billy idol and his brother

About a year and a half ago I had a great idea to do a calendar from some of my pictures from Poplar Spring. I gathered up a few that I particularly liked, used my meager photoshop skills to add a border so I could put their name and a brief story.

I printed a couple copies, and they were okay. It never really went anywhere, but I still think about doing it for real at some point. My photoshop skills are better now, I have a ton of pics (always good to have more to choose from), I’ve got a friend who knows things like Quark (not physics, though he knows physics too), and…I know a lot more names of the residents.

I had to guess at many of the names when I did the first calendar, which I figured was okay since I was doing it to see how it would turn out. One of the names, of a chicken, I totally made up. I knew it wasn’t his name, but he just looked like it should be his name, I had a hard time remembering his real name. Terry and Dave thought “my” name for him was hilarious.

His actual name is Leopold. His brother is Cornelius. Quite a difference from the rock star image I had in my head for them!

They’re both so eye-catching, I just love to watch them. They’re pretty much in the middle of the pecking order (a somewhat literal term, when it comes to chickens!), though I remember Terry and Dave mentioning that when they work together, they can sort of become one super dominant chicken. But when I’ve been there, they’ve seemed pretty happy to not worry about defending a top-of-the-heap position.

At the Open House I ended up talking to Adam and Robin, and they asked if they could meet Leopold. Adam is a sponsor of Leopold. It was late in the day, and the chickens had started to put themselves to bed, but one of the pair was wandering around and I scooped him up. He was happy enough to be held, and though it turned out that he was Cornelius, Adam and Robin were happy enough with Cornelius as a surrogate for Leopold.

For some reason that sparked a determination for me to get some really nice portraits of them. This past weekend turned out to be perfect, and the two rock stars obliged me.

Leopold and Cornelius

Or rather, their natural photogenic nature came through, making it easy to get pictures.

rock stars at Poplar Spring

I’m officially the chicken paparazzi.