Susie, you weave sorrow and joy like a seamstress of words and images, empathy and connection, as someone who sees what so many sadly miss. Which is to say I wish everyone could see through your eyes, your hill.
You know Holly, I wish, with my whole damn body, I didn't have to weave joy with quite so much sorrow, this year it's proving to be a tough task though! We are melting in our third heatwave of the year, the casualties, both human and animal—I can't even speak of the trees 😔 continue to mount... I wonder, when will this end, but of course it won't, next year will burn just as this one has, perhaps even hotter, probably hotter...
I wish I could flick a switch and revert humankind to the years of my carefree wild youth to show what joy really is.
Or maybe I'll just be a swallow... love back beautiful soul, I am going to do my utmost to join you tomorrow! xx
Your stories bring me back, certain upon first reading that I have only just begun to sense the most obvious of gifts hidden within them and wanting to let their newness settle a bit.
"When you have no needs other than to pay attention to the sounds of the trees, the animals that live in the shelter of both their branches and roots, the mycelia that support their entire living breathing lives—and their demise—and the colour of the sky and all its feathered songs above, the words become less important than the understanding." You have set the hook in me. I'm in. All the way in. But one reading will certainly not be enough. I'll come back... promise.
"The scent of honeysuckle on a warm wind for the first time would send me rapturous and victorious into the thickets wild with excitement to feel my sticky palms wrapped around wilting bouquets of their drooping pale-yellow scented heads whose sweet honey-nectar I would suck from the the ends with a child’s abandoned relish while watching the first ladybird of the year stretch her wings in spring sunshine and knowing there would be thousands more just like her gather her up as a friend to take home to live with the caterpillar I found the day before which would have been placed by various bottles of petals in water because, of course, perfume was made that way when you were a barefooted child grown of dandelions, dragonfly wings and dust." This paragraph, even sweeter a 'find' the second time through. I recognize this kid, this way of being and thinking. And I am ever so grateful for the mirror your memory has created, transporting me back to all those smells and certainties. We'd have been fast friends at seven or eight years old, bopping around the woods and along some creek. I'd recognize you right off the bat... but would probably have warmed more slowly. Kids like you were not at all common, more like apparitions, and many that you thought might have that innate, magic, hoped... simply dissolved into shallow normalcy within moments of more careful observation.
"Later, outside the barn, four young birds are perched with a wobble on the telegraph lines, three face me, one is looking away shyly as only a scruffy starling babe would when finding itself seated amongst elegance. I can hear its thoughts… ‘I want to be a swallow’. I whisper back, I know sweet soul, I know…"
Good lord, woman. I feel as if I've just witnessed a moment of perfection!
Davey, my very dear friend, just to know you find a little time in your busy days to read this old girls nostalgic ramblings of moments long ago set aside to memory is a gift that makes me feel as giddy and lighthearted as any one of the honeysuckle heads I found as child!
To imagine we might have been two young friends, delighted together by all those sounds, scents and tiny creatures, winged, finned or four legged, complicit in our adventures, well that just makes my eyes glisten! How badly I dreamed of such a friend at eight years old when those I had barely noticed a whole vast world even existed beyond their comfortable homes, even thought me a little on the loopy side for my preference to watching the reality shows outside than the likes of Scooby Doo and Tom and Jerry from the sofa!
How fortunate I am to have found a friend like you all these long years later, to know that all the tiny moments I notice are not lost on one kindred soul makes every second of my time here worthy.
I am, and will be, ever grateful for you — thank you.
Oh Susie... how is it, I can sit here and read your words and feel the delight of being swept up by your poetry and equally devastated at the same time? What you are experiencing is terrifying... I know it is coming my way soon, as well. Living in the mountains is wonderful, until the heat of summer arrives, and the trees look more like matchsticks and the lightning is indifferent. We've been lucky so far, but I know this is a temporary fortune.
I will carry that sweet little field mouse in my pocket today and cross my fingers that many others will find water, a cool respite.... somewhere. The earth indeed, is screaming. We all feel so helpless to fix what is broken. What can we do? Imagine what those trillion dollars could do???
Sending you my love.. my hopes that you will find a way out of the terrible heat, along with all of the confused and suffering creatures that don't understand what is happening. It breaks my heart. Autumn cannot arrive soon enough! xoxoxoxoxo 🩵
Bless you sweet soul, we have had a few days respite from the suffocating heat of last week, only to be told it will return with a vengeful persistence on Tuesday. I never imagined myself wishing for the cool of autumn but despite loving these summer months in the past, despite relishing the joy of being bare footed and bare armed, I am wishing with all my heart for cool. I want to wake to mist and damp, to cobwebs bejewelled with droplets instead of hanging filthy and sad with dust...
A trillion dollars could help! And if the revered owner of that trillion did help, many would follow...
May you continue to be lucky dear Jaime, this heat is unbearable, the body count immeasurable and breathing without choking on hot air or dust feels like a luxury, I pray you don't have to suffer it also.
With love and forever thanks, enjoy your Sunday xoxox 💞
I didn't know the word, "psithurism." What a marvelous one, and I agree, when you're as delightfully connected as a child, "the words become less important than the understanding." I, too, share your grief at the ongoing assault on our precious earth home. And your instinct to lay on the ground reminds me of Wendell Berry's lovely poem, "The Peace of Wild Things." https://onbeing.org/poetry/the-peace-of-wild-things/. Susie, may you rest in the world and be free.
Julie, thank you, I know well the poem you site by Wendell Berry, the last lines tug heartstrings every time I read it...
"And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."
If I stand at the top of the hill today, I no longer see the landscape I fell in love with twenty-one years ago. It isn't simply the effects of climate change although this too is visible but the necessity of bigger machines to enable more efficient farming to meet demands and the outrageous requirements of EU laws. Agriculture is unrecognisable to a girl who grew up on a farm.
My hill is becoming a barren expanse of stony, infertile land with nothing to hold the soil in place, animals have either fled or perished with no hedgerows to hide in, the wild gorse—a natural binder of soil—have nothing left to grow in, without it the hill is suffering at an alarming rate. And I can do nothing to stop it...
I hope only that one day everyone will understand 'the peace of wild things'. No words will be needed...
Thank you darling, we had a slight reprieve from the heat this weekend, slight and sadly short… I am bracing myself for the week ahead as best I can! Big big love 🥰
Summer fun is tinged (or singed ) with summer fear. The sound of a helicopter terrifies me. I hear you. I congratulate you even being able to sit in Toulouse in that heat waiting for the train!! I thought here was hot. I can't help wish summer was ending which I find hard to admit. It's all very heartbreaking. Sending love.
Likewise sat on the top of my hill enjoying the cooler air, though the sun has sneaked up on my back while writing and I have accidentally knocked over my ginger tea which has definitely shortened my stay in the woods! Anyway I should be off. Need to clean the house of dog fluff before guests arrive tonight and before the heat. Apparently a heatwave this week but it's no longer possible to see a heatwave. It's just layers of heat on heat until it's difficult to think straight!!!😂😢
It is absolutely crazy isn’t it, that we, who moved to warmer climes so many years ago because we love summer sunshine now spend most of the season wishing for the cooler air of the next to arrive! I wonder, in ten years time, if I will even be capable of setting foot outside on days like we have had this June! It’s a depressing thought…
Here we have had no warnings of fire, yet, but they will come, the sound of low flying traffic in the sky will terrify me too, I am already on smoke watch—thank goodness for living on a hill—just in case!
And, of course, there isn’t a drop of rain anywhere on my forecast!
Stay cool and safe my lovely friend, right now, here, it is cool and beautiful so I am off for a walk before the heat drives me inside! Much much love to you. xxx
I’m gasping for air, not because of this hot summer that causes skin to glisten inelegantly, but due to the breathtaking beauty of your prose. Oh how beautifully you write. I too am like the swallow, I shall return again and again.
Alegra you have brought tears to my eyes with your kind and thoughtful comment for which I thank you, again, from the very deepest pocket of my heart. On a day so filled with worry and concerns, to read that you are “gasping for air…” …due to the breathtaking beauty of your prose” is a gift I will keep in that very same pocket.
I want to be a swallow and I want to write as beautifully as you do. The sweet little mouse did have a full belly and experience love and care in its final hours (and the pipistrelle did too). Continuing to have hope and share love is a radical act and the revolution is now <3 <3 <3
“Sharing love is a radical act and the revolution is now” Lucy, what a treasure you are — I love that! Up the revolution… let’s see how many will join us !! ♥️xx
I will be your swallow friend too one day Susie! And we WILL sit on wires and swoop and call and dive and dip in to the pools of beautiful refections of this wondrous Earth. As She transforms and recovers after this nye on decimation by the the belligerent, narcissistic, all consuming, greedy, fat humankind who have no desire whatsoever in their hearts to be swallows, or rescue birds, or tiny animals, or to see a 'normal' summer, unless they are AI generated and it makes THEM another trillion!!!! They are not of the Earth that you and I occupy sadly.
We have to believe, hold on and we must hope that WE are going through this to show those wreckers what they have done and are doing. We can only each do are tiny part that continues to show our hearts to those tiny 'others' that so desperately need us, as we them. One day at a time, in the Now.
My one red squirrel who is now light brown with a straggly rat like tail and not a glistening red conker colour, not shouting and calling for her family any more. Being savagely pecked and chased off their water feeder by Sardinian warblers who think they own it!
My heart is broken with yours and these wonderful people who comment here too. But we must hold on and as so many people say, people are waking up, the new generations are stepping up and doing such magnificent work.
As I too, not so elegantly glisten under the fan and hug my one of the last of my 3 fur bears tightly, because she dominates my desk space for the draught of the same fan here in Spain; I thank you Susie for wonderful essay as always and extending my vocabulary with Psithurism. What a beautiful word. I'll see you on the wire. 🧡🫠🧡
Oh Sally, I am flying towards you, a little shaky, very overheated and lacking in any elegance but to find a friend on the wire, one I would love to hold hands with, well that is worth every effort! Please will you catch me when I arrive, I will likely fall from being over emotional? 🥹
This fight for survival, it is a terrible and heartbreaking thing to watch isn't it! Not only do we attentive terrified humans have to listen and observe helplessly while the belligerent, the narcissistic, the all consuming, greedy and fat because of it, wreak chaos and destruction blindly across our beautiful planet but we must watch in horror as the animal kingdom battle between themselves for the simple sustenance that keeps them alive also. I wept yesterday as I watched a bedraggled and hungry fox, oblivious to the danger he was in, plod slowly down the lane to the river only to find the river is now empty... I could do nothing but look on with a heavy heart. And there are so many other tiny feathered and furred angels, weak from heat and lack of necessary food... does a heart mend after watching their suffering?
I hold on to hope with you my lovely friend, and all those that see and hear as we do the very great and urgent necessity to pay attention, to be kind and gentle on our beautiful home when those that hold the strings to its destiny don't.
I am glistening inelegantly again this evening, the temperatures have risen beyond anything we have ever known, even sitting in this old thick stone walled house is less than comfortable, I too have a fan whirring, our old cat lays languorously and seemingly oblivious to the disaster that is unfurling. I envy her...
Much much love to you, I hope you have a cool place to hide from time to time.. xx♥️
Even in this heat they do zoomies Linda... I try to calm them because they end up panting so hard I am scared they will topple over with the effort but they just want to play! I've never had a flock quite like these adorable four, my heart will break all over again when their time is up.
Hi Linda, that little field mouse broke my heart more than any other i’ve tried to save, I thought she was thriving, and then she wasn’t! I know its so hard to save these tiny creatures but I truly thought I’d won a small battle with this one… wre have to try though don’t we!💔
My sheep are coping as they always do, they find a shady place to lay and don’t budge until nightfall, then they create merry hell until dawn… bless them though, everything is dry and parched with the lack of rainfall and they hate dry grass, if I go down early enough I often find them with the two front feet half way up a tree trunk so they can munch on still green leaves, I am making a trip a day to the valley to cut hazel and willow leaves for them just so they don’t entirely destroy the orchard!
Hello beautiful, it is too sad to contemplate and yet we are faced with the reality of these lost beauties daily… my neighbour tells me all is cyclic, that all that is extinct will one day return, I have grave doubts but hope with all my heart he is right. 🙏🏼
Thank you for being here my lovely friend, wishing you a cool and comfort able weekend, here it won’t be but I am on holidays so am smiling despite the heat! Much love ♥️xx
Susie, this was so touching and expressed some thoughts I've been having, but without the beauty of your words.
For years now, we've all been watching the temperature charts and reading how France is heating up three to four times faster than other parts of the world, but somehow, I think that this heat wave felt different from all others. (I was in the States in 2003.) So long, so early, covering so much of the country, already preceded by one in May, with another one perhaps coming up just next week...
Besides the overall, year-long impact on all living things, I have, like you, been wondering if the joy of summer is over. Will it now be a season that we pray for the end of, dreaming of the autumn and release from the heat? Will so many events be cancelled that they stop even being scheduled?
This may not be the heart of the issue, but it's a heartbreaking thought nonetheless.
Hi Betty, it is a sad thought isn't it, to not be looking forward to the summer months, to not have feeling of utter joy and relief when the last child is placed finally into the hands of its parents and eight weeks of beautiful days stretch ahead. I am horrified by these temperatures that seem to rise and stay risen for longer and longer each year, beginning earlier and earlier. I never thought I would dread a single day of summer but in these temperatures, knowing that I have no choice but to sit indoors with windows and shutters closed just makes me want to cry in frustration and fear.
I am not certain how or what can be done, but yes, I think summer events will eventually dwindle, only those that can be contained in spaces which can be kept cool will continue and as you know well those are few, and I think for many, it already is the season of prayer, for rain and for the fresher days of autumn.
It is the first time in my life I have ever wished or prayed for either, the casualties are heartbreakingly high this year...
I don't know if you saw my late Note last night, I will WhatsApp you later with an explanation although you can probably imagine knowing the hierarchies in the education system here already!
Sending love, have a fabulous weekend xx
PS I am at least able to have peaceful days, even if they are way too hot! Making the most of the weekend.
So much heartache, Susie! Here in Colorado we are surrounded by raging wildfires and the air is too smoky to breathe. The earth is screaming indeed. But I cling to every bit of hope I can. We are in the midst of primary elections and young, vibrant democratic socialists are having surprise upsets against “old order” politicians. Oh they are a wonder of energy, passion and clarity! They are standing up and saying “no more.” I believe in them and their vision for a different world order. I also cling to the stories of how quickly the earth can recover when given a chance. Like when the Elwah dam was removed in WA state and the river and ecosystem came back to life far more quickly than any scientists could have predicted. The earth must scream and scream loudly, and I hope and pray every day that more and more and more people, especially young people, will listen and stand up to envision a different future. And we older folks? We must keep connecting to the earth and her creature, listening and feeling deeply, and telling about it. That is the work that the young ones need us to do. And you do it so beautifully Susie! Keep writing, my friend! They need us. They need you❤️
We have yet to face the smoke of wildfires here this year Sumaya, they will come though, I live with the fear and pray it is unwarranted. Yesterday morning at 05:45 am I opened the shutters to scan the horizon—as has become my habit for the last month of heatwave after heatwave—to see a plume of smoke across far hills. I knew the danger was too far to be personally concerned about, I knew also from the colour of the smoke it was no forest fire, a temporary relief...
Later I read of 300 goats that have perished in an agricultural building, farm machinery and many acres of land surrounding it were burnt to nothing. A whole livelihood over. The radio reports several more through the day... and so summer rolls on and how it will continue to do so for all the years to come if we don't do something to revert global warming.
I too cling to the hope that we—those who care, those that pay attention—are sufficient in number to turn back that which has been caused by greed and mismanagement. I am scared it is a big hope though...
We only have to return to the months of confinement from Covid 19 to see just how quickly nature is capable of reestablishing itself. And, no matter what the conspiracy theorists say, the experts, the scientists and the doctors, I still believe the pandemic was the result of a need, perhaps even a necessity... Nature needed to be in control so she took the chance to do so.
I have great belief in our young people dear Sumaya, they have more information at there fingertips than we ever could have wished for and more and more of them know how to use it, more and more of them want to save the planet that many of our generation and that which immediately followed have destroyed.
The smoke and high winds have abated here in Colorado and we even got some much-needed rain. A wonderful, temporary reprieve from the threat of fires and the discomfort of smoky air (and way too much indoor time for this outdoor lady!). Perhaps we'll hit a tipping point when there will simply be no choice for humans but to start listening to and reconnecting with the earth. But oh the agony in the meantime!! I guess our hearts must break, dear Susie. Sending so much love your way❤️
You have a way of writing - this not just the beauty of your words, but also the way you breathe heart and life into them, conveying so deeply and so exactly the things you write of, transporting us instantly, drawing us close, so that we can then walk by your side and see through your eyes.
The devastation being caused to our planet and creatures, breathing and blooming, living on it is heartbreaking. So awful especially for those unable to find shelter from this heat.
So sorry to hear about your pipistrelle and your field mouse.
What is happening, so clearly a warning.
And what are we to do? The answer - to do as you, Susie, so lovingly always do ……… to care for and tend to anybody or anything we are able to. And pray.
The lines from Cormac McCarthy are beautiful, sad and apt.
‘Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again.’
And John Steinbeck’s words too.
How would the last moments of the last day look? Maybe something like this.
I remember long ago summers so differently, too.
I think that we always have to remind ourselves that tomorrow holds secrets yet to be known, and I think that we always need to remind ourselves also that these secrets may be good.
Hello dear Kay, sadly the heatwave continues, we are sweltering in temperatures of +40c, small creatures are suffering, the land is suffering, the trees are wilting and dull. I pine for a cool place to sit, then feel guilty for my discontent because of all the above!
It is becoming vital that who pay attention to this exquisitely beautiful planet we live on, we who have witnessed many times the secrets and magic already told, MUST continue to do so, we must continue to observe and attend to every aspect of the myriad gifts it bestows us, share what we know, how we care deeply about it.
Perhaps, and I truly hope, you are right in your words of that last paragraph...
Tomorrow is always another day, none of know exactly how it will unfold and yes, yes, yes, so much of the unknown can be good. I will hold tight to that thought...
And the thought of meeting you on a telegraph wire, swallow wing to swallow wing...
Always with love dear friend... may your weekend be filled with just the right amount of wonderful xx
I hope you are having a lovely weekend - and keeping as cool as possible. Temperatures here, now cooling. I hope soon for you too.
I do truly believe that tomorrow’s secrets may turn out to be good if enough people hold firm to that belief in their hearts and believe also that whatever good they are able to do will not be wasted.
And then when we are swallows, dancing in the sky, chatting on that wire, we will laugh and smile because everything turned out well in the end.
Susie, you weave sorrow and joy like a seamstress of words and images, empathy and connection, as someone who sees what so many sadly miss. Which is to say I wish everyone could see through your eyes, your hill.
Much, much love your way, my swallow friend. 🪶
You know Holly, I wish, with my whole damn body, I didn't have to weave joy with quite so much sorrow, this year it's proving to be a tough task though! We are melting in our third heatwave of the year, the casualties, both human and animal—I can't even speak of the trees 😔 continue to mount... I wonder, when will this end, but of course it won't, next year will burn just as this one has, perhaps even hotter, probably hotter...
I wish I could flick a switch and revert humankind to the years of my carefree wild youth to show what joy really is.
Or maybe I'll just be a swallow... love back beautiful soul, I am going to do my utmost to join you tomorrow! xx
I would be ABSOLUTELY delighted to see you, dear friend.
And I know. I’ve been thinking of the beauty of reverting to youthful days a lot these days too.
Sending a hug.
Holly, I'm sooo nervous... of anything live, tell me what is expected in these gatherings?
Your stories bring me back, certain upon first reading that I have only just begun to sense the most obvious of gifts hidden within them and wanting to let their newness settle a bit.
"When you have no needs other than to pay attention to the sounds of the trees, the animals that live in the shelter of both their branches and roots, the mycelia that support their entire living breathing lives—and their demise—and the colour of the sky and all its feathered songs above, the words become less important than the understanding." You have set the hook in me. I'm in. All the way in. But one reading will certainly not be enough. I'll come back... promise.
"The scent of honeysuckle on a warm wind for the first time would send me rapturous and victorious into the thickets wild with excitement to feel my sticky palms wrapped around wilting bouquets of their drooping pale-yellow scented heads whose sweet honey-nectar I would suck from the the ends with a child’s abandoned relish while watching the first ladybird of the year stretch her wings in spring sunshine and knowing there would be thousands more just like her gather her up as a friend to take home to live with the caterpillar I found the day before which would have been placed by various bottles of petals in water because, of course, perfume was made that way when you were a barefooted child grown of dandelions, dragonfly wings and dust." This paragraph, even sweeter a 'find' the second time through. I recognize this kid, this way of being and thinking. And I am ever so grateful for the mirror your memory has created, transporting me back to all those smells and certainties. We'd have been fast friends at seven or eight years old, bopping around the woods and along some creek. I'd recognize you right off the bat... but would probably have warmed more slowly. Kids like you were not at all common, more like apparitions, and many that you thought might have that innate, magic, hoped... simply dissolved into shallow normalcy within moments of more careful observation.
"Later, outside the barn, four young birds are perched with a wobble on the telegraph lines, three face me, one is looking away shyly as only a scruffy starling babe would when finding itself seated amongst elegance. I can hear its thoughts… ‘I want to be a swallow’. I whisper back, I know sweet soul, I know…"
Good lord, woman. I feel as if I've just witnessed a moment of perfection!
You are a wonder. I love your stories.
Davey, my very dear friend, just to know you find a little time in your busy days to read this old girls nostalgic ramblings of moments long ago set aside to memory is a gift that makes me feel as giddy and lighthearted as any one of the honeysuckle heads I found as child!
To imagine we might have been two young friends, delighted together by all those sounds, scents and tiny creatures, winged, finned or four legged, complicit in our adventures, well that just makes my eyes glisten! How badly I dreamed of such a friend at eight years old when those I had barely noticed a whole vast world even existed beyond their comfortable homes, even thought me a little on the loopy side for my preference to watching the reality shows outside than the likes of Scooby Doo and Tom and Jerry from the sofa!
How fortunate I am to have found a friend like you all these long years later, to know that all the tiny moments I notice are not lost on one kindred soul makes every second of my time here worthy.
I am, and will be, ever grateful for you — thank you.
Oh Susie... how is it, I can sit here and read your words and feel the delight of being swept up by your poetry and equally devastated at the same time? What you are experiencing is terrifying... I know it is coming my way soon, as well. Living in the mountains is wonderful, until the heat of summer arrives, and the trees look more like matchsticks and the lightning is indifferent. We've been lucky so far, but I know this is a temporary fortune.
I will carry that sweet little field mouse in my pocket today and cross my fingers that many others will find water, a cool respite.... somewhere. The earth indeed, is screaming. We all feel so helpless to fix what is broken. What can we do? Imagine what those trillion dollars could do???
Sending you my love.. my hopes that you will find a way out of the terrible heat, along with all of the confused and suffering creatures that don't understand what is happening. It breaks my heart. Autumn cannot arrive soon enough! xoxoxoxoxo 🩵
Bless you sweet soul, we have had a few days respite from the suffocating heat of last week, only to be told it will return with a vengeful persistence on Tuesday. I never imagined myself wishing for the cool of autumn but despite loving these summer months in the past, despite relishing the joy of being bare footed and bare armed, I am wishing with all my heart for cool. I want to wake to mist and damp, to cobwebs bejewelled with droplets instead of hanging filthy and sad with dust...
A trillion dollars could help! And if the revered owner of that trillion did help, many would follow...
May you continue to be lucky dear Jaime, this heat is unbearable, the body count immeasurable and breathing without choking on hot air or dust feels like a luxury, I pray you don't have to suffer it also.
With love and forever thanks, enjoy your Sunday xoxox 💞
I didn't know the word, "psithurism." What a marvelous one, and I agree, when you're as delightfully connected as a child, "the words become less important than the understanding." I, too, share your grief at the ongoing assault on our precious earth home. And your instinct to lay on the ground reminds me of Wendell Berry's lovely poem, "The Peace of Wild Things." https://onbeing.org/poetry/the-peace-of-wild-things/. Susie, may you rest in the world and be free.
Julie, thank you, I know well the poem you site by Wendell Berry, the last lines tug heartstrings every time I read it...
"And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."
If I stand at the top of the hill today, I no longer see the landscape I fell in love with twenty-one years ago. It isn't simply the effects of climate change although this too is visible but the necessity of bigger machines to enable more efficient farming to meet demands and the outrageous requirements of EU laws. Agriculture is unrecognisable to a girl who grew up on a farm.
My hill is becoming a barren expanse of stony, infertile land with nothing to hold the soil in place, animals have either fled or perished with no hedgerows to hide in, the wild gorse—a natural binder of soil—have nothing left to grow in, without it the hill is suffering at an alarming rate. And I can do nothing to stop it...
I hope only that one day everyone will understand 'the peace of wild things'. No words will be needed...
💔
So very beautiful and sad dear Susie, you’ve put into words so well the things we have talked about many times recently 🥰
Thank you darling, we had a slight reprieve from the heat this weekend, slight and sadly short… I am bracing myself for the week ahead as best I can! Big big love 🥰
Susie what a huge heart you have.
Such beautiful thoughts.
Summer fun is tinged (or singed ) with summer fear. The sound of a helicopter terrifies me. I hear you. I congratulate you even being able to sit in Toulouse in that heat waiting for the train!! I thought here was hot. I can't help wish summer was ending which I find hard to admit. It's all very heartbreaking. Sending love.
Love back to you Susie. Enjoy!
Likewise sat on the top of my hill enjoying the cooler air, though the sun has sneaked up on my back while writing and I have accidentally knocked over my ginger tea which has definitely shortened my stay in the woods! Anyway I should be off. Need to clean the house of dog fluff before guests arrive tonight and before the heat. Apparently a heatwave this week but it's no longer possible to see a heatwave. It's just layers of heat on heat until it's difficult to think straight!!!😂😢
It is absolutely crazy isn’t it, that we, who moved to warmer climes so many years ago because we love summer sunshine now spend most of the season wishing for the cooler air of the next to arrive! I wonder, in ten years time, if I will even be capable of setting foot outside on days like we have had this June! It’s a depressing thought…
Here we have had no warnings of fire, yet, but they will come, the sound of low flying traffic in the sky will terrify me too, I am already on smoke watch—thank goodness for living on a hill—just in case!
And, of course, there isn’t a drop of rain anywhere on my forecast!
Stay cool and safe my lovely friend, right now, here, it is cool and beautiful so I am off for a walk before the heat drives me inside! Much much love to you. xxx
I’m gasping for air, not because of this hot summer that causes skin to glisten inelegantly, but due to the breathtaking beauty of your prose. Oh how beautifully you write. I too am like the swallow, I shall return again and again.
Alegra you have brought tears to my eyes with your kind and thoughtful comment for which I thank you, again, from the very deepest pocket of my heart. On a day so filled with worry and concerns, to read that you are “gasping for air…” …due to the breathtaking beauty of your prose” is a gift I will keep in that very same pocket.
I am so grateful for you today… 🌺xx
I’m so grateful to know you felt me standing beside you. Even though we may not know each other, like swallows we shall fly. 💕
Wing to wing, hand in hand… 💞
I want to be a swallow and I want to write as beautifully as you do. The sweet little mouse did have a full belly and experience love and care in its final hours (and the pipistrelle did too). Continuing to have hope and share love is a radical act and the revolution is now <3 <3 <3
“Sharing love is a radical act and the revolution is now” Lucy, what a treasure you are — I love that! Up the revolution… let’s see how many will join us !! ♥️xx
Squeal!! We ride at dawn <3
I’ll be there Luci, let’s get some LOVE out there!
I will be your swallow friend too one day Susie! And we WILL sit on wires and swoop and call and dive and dip in to the pools of beautiful refections of this wondrous Earth. As She transforms and recovers after this nye on decimation by the the belligerent, narcissistic, all consuming, greedy, fat humankind who have no desire whatsoever in their hearts to be swallows, or rescue birds, or tiny animals, or to see a 'normal' summer, unless they are AI generated and it makes THEM another trillion!!!! They are not of the Earth that you and I occupy sadly.
We have to believe, hold on and we must hope that WE are going through this to show those wreckers what they have done and are doing. We can only each do are tiny part that continues to show our hearts to those tiny 'others' that so desperately need us, as we them. One day at a time, in the Now.
My one red squirrel who is now light brown with a straggly rat like tail and not a glistening red conker colour, not shouting and calling for her family any more. Being savagely pecked and chased off their water feeder by Sardinian warblers who think they own it!
My heart is broken with yours and these wonderful people who comment here too. But we must hold on and as so many people say, people are waking up, the new generations are stepping up and doing such magnificent work.
As I too, not so elegantly glisten under the fan and hug my one of the last of my 3 fur bears tightly, because she dominates my desk space for the draught of the same fan here in Spain; I thank you Susie for wonderful essay as always and extending my vocabulary with Psithurism. What a beautiful word. I'll see you on the wire. 🧡🫠🧡
Oh Sally, I am flying towards you, a little shaky, very overheated and lacking in any elegance but to find a friend on the wire, one I would love to hold hands with, well that is worth every effort! Please will you catch me when I arrive, I will likely fall from being over emotional? 🥹
This fight for survival, it is a terrible and heartbreaking thing to watch isn't it! Not only do we attentive terrified humans have to listen and observe helplessly while the belligerent, the narcissistic, the all consuming, greedy and fat because of it, wreak chaos and destruction blindly across our beautiful planet but we must watch in horror as the animal kingdom battle between themselves for the simple sustenance that keeps them alive also. I wept yesterday as I watched a bedraggled and hungry fox, oblivious to the danger he was in, plod slowly down the lane to the river only to find the river is now empty... I could do nothing but look on with a heavy heart. And there are so many other tiny feathered and furred angels, weak from heat and lack of necessary food... does a heart mend after watching their suffering?
I hold on to hope with you my lovely friend, and all those that see and hear as we do the very great and urgent necessity to pay attention, to be kind and gentle on our beautiful home when those that hold the strings to its destiny don't.
I am glistening inelegantly again this evening, the temperatures have risen beyond anything we have ever known, even sitting in this old thick stone walled house is less than comfortable, I too have a fan whirring, our old cat lays languorously and seemingly oblivious to the disaster that is unfurling. I envy her...
Much much love to you, I hope you have a cool place to hide from time to time.. xx♥️
Awwww no. The fox and no river. A book title!! My heart aches. Let all those that care line up all our wires together and leap! We must. ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
Oh my heart! That poor little fieldmouse. Bless you for trying Susie. How are the sheep coping?
I’m so glad they are OK. I will never forget that clip you posted of them doing zoomies in the wind. Oh joy!!
Even in this heat they do zoomies Linda... I try to calm them because they end up panting so hard I am scared they will topple over with the effort but they just want to play! I've never had a flock quite like these adorable four, my heart will break all over again when their time is up.
Hi Linda, that little field mouse broke my heart more than any other i’ve tried to save, I thought she was thriving, and then she wasn’t! I know its so hard to save these tiny creatures but I truly thought I’d won a small battle with this one… wre have to try though don’t we!💔
My sheep are coping as they always do, they find a shady place to lay and don’t budge until nightfall, then they create merry hell until dawn… bless them though, everything is dry and parched with the lack of rainfall and they hate dry grass, if I go down early enough I often find them with the two front feet half way up a tree trunk so they can munch on still green leaves, I am making a trip a day to the valley to cut hazel and willow leaves for them just so they don’t entirely destroy the orchard!
Always such a treat to hear your news and disappear into your world with you 🙏🥰
A thousand thanks gorgeous! I can’t wait to see you next week! ♥️🥰
Another thoughtful and touching post, Susie, and written so well in beautiful words! Thanks you for that 🩵
It is a saddening thought that much of the beauty we knew from our youth is disappearing or has already disappeared 😧 Were does it end?
Hello beautiful, it is too sad to contemplate and yet we are faced with the reality of these lost beauties daily… my neighbour tells me all is cyclic, that all that is extinct will one day return, I have grave doubts but hope with all my heart he is right. 🙏🏼
Thank you for being here my lovely friend, wishing you a cool and comfort able weekend, here it won’t be but I am on holidays so am smiling despite the heat! Much love ♥️xx
Thank you, thank you, thank you. ❤️
Thinking of you beautiful, always with love and a hug whenever needed ♥️xx
Susie, this was so touching and expressed some thoughts I've been having, but without the beauty of your words.
For years now, we've all been watching the temperature charts and reading how France is heating up three to four times faster than other parts of the world, but somehow, I think that this heat wave felt different from all others. (I was in the States in 2003.) So long, so early, covering so much of the country, already preceded by one in May, with another one perhaps coming up just next week...
Besides the overall, year-long impact on all living things, I have, like you, been wondering if the joy of summer is over. Will it now be a season that we pray for the end of, dreaming of the autumn and release from the heat? Will so many events be cancelled that they stop even being scheduled?
This may not be the heart of the issue, but it's a heartbreaking thought nonetheless.
Hi Betty, it is a sad thought isn't it, to not be looking forward to the summer months, to not have feeling of utter joy and relief when the last child is placed finally into the hands of its parents and eight weeks of beautiful days stretch ahead. I am horrified by these temperatures that seem to rise and stay risen for longer and longer each year, beginning earlier and earlier. I never thought I would dread a single day of summer but in these temperatures, knowing that I have no choice but to sit indoors with windows and shutters closed just makes me want to cry in frustration and fear.
I am not certain how or what can be done, but yes, I think summer events will eventually dwindle, only those that can be contained in spaces which can be kept cool will continue and as you know well those are few, and I think for many, it already is the season of prayer, for rain and for the fresher days of autumn.
It is the first time in my life I have ever wished or prayed for either, the casualties are heartbreakingly high this year...
I don't know if you saw my late Note last night, I will WhatsApp you later with an explanation although you can probably imagine knowing the hierarchies in the education system here already!
Sending love, have a fabulous weekend xx
PS I am at least able to have peaceful days, even if they are way too hot! Making the most of the weekend.
So much heartache, Susie! Here in Colorado we are surrounded by raging wildfires and the air is too smoky to breathe. The earth is screaming indeed. But I cling to every bit of hope I can. We are in the midst of primary elections and young, vibrant democratic socialists are having surprise upsets against “old order” politicians. Oh they are a wonder of energy, passion and clarity! They are standing up and saying “no more.” I believe in them and their vision for a different world order. I also cling to the stories of how quickly the earth can recover when given a chance. Like when the Elwah dam was removed in WA state and the river and ecosystem came back to life far more quickly than any scientists could have predicted. The earth must scream and scream loudly, and I hope and pray every day that more and more and more people, especially young people, will listen and stand up to envision a different future. And we older folks? We must keep connecting to the earth and her creature, listening and feeling deeply, and telling about it. That is the work that the young ones need us to do. And you do it so beautifully Susie! Keep writing, my friend! They need us. They need you❤️
We have yet to face the smoke of wildfires here this year Sumaya, they will come though, I live with the fear and pray it is unwarranted. Yesterday morning at 05:45 am I opened the shutters to scan the horizon—as has become my habit for the last month of heatwave after heatwave—to see a plume of smoke across far hills. I knew the danger was too far to be personally concerned about, I knew also from the colour of the smoke it was no forest fire, a temporary relief...
Later I read of 300 goats that have perished in an agricultural building, farm machinery and many acres of land surrounding it were burnt to nothing. A whole livelihood over. The radio reports several more through the day... and so summer rolls on and how it will continue to do so for all the years to come if we don't do something to revert global warming.
I too cling to the hope that we—those who care, those that pay attention—are sufficient in number to turn back that which has been caused by greed and mismanagement. I am scared it is a big hope though...
We only have to return to the months of confinement from Covid 19 to see just how quickly nature is capable of reestablishing itself. And, no matter what the conspiracy theorists say, the experts, the scientists and the doctors, I still believe the pandemic was the result of a need, perhaps even a necessity... Nature needed to be in control so she took the chance to do so.
I have great belief in our young people dear Sumaya, they have more information at there fingertips than we ever could have wished for and more and more of them know how to use it, more and more of them want to save the planet that many of our generation and that which immediately followed have destroyed.
The smoke and high winds have abated here in Colorado and we even got some much-needed rain. A wonderful, temporary reprieve from the threat of fires and the discomfort of smoky air (and way too much indoor time for this outdoor lady!). Perhaps we'll hit a tipping point when there will simply be no choice for humans but to start listening to and reconnecting with the earth. But oh the agony in the meantime!! I guess our hearts must break, dear Susie. Sending so much love your way❤️
Amen to that Sumaya... I hope the right gods are listening when our prayers reach them! Much love on the wind back to you too xx♥️
Oh lovely, Susie
You have a way of writing - this not just the beauty of your words, but also the way you breathe heart and life into them, conveying so deeply and so exactly the things you write of, transporting us instantly, drawing us close, so that we can then walk by your side and see through your eyes.
The devastation being caused to our planet and creatures, breathing and blooming, living on it is heartbreaking. So awful especially for those unable to find shelter from this heat.
So sorry to hear about your pipistrelle and your field mouse.
What is happening, so clearly a warning.
And what are we to do? The answer - to do as you, Susie, so lovingly always do ……… to care for and tend to anybody or anything we are able to. And pray.
The lines from Cormac McCarthy are beautiful, sad and apt.
‘Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again.’
And John Steinbeck’s words too.
How would the last moments of the last day look? Maybe something like this.
I remember long ago summers so differently, too.
I think that we always have to remind ourselves that tomorrow holds secrets yet to be known, and I think that we always need to remind ourselves also that these secrets may be good.
I would like to become a swallow too. xx
Hello dear Kay, sadly the heatwave continues, we are sweltering in temperatures of +40c, small creatures are suffering, the land is suffering, the trees are wilting and dull. I pine for a cool place to sit, then feel guilty for my discontent because of all the above!
It is becoming vital that who pay attention to this exquisitely beautiful planet we live on, we who have witnessed many times the secrets and magic already told, MUST continue to do so, we must continue to observe and attend to every aspect of the myriad gifts it bestows us, share what we know, how we care deeply about it.
Perhaps, and I truly hope, you are right in your words of that last paragraph...
Tomorrow is always another day, none of know exactly how it will unfold and yes, yes, yes, so much of the unknown can be good. I will hold tight to that thought...
And the thought of meeting you on a telegraph wire, swallow wing to swallow wing...
Always with love dear friend... may your weekend be filled with just the right amount of wonderful xx
Dearest Susie,
I hope you are having a lovely weekend - and keeping as cool as possible. Temperatures here, now cooling. I hope soon for you too.
I do truly believe that tomorrow’s secrets may turn out to be good if enough people hold firm to that belief in their hearts and believe also that whatever good they are able to do will not be wasted.
And then when we are swallows, dancing in the sky, chatting on that wire, we will laugh and smile because everything turned out well in the end.
In the meantime, I send you love dear friend. xx
I will hold those thoughts close to my heart in hope dear Kay... until then fly high dear friend... I will join you in the thermals... Tuesday hugs xx
💞