Oh how I amble with you along the river with your words, and oh the joy and excitement of young love and those precious moments.
This meander with the trees and water was the welcome respite I needed after a very busy busy day. 🙏
My favourite passage right here: "Every twist and turn and oxbow and inlet carries ancient stories of a distant people, a life on Earth that swayed like the tree tops precariously between struggle and survival and life. She has swept along every detail, memorised each one in her ripples."
I read it three times, being carried by the twists and turns you can so deftly write. :)
PS huge congrats on the 1000! That's wonderful wonderful! I hope some day to be joining you there. x
Thank you Nathan, you are an angel for ambling my way and reading so generously, I find it both touching and terrifying watching my son and his pretty love. They have such grand plans for their future together and yet both are still so young, they do not yet have the experience of life, and though I try not to be too much of a sceptic... well we all know life doesn't always roll out the red carpet we expect, much less the one we plan for. I pray only that they prove me wrong!
I quite liked that passage too, not least because the Lot River has so many ancient stories attached to its history and, of course, is stunning with its high cliffs and forested sides... it is a favourite haunt. If I'm not on my hill!
Thanks too for the congratulations, I can't believe you don't already have that many when they are so well deserved - you'll get there, Im rooting for you! For me it actually took a further three weeks to make it an 'un-lie', the moment I posted I lost six subscribers! 😂
Haha, yes, I know the post-and-unsubscribe-deluge well.
Yeah, I've been stagnating for a long time, unfortunately. But that's probably due to be stagnating over on my page and not posting very regularly of late. It's something I need to rectify, but work has drained everything in terms of creativity from me and continues to do so at the moment.
Louise having you join me here would be an absolute joy and you would be a welcome guest whenever and however you arrive, I suggest that be not within the next few overheated days though, fires are calming as I type but they have been raging far too close for comfort today. We are praying for rain on this side of the planet… 🙏🏼
Parts of Japan are suffering the same. Where I am and places up north, there hasn’t been enough rain. Right now, the southwest is having floods. We’re expecting a little rain tomorrow, but it looks like these extreme temps (38-40) the past couple of weeks are going to take a toll on the rice and other crops this year. The watermelon hasn’t been as good as usual, even at exorbitant prices.
May the fires calm down. May you have just enough rain.
I have been hearing of the floods via my daughter Louise, it seems there is no happy medium to choose from anymore… I pray for your country (and all others) as I pray for my own - I don’t know what else to do 🙏🏽
My woollies send hugs back to yours and you too xxx
"‘On y va alors?’ Shall we go then? They ask, as if they’d been waiting for me all this time, as if I too wasn’t once young with the sparkle of love in my eyes. As if I too, hadn’t felt love on a river walk in a forest deep in a shadowy valley."
It is Saturday morning here, the house still quiet. I've been waiting for a patch of time like this to circle back, to pull my first read of your comforting tale forward from the cobwebs of days ago, to read each of the comments that has been added, and yours back to each in reply. And then, to wade into that soft, lazy river again, the mystery dog, the young lovers, the quiet-hearted observer... Several buzzards and a frog. A tractor and a harrow, and Plane trees...
I am again in the middle of a painting on a slow-unfolding summer day, and thanks to these currents of noun and verb, the eddys and seams, and low hanging branches, you have pulled me across half a world to smell the damp and feel the dappled shade, and remind me of those long ago, achingly beautiful breaths, coiled in the warmth of another's touch, the cool earth beneath and those smiling, appreciative eyes...
I too sit here in the quiet of a Saturday morning to give overdue attention to your reply. The past week has been very lacking in such moments, I am overdosed on smiles, my throat raw from raucous laughter and the constant babble of the type of conversation that only occurs with good old friends. And, now, as the sun and I heave ourselves from the dark of slumber in perfect synchronicity, I release a great happy sigh, not only for the peace and quiet of an empty house but that the days ahead will be yet more delicious for having the memories of those just prior stored until our worlds collide again next year.
Happy Days were had, I am glad of them always, glad also to rekindle memories of more youthful, breathless days in a generous, warm hearted reader sensitive to such delights as you regardless that I myself am wrapped in a strange melancholy.
As I watch my gentle son unfurl his wings, let loose his big kind heart to the ravages of first love I am touched with both happiness and sadness at once, he is my last, my youngest and I pray his pretty love will understand all that I do of him. Of course, I know too well the answers lie hidden in the folds of future days, I must wait (without interfering) to see what the unfolding reveals but I hope he will recall this time of lushness as you do, with a warm glow, a smile, a deep ache for something still held as beautiful.
With a chink of morning coffee mugs come my thanks dear David, may your weekend be kind.
Thank you, Susie for taking us along this sweet walk filled with love, sounds, joy and ancient trees! A song came to mind: 'Love is in the Air' by John Paul Young-1978 !! (this tells my age! )
I love the little videos you take...makes me feel like I am right there with you. That darling dog, he looked pleased with himself as he stepped out of the river!
Ahh Jeannine, you are so very welcome, I am delighted you joined me.
I think that must make us about the same age, I remember this song too, I was young and impressionable 14 year old when this song came out! Wasn't there a line that said like, 'love is in the whispering of the trees'? I think I may have taken that quite literally to heart...
He was a happy dog, I hope he found his owner though, he seemed very intent on finding something because no sooner had he soaked me, he dashed off into the forest and was gone.
I hope your weekend is being perfectly wonderful in every way. xx
Oh how I wish that I was closer to your age! I was about 21 then and just married! Seven years difference between a 14 year old and a 21 year old is like a huge abyss...until the younger one gets a little bit older. And then it feels like the abyss closes up and the gap has no relevance anymore. So yes, I think we are 'about' the same age now!
I love this line too: 'In the thunder of the sea'. And this was the line that came to mind when I watched your video: 'Love is in the air, Every sight and every sound.'
“…as if I too wasn’t once young with the sparkle of love in my eyes. As if I too, hadn’t felt love on a river walk in a forest deep in a shadowy valley.”
When I have finished reading one of your posts, names like, The joy that is, Daydreaming in scented wings, The impermanent grace of everything, I think to myself, the hill, an ocean away, is the heart of the story. Then I read another and think, no, home is where the heart is. But many stories later, I have come to the conclusion that it is your heart, Susie , which all things wild and tamed, flora and fauna, river, earth and changing sky, your beloved, son and daughter, flows through you. They nurture , the sustenance that feeds the soul, where your words are born. When dark layered sky brought wind and rain, and mighty trees to ground, when we laugh with you as ‘naked’ sheep jump for joy, or sit quietly next to you to watch the Hare, shedding tears with you for your sheep that were terrorized. Or, when we just want to take a walk next to your footsteps, sit back in a chair and day dream about the gorgeous , blurred landscapes, and be mesmerized by your descriptions. Truly, this is why we are all here, your love and kind heart, your sincerity, your truth. We want to root for you, cry, laugh with you, get to know you and call you friend. Simply because you allow us in.
Lor, my friend, wanderer of mountain and lake, you made me spill tears on my keyboard reading this, or maybe it was the dust of old oaks, or pollen escaped from those pockets bees have just making me think they are tears, either way I am so very grateful for you.
For now the 🌳🌳🌳 are wonderful sprinkle of magic, 🐝🐝sadly will never happen I already have to carry an epipen and last, I daren't even be so bold as to even dream of yet, probably ever!
How sweet to read the love for others and for the flowing Lot river. I count France’s clear free flowing rivers and streams as her greatest wealth feeding farms and forests while running to the seas.
I agree, I am constant awe of French rivers, how they are kept and used Kate. Yesterday I was taxiing said lovers past the vast Gorge du Tarn meandering through limestone cliffs and forest, I stopped the car for a moment just to gaze and wonder at such ancient beauty - it was safer that trying to take it all in while driving, those sheer drops are terrifying!
Pure enchantment Susie! How tender to witness your son’s young love but then to feel it inspire your own through stream and path and sunlit shadow! And did you actually hear a tree fall?! Of course you did. If I were a dying tree, I too, would wait until you were near, to feel witnessed in my ending/becoming and be held in the magnificent outstretched arms of your Presence.
To watch my son and his tender heart blossom into love for his friend ignites something truly warm and indescribable inside me Kimberly. To know his heart has been held, even if only for these precious moments of adolescence, in reciprocal young love and not just a flirtatious encounter that come and go like ripples on water as they so often do at this age is a witnessing I will never forget. Their belief in each other and their future is extraordinarily rare. Joy and fear roam my heart hand in hand. Time only will tell this story though.
To hear a tree fall is such a heartbreaking sound and over the last years of big storms and drought combined I have heard that sound more often than I wish for. Always I am reminded of the words by George Berkeley “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” I believe they do, always with a last, anguished sigh. I wish I could hear them all, give thanks for their existence, tell them it will be remembered.
My arms are outstretched, palms together in thanks dear soul, for you for trees and with love xx
Hey sweetie, thank you for congratulations, I may have to work a little harder due to a handful of unsubscribes the moment I posted but hey, that is Substack life!
My trip was gorgeous, I will call you darling... just give me a couple of days to catch up after a week of taxiing sweet lovebirds hither and thither... I was seven hours on the road yesterday alone! I'm smiling but shattered and very behind! Love and light my beautiful SS xx
I so wait for your loving, eloquent words, Susie. Am thrilled to be one of your loyal subscribers.
Today, I indulge in this words, as if you've written a prose poem, and this is the turn that holds me your hold and the essay's lyrical hold: "They ask, as if they’d been waiting for me all this time, as if I too wasn’t once young with the sparkle of love in my eyes. As if I too, hadn’t felt love on a river walk in a forest deep in a shadowy valley."
Oh Mary, I love (I dared to hope) that you enjoyed that line. You are such a valued and treasured reader, I hope only that one day I will write of love with the depth of perception that I read in your own beautiful and profoundly soulful words.
My thanks to you are a thousand fold, for your attention to detail and your endless encouragement to continue - thank you dear one, from my heart. xx
Oh how I amble with you along the river with your words, and oh the joy and excitement of young love and those precious moments.
This meander with the trees and water was the welcome respite I needed after a very busy busy day. 🙏
My favourite passage right here: "Every twist and turn and oxbow and inlet carries ancient stories of a distant people, a life on Earth that swayed like the tree tops precariously between struggle and survival and life. She has swept along every detail, memorised each one in her ripples."
I read it three times, being carried by the twists and turns you can so deftly write. :)
PS huge congrats on the 1000! That's wonderful wonderful! I hope some day to be joining you there. x
Thank you Nathan, you are an angel for ambling my way and reading so generously, I find it both touching and terrifying watching my son and his pretty love. They have such grand plans for their future together and yet both are still so young, they do not yet have the experience of life, and though I try not to be too much of a sceptic... well we all know life doesn't always roll out the red carpet we expect, much less the one we plan for. I pray only that they prove me wrong!
I quite liked that passage too, not least because the Lot River has so many ancient stories attached to its history and, of course, is stunning with its high cliffs and forested sides... it is a favourite haunt. If I'm not on my hill!
Thanks too for the congratulations, I can't believe you don't already have that many when they are so well deserved - you'll get there, Im rooting for you! For me it actually took a further three weeks to make it an 'un-lie', the moment I posted I lost six subscribers! 😂
Haha, yes, I know the post-and-unsubscribe-deluge well.
Yeah, I've been stagnating for a long time, unfortunately. But that's probably due to be stagnating over on my page and not posting very regularly of late. It's something I need to rectify, but work has drained everything in terms of creativity from me and continues to do so at the moment.
Ah Nathan, do remember you count too! Time for you is as important, if not more so, than time for your students! Take good care my friend.
So rich and wonderful. The dog made my day!
Many thanks Bonnie, wasn’t the dog such a treat! I wish he had hung around for a while though!
So fortunate to read you, Susie. So deeply wishing to join you. xx from this side of our tiny planet, my friend.💕
Louise having you join me here would be an absolute joy and you would be a welcome guest whenever and however you arrive, I suggest that be not within the next few overheated days though, fires are calming as I type but they have been raging far too close for comfort today. We are praying for rain on this side of the planet… 🙏🏼
Dearest Susie,
Parts of Japan are suffering the same. Where I am and places up north, there hasn’t been enough rain. Right now, the southwest is having floods. We’re expecting a little rain tomorrow, but it looks like these extreme temps (38-40) the past couple of weeks are going to take a toll on the rice and other crops this year. The watermelon hasn’t been as good as usual, even at exorbitant prices.
May the fires calm down. May you have just enough rain.
Huugs the furries for me. xo
I have been hearing of the floods via my daughter Louise, it seems there is no happy medium to choose from anymore… I pray for your country (and all others) as I pray for my own - I don’t know what else to do 🙏🏽
My woollies send hugs back to yours and you too xxx
"‘On y va alors?’ Shall we go then? They ask, as if they’d been waiting for me all this time, as if I too wasn’t once young with the sparkle of love in my eyes. As if I too, hadn’t felt love on a river walk in a forest deep in a shadowy valley."
It is Saturday morning here, the house still quiet. I've been waiting for a patch of time like this to circle back, to pull my first read of your comforting tale forward from the cobwebs of days ago, to read each of the comments that has been added, and yours back to each in reply. And then, to wade into that soft, lazy river again, the mystery dog, the young lovers, the quiet-hearted observer... Several buzzards and a frog. A tractor and a harrow, and Plane trees...
I am again in the middle of a painting on a slow-unfolding summer day, and thanks to these currents of noun and verb, the eddys and seams, and low hanging branches, you have pulled me across half a world to smell the damp and feel the dappled shade, and remind me of those long ago, achingly beautiful breaths, coiled in the warmth of another's touch, the cool earth beneath and those smiling, appreciative eyes...
Bless you, dear Susie...
I too sit here in the quiet of a Saturday morning to give overdue attention to your reply. The past week has been very lacking in such moments, I am overdosed on smiles, my throat raw from raucous laughter and the constant babble of the type of conversation that only occurs with good old friends. And, now, as the sun and I heave ourselves from the dark of slumber in perfect synchronicity, I release a great happy sigh, not only for the peace and quiet of an empty house but that the days ahead will be yet more delicious for having the memories of those just prior stored until our worlds collide again next year.
Happy Days were had, I am glad of them always, glad also to rekindle memories of more youthful, breathless days in a generous, warm hearted reader sensitive to such delights as you regardless that I myself am wrapped in a strange melancholy.
As I watch my gentle son unfurl his wings, let loose his big kind heart to the ravages of first love I am touched with both happiness and sadness at once, he is my last, my youngest and I pray his pretty love will understand all that I do of him. Of course, I know too well the answers lie hidden in the folds of future days, I must wait (without interfering) to see what the unfolding reveals but I hope he will recall this time of lushness as you do, with a warm glow, a smile, a deep ache for something still held as beautiful.
With a chink of morning coffee mugs come my thanks dear David, may your weekend be kind.
What a delightful day so gorgeously painted to allow us to share in it. xx
Thank you - I think we were blessed Jan, both in time and place xx
Thank you, Susie for taking us along this sweet walk filled with love, sounds, joy and ancient trees! A song came to mind: 'Love is in the Air' by John Paul Young-1978 !! (this tells my age! )
I love the little videos you take...makes me feel like I am right there with you. That darling dog, he looked pleased with himself as he stepped out of the river!
Ahh Jeannine, you are so very welcome, I am delighted you joined me.
I think that must make us about the same age, I remember this song too, I was young and impressionable 14 year old when this song came out! Wasn't there a line that said like, 'love is in the whispering of the trees'? I think I may have taken that quite literally to heart...
He was a happy dog, I hope he found his owner though, he seemed very intent on finding something because no sooner had he soaked me, he dashed off into the forest and was gone.
I hope your weekend is being perfectly wonderful in every way. xx
Oh how I wish that I was closer to your age! I was about 21 then and just married! Seven years difference between a 14 year old and a 21 year old is like a huge abyss...until the younger one gets a little bit older. And then it feels like the abyss closes up and the gap has no relevance anymore. So yes, I think we are 'about' the same age now!
I love this line too: 'In the thunder of the sea'. And this was the line that came to mind when I watched your video: 'Love is in the air, Every sight and every sound.'
Wishing you a wonderful weekend as well!
“…as if I too wasn’t once young with the sparkle of love in my eyes. As if I too, hadn’t felt love on a river walk in a forest deep in a shadowy valley.”
It does us so much good to remember that feeling don't you think Lor?
I remember every field, stream and parked car on a remote overlook…
Haha… 🤭😂😘
When I have finished reading one of your posts, names like, The joy that is, Daydreaming in scented wings, The impermanent grace of everything, I think to myself, the hill, an ocean away, is the heart of the story. Then I read another and think, no, home is where the heart is. But many stories later, I have come to the conclusion that it is your heart, Susie , which all things wild and tamed, flora and fauna, river, earth and changing sky, your beloved, son and daughter, flows through you. They nurture , the sustenance that feeds the soul, where your words are born. When dark layered sky brought wind and rain, and mighty trees to ground, when we laugh with you as ‘naked’ sheep jump for joy, or sit quietly next to you to watch the Hare, shedding tears with you for your sheep that were terrorized. Or, when we just want to take a walk next to your footsteps, sit back in a chair and day dream about the gorgeous , blurred landscapes, and be mesmerized by your descriptions. Truly, this is why we are all here, your love and kind heart, your sincerity, your truth. We want to root for you, cry, laugh with you, get to know you and call you friend. Simply because you allow us in.
Lor, my friend, wanderer of mountain and lake, you made me spill tears on my keyboard reading this, or maybe it was the dust of old oaks, or pollen escaped from those pockets bees have just making me think they are tears, either way I am so very grateful for you.
Bless your gorgeous big heart,
PS I hope you saw my news? xx
I did !! But I didn’t think B meant 🌳🌳🌳,I knew it wasn’t 🐝🐝, I was thinking it was📕
For now the 🌳🌳🌳 are wonderful sprinkle of magic, 🐝🐝sadly will never happen I already have to carry an epipen and last, I daren't even be so bold as to even dream of yet, probably ever!
A short walk made very welcoming and rich by your description.
Thank you Joshua, I was thinking of Midnight when the dog appeared from nowhere, swimming across the river, it felt like the oddest coincidence.
How sweet to read the love for others and for the flowing Lot river. I count France’s clear free flowing rivers and streams as her greatest wealth feeding farms and forests while running to the seas.
I agree, I am constant awe of French rivers, how they are kept and used Kate. Yesterday I was taxiing said lovers past the vast Gorge du Tarn meandering through limestone cliffs and forest, I stopped the car for a moment just to gaze and wonder at such ancient beauty - it was safer that trying to take it all in while driving, those sheer drops are terrifying!
A beautiful evocation of a summer river, Susie.
Jeffrey you are a treasure for reading my humble words, warmest thanks to you my friend.
❤️❤️
🙏🏼♥️
Pure enchantment Susie! How tender to witness your son’s young love but then to feel it inspire your own through stream and path and sunlit shadow! And did you actually hear a tree fall?! Of course you did. If I were a dying tree, I too, would wait until you were near, to feel witnessed in my ending/becoming and be held in the magnificent outstretched arms of your Presence.
To watch my son and his tender heart blossom into love for his friend ignites something truly warm and indescribable inside me Kimberly. To know his heart has been held, even if only for these precious moments of adolescence, in reciprocal young love and not just a flirtatious encounter that come and go like ripples on water as they so often do at this age is a witnessing I will never forget. Their belief in each other and their future is extraordinarily rare. Joy and fear roam my heart hand in hand. Time only will tell this story though.
To hear a tree fall is such a heartbreaking sound and over the last years of big storms and drought combined I have heard that sound more often than I wish for. Always I am reminded of the words by George Berkeley “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” I believe they do, always with a last, anguished sigh. I wish I could hear them all, give thanks for their existence, tell them it will be remembered.
My arms are outstretched, palms together in thanks dear soul, for you for trees and with love xx
Congratulations... it's well earned. Beautiful meanderings along the river, restores and reawakens the soul. How was your trip?
Hey sweetie, thank you for congratulations, I may have to work a little harder due to a handful of unsubscribes the moment I posted but hey, that is Substack life!
My trip was gorgeous, I will call you darling... just give me a couple of days to catch up after a week of taxiing sweet lovebirds hither and thither... I was seven hours on the road yesterday alone! I'm smiling but shattered and very behind! Love and light my beautiful SS xx
I so wait for your loving, eloquent words, Susie. Am thrilled to be one of your loyal subscribers.
Today, I indulge in this words, as if you've written a prose poem, and this is the turn that holds me your hold and the essay's lyrical hold: "They ask, as if they’d been waiting for me all this time, as if I too wasn’t once young with the sparkle of love in my eyes. As if I too, hadn’t felt love on a river walk in a forest deep in a shadowy valley."
What a beautiful soulful write, m'dear!
Oh Mary, I love (I dared to hope) that you enjoyed that line. You are such a valued and treasured reader, I hope only that one day I will write of love with the depth of perception that I read in your own beautiful and profoundly soulful words.
My thanks to you are a thousand fold, for your attention to detail and your endless encouragement to continue - thank you dear one, from my heart. xx
Heart to heart, dearest Susie.
I’m happy to be one of those 1000! 🥰
And I am so happy to count you as one of my much treasured and special readers my beautiful friend. Sending love on a grey Sunday afternoon. ♥️xxx
🫶🏼