbagetown, minutes from downtown, is Riverdale Farm. On this particular Spring morning, my city-boys endured quite the traumatic experience. Here they sit, minding their own business, Jake having a little snack...
When all of a sudden a bunch of "crazy chickens" (Jake's words) saw the opportunity to find some crumbs, and started pecking their way closer and closer to us.
I grew up in the country, on a farm even, with chickens. So to me, this was fun and not a big deal. My Toronto-born-and-raised-kids on the other hand... totally freaking out. "They're going to kill us!" shouts Jake.
Click on the picture above to see the boys faces close up. It's priceless. They're totally freaking out because of a few chickens. Maybe I should add that in addition to capturing these moments on camera, I was also reassuring them that they were safe, and the chickens just wanted to share their snack. Jake and Josh didn't buy it. Utterly petrified, they were.
We got out of there. Walking through the farm we were able to enjoy so many beautiful Spring flowers. (Unfortunately not any baby animals yet.)
We stopped for another snack, at a place that seemed like it would be safe from the "crazy chickens"...
I guess chickens have a sense for when snacks are being eaten by tiny hands, because they rushed across the farm, once again looking for crumbs. The boys wound up atop a picnic table... this time, though, being the seasoned chicken warriors that they were, they found themselves a little less afraid, and a little more indignant at the intrusion.