Of walks, chickens and explorations

The girls requested to head out for a walk and visit the neighbourhood chickens yesterday afternoon. Our usual practice these days would be to arm ourselves with a small packet of grains to feed the chickens. Yesterday, we had rice, barley and millet. I skipped the bread this time round...

I'd have to say that Alyssa is definitely the spunkier, braver and more adventurous one out of the two. Despite her being the younger one. :) Nadya was hiding behind her half the time haha. Nadya has improved though, compared to before. There was one time when she stormed off in a huff and incessantly muttered under a hefty pout "I WANT TO GO HOME NOW!!" because she got embarrassed and frustrated at herself and her fears.

In fact, both have improved lah. :) Both used to hide behind me when the chickens are around. I Suddenly realised that both were in front of me yesterday haha. Yay...baby steps to developing their curiosities and courage.

I enjoy such walks with them.
(Though I get quite pek chek if they start squabbling non-stop with each other along the way.)

There's a particular route I take when I bring them to visit the chickens. Along the way, I'd point out different trees, flowers and plants to them. We "hunt" for wild mushrooms. We spy on the birds in the neighbourhood. We scream when we meet buzzing insects. We step on mimosas. The girls pluck wild flowers. We observe what dogs we pass by, if any.

I'd try to explain things to them, as much as my limited knowledge can handle.

"This is a butterfly pea plant. The flowers can be used to.....It's a creeper and can be considered an invasive plant.....Look! Seed pods!"
"This is a mango tree! You can tell by its leaves...."
"This is a water jasmine plant..."
"Those are sunbirds! Doves! Pigeons! Parakeets!"
"Snails! Those black stuff are their poop!"
"Mushrooms!"
"Touch-me-nots! Another name for this weed is "mimosa". See what happens when you touch the leaves..."
"Hibiscus! Byrophyllum! Snake grass! Snake plant! Lalang! Spanish moss! Sunflowers! Airplants! Pomegranate! Ixora! Boston fern! Bird's nest fern!...."
"These are the spores of the bird's nest fern. That's how they propagate....errr...propagate means...errrrr...."
"There's a moringa tree here! Did you know we can actually eat those pods? They taste good in curry....Popo used to cook them...you can try next time..."