Hi Susie, I went looking for another post, hoping that you had written that baby fluff had flown… no news yet. Hoping that no news is good news. Keep us posted, please! Don’t envy you, though, caring for wild beings who are so beautiful and fierce and tender yet knowing they will leave too soon. Here, I got yelled at a few years ago for taking a grey heron who had been hit by a car to a refuge center. “Don’t ever do that again! They are wild and must live in the wild.” Yes, but a human hit her. (I know it was a female because she spent one night in our entryway before we took her to the refuge center the next day, and she delivered a beautiful blue egg.) Sometimes bureaucracy in this country is too cruel.
Oh Louise! Firstly I am so sorry to have missed this comment… I had planned to update through Notes but time was yet more elusive than ever and as you have possibly noticed, Substack time vanished all together! Today I am forcing myself to ignore everything and catch up a little which means ignoring never ending chores but hey, they will wait for me I am certain—even though its mother day here!
Your story is heartbreaking, I am praying your heron survived, and her beautiful blue egg. Do you not have bird sanctuaries where you could have taken her? I had already called the sanctuary here just in case I needed expert advice or help although it is a good two hour drive away.
Baby owls!!!!🦉 I wasn’t sure where your story was going to go. I have expected you to be crawling through brambles stalking field mice. And I would be right there with you because that’s what your writing does.
That made me smile Ben, believe me, if I thought I would have caught a few mice be crawling through the undergrowth I would have, feeding a baby owl good fresh meet is hard on the bank account as well as the sleep schedule!
Thanks always for reading, I so appreciate you my friend!
I read this very much remembering T.H. White's The Sword In The Stone and Archimedes. Ever since I read that, I have had a hankering for an owl friend. There's just something of between-worlds to an owl. I am so grateful for all you share. x
Huge thanks for reading Alex, I understand that hankering more than you can even imagine... especially after these last few weeks. I think this last owlet, the one I have fed from less fist size, is readying herself to fledge the nest now and I have to tell you, it will be with a heavy heart the day I find her gone. I can only hope she may remember the human that reared her from her dusty beginnings and maybe, just maybe, perch a while on the terrace of an evening to say hello. It's a big hope I know.
Have you a heatwave arriving too? Mad, mad weather! x
I am sure you know I am joining you in this hope! It might well happen, too, and probably at a strange time (such as when they begin to nest themselves). There’s every reason to hope this does happen, and that’s a lovely thought. x
Oh how I loved this, Susie. I am so glad you dared to interfere with the henpecker.... ugh, I hate when that happens. And I do need to know more about the fate of the baby owls! I once hand fed an owl chick many dozens of dead mice, and I still wonder what became of him, all these years later. Thank you for inviting us into your world, my friend!
Oh Kendall, you too? There is always one hot headed henpecker in the coop isn't there! I think this particular anarchist has learned her lesson though, she has returned to the others as meek as a mouse! Small mercies make big, big sighs...
The little owlet is faring well, preparing to fly and leave me and my broken heart to watch the night sky in hope of a shadow returning, just to let me know she remembers.
I think I too will wonder about the life of this owl I befriended... probably for the rest of my life.
Thank you for being here dear soul, I hope your week has been kind. xx
Wait whaaaaaaat?!!! Life and death both teetering in a precarious dance! I seriously need a daily owlet update now though. How are they doing today? Are you still feeding them? Are they getting stronger?! And what in the world is going on with those hens?! We had a rooster pull off the comb of his mom after he tried to mount her and she rightfully refused, but hens pecking each other to the death?! Oof Susie. Your experience of beauty is never without its violent contradiction.
Hi beautiful, apologies for making you wait for updates! I thought I'd be able to post daily Notes this week but between feeding the last remaining little owlet,, controlling anarchy—sheep as well as chickens—and a tooth extraction—me—that went far from planned, my time has been waylaid!
But, the hen pecker has been released from confinement and is meek and mild again, lesson learnt, I hope 🙏🏼 my sheep have invented a new game involving head-butting each other until blood has flown copiously, thankfully I have miracle spray for healing such injuries and, the good news, the saddest, my heart is happy but heavy, this morning when I arrived with breakfast at 5am for my little owl, I found her gone. She left me with a half eaten mouse in the dust and a beautiful memory which I will never forget.
I hope only that she remembers the human hands that saved her... that she returns from time to time, even briefly, to perch on the terrace to say hello.
Oh never a need to apologize! Especially for not posting on Notes and engaging in this machine. :) I am so happy (sad) to hear your owlets survived and thrived in your care and are now off soaring in the night. I bet every time she savors a morsel, she'll feel your hands near. xoxo
Ohh Susie, my heart goes out to you for taking care of the baby owls 🦉 the chickens 🐓 and actually áll living creatures -big or small-❣️I do hope the baby owl survives… As always your photos are beautiful!
PS I learned two new words: Lordy and kerfuffle. 🤗
Hello dear JoAnna, Sometimes I do wonder at the sanity of this often heartbreaking, sometimes crazy, always exhausting life I've chosen, If I stopped to breathe for a second and look around I would probably run for the hills! 😂
So a quick update... this morning I thought the little owl was gone, I shed tears even... tonight she is back again, do I laugh or cry? Its tough!
My bad tempered hen appears to have learnt her lesson, time will tell though... 🤞🏽
Thank you lovely lady, I appreciate so much that you are here, especially if you learn a new word or two!
Sending much love for a wonderful weekend ahead... ♥️xxx
Oooof! That's a lot of heart breaking feathery tales about your lovely winged friends Susie!
You made 'me' feel quite tired just reading your recounting of becoming a Brown Owl Mumma and a Chicken Referee, especially after a long day of teaching too. You certainly need some new badges to stitch on your uniforms! ;)
Thank goodness for your sky watching and keen ears at night and the ability to not only find the owlets but to raise the temperature of a chicken fillet to that of a just killed mouse, that's cooking for nature at its best!! You could start your own Chicken fillet branded food for baby owls....not! I should know when I pick up, or (sorry) tread on, plenty of just made warm ones in the middle of the night when my big boy brings me gifts!!
Jokes aside Susie, as always you make me laugh out loud and read your words with wonder all at the same time!
My sad news from our Spanish Hill is that our red squirrel population seems to have totally disappeared since winter :( Not a sign of a single one anywhere here. Water is no longer being taken at the tree feeders and we just cannot understand, unless it's some kind of disease, where they have gone.
Hi Sally, I am so very sorry to hear of your disappearing squirrels, since my one sighting earlier in the year—I was so excited—I have seen no others. I have tried to research reasons, there are many, too many to list but it seems here on the hill there are three; pine Martens, cats both wild and domestic, the American black squirrel (although he too seems very absent) and toxic agricultural practices in crop fields close to woodland. It feels all very desperate, and even more sad. Disease is a possibility too. Do you have grey squirrels living close by? If so they may well be carrying the Parapoxvirus which often they show no symptoms of but if the Red Squirrel catches it they invariably die.
Nature is a hard master sometimes... perhaps why I always try to be light hearted when I can, I'd spend three quarters of my life crying into the wind otherwise. I am delighted you can smile with me... it feels important, especially when the world around us seems so very unfunny at the moment!
Keeps smiling dear one, may your weekend be bright and beautiful with a squirrel sighting to make it perfect! Heart thanks to you for being here. 💛
Oh my goodness...I wasn't expecting to see my name at the bottom of your beautiful post! Thank you for your sweet recommendation, lovely you. I think the world of you, so this is very special to me.
You know that little emoji with the hands covering the eyes... that little peek between the fingers? That is how I read your words this morning. My heart was swelling over those little owlets, adoring them...wishing, hoping they would be ok... yet scared to read the next sentence. But of course, this was written by you. And of course you would tend to them. Oh, I hope they thrive. Please keep us posted!
What a gift, to have a place where owls return, year after year. They know who they can trust. They feel safe to raise their young near you. My heart breaks for the mother owl, and what might have happened to her, but I believe on some level, she knows that you will protect her babies.
Thank you for looking out for all the vulnerable creatures. It must be heartbreaking at times, and so so rewarding to live so close to the land.
Hello beautiful, thank you for your wonderful comment... Of course I recommend your Substack! Who wouldn't want to begin or end their day with such heavenly images and words! I love that you are here...
I know that little emoji Jaime, it's how I've felt every morning as I peep behind the door at the end of the barn with warmed chicken breast, I've dreaded to find the last of the three gone, this morning I thought she had, she was nowhere to be seen but again she called from her corner this evening... should I laugh or cry? It's going to be so hard when she finally does fly.
But what a blessing to have owls returning to my barn year after year, to have had the chance to learn just a little about a gift of nature I will never take for granted but am infinitely grateful for.
Kerfuffles and Skulduggery... I love them! And though I try not to use those words too often, brace yourself!
Much love to you too beautiful, I hope the weekend is kind to you xxx
I was hoping to post updates to Notes but between various other crisis of the ovine kind and a dental crisis of the human kind, mine, time has been difficult to grab a hold of. But, to date I can tell you the two largest have fledged Mary Beth, the smallest—me heart— remains, I thought this morning, she too had flown but she was either well hidden or has returned for her meal... I am uncertain whether to be relieved or worried. Either way I was so very glad to see her sleeping in her dusty corner this evening. 🥹
What a wonderful piece Susie. I recently read The Company of Owls by Polly Atkin and I think you would love it if you haven't already read it. I have been on a wonderful journey of learning more about birds this past year or so, owls included, and have found it just so enriching.
Thank you so much Genevieve, I have heard much of The Company of Owls, all good words but have yet to get my hands on a copy. You make me wish it to be soon!
I am learning, albeit slowly, about the habits of owls, they are intriguing mysterious creatures and, that they are wise seems to be absolutely true.
I hope one day you have the chance I have had, to rear an owlet, it is a truly magical experience. 💛
I think the reason the owls have returned to your barn for generations is because that family know that if disaster were to occur, as it did this time, you in your goodness and kindness would help them.
I imagine you walking about on your hill, speaking with everyone, breathing or blooming, in their own particular language.
And I’m sure those languages do include owl and chicken speak!
Your interpretation of what was going on with the chickens sounds pretty accurate to me!
Well done for tackling the murderous Mademoiselle. I wouldn’t have been so brave.
Feral daisies. A sign of hope growing and growing, running wild?
Dearest Kay, you are such an attentive reader, you seem to feel rather than understand the details between the lines and for this I am eternally grateful.
Thank you, from my heart, it means the world to know that someone is paying attention.
It is quite a thing to live in a country that is not my own, to learn the language has been a battle of tearful and wilful determination. I am adequate—just—in every respect, written spoken, comprehension, no more.
To understand nature, perhaps not every nuance but certainly those that require the knowledge of a mother seems easy by comparison!
I will never be fluent, but oh Kay, how I love the learning...
I am sending you a huge armful of daisies in thanks, vicariously of course, but I hope you can imagine them. ♥️x
Dearest Susie, I love your posts. Thank you. They are a joy. And thank you also for your sweet replies to my comments.
About learning the language - I can imagine the battle. Well done for emerging victorious. I have a sense that your abilities there are really way more than adequate.
Anyway, I think that the most important language is that of the heart. And in that, you are clearly fluent.
Thank you for the beautiful daisies. I am holding them as I write this.
I don’t think I will be able to find any flowers here as lovely as these from your hill, so am sending you instead, the sweet songs of the Birch tree across the road from where I am sitting.
I believe that the travel time for tree songs is instantaneous, so those sweet songs should come floating over your hill right now.
Birch trees signify new beginnings, renewal and purification . Sounds good.
Thank you so much Kay, your birch tree songs are received and loved…
Maybe living in a country that is not my own has made language seem so much more important and alive than it possibly would have had I never left. I read @Chloe Hope’s essay this morning and these words leapt out at me “When we do not share a language with the beings we love most in the world, they themselves become a language we must learn.” I can say from my heart that I try always and will never stop, so maybe the language I speak and know best does come from the heart but, and my deepest love to you for saying to the contrary, I am so very far from fluent though I am happy to die learning.
Sending wishes back across the ether for a beautiful and peaceful Sunday to you xx
My Sunday is beautiful and peaceful, thank you Susie. More so for reading your lovely new post earlier today.
I’m very happy to hear you like the birch tree songs.
Yes, I do understand what you mean about language. Living in a place where our native language is spoken, we do take for granted that ability to communicate with words - and sometimes the communication isn’t just the words but the way that things are phrased, the meanings alongside and beneath the meanings.
What @Chloe Hope has said in her essay is so true.
And to be happy in one’s learning makes it a joy rather than a task, doesn’t it.
I hope your Sunday is beautiful and peaceful also, and I wish you a beautiful and peaceful week ahead. xx
Thank you Kay, I do apologise for such a terribly belated reply, I have been tied up in the language of children; to be more precise, children’s excuses for not having handed in work they should have, it takes some learning… without laughing! best this week was ‘my trousers were too tight, I couldn’t sit down!’ What can one possibly say in reply?
I am far more at home with the language of nature… somehow it seems far more plausible!
They do what they do - we do what we can, and you, my dearest Susie, are a saint - keeping together and keeping it all together so perfectly imperfectly. You are gentle and wonderful and kindhearted, Saint Susie of the Hill. I pray for a settling in the henhouse and that the owlet thrives on shredded chicken from its surrogate mama, and that it soon finds its wings. Sending all my love for a less chaotic week xx
Hi Em, you're too lovely... but you know, I do indeed do what I do, it is rarely together though and if I achieve perfectly imperfect it's a miracle of juggling time and work and meals with refereeing sheep and chickens and everything else that comes hand in hand with this crazy life I have created on a hill in France!
Little owlet is growing and thriving, I was worried for days but now, I think, very soon, she will fly which of course is going to be the saddest moment to see but one I will hold in my heart with love and maybe just a little pride. I hope only that she remembers human hands that helped...
I am not sure I'd recognise a non-chaotic week any more, I'd be wondering what was wrong! 😂Sending love right back...xxx
I stand by my words - I think you’re a miracle and I’m so glad to be friends and to read of the organised chaos. I’m hoping to see photographs of your tawny adoptee..? What a heavy responsibility and also sad that it’s been necessary and also wonderful and magical to become a little part of a wild life. I walked along the river yesterday - farther than I’ve gone before and I cried with joy when I found my way across a tiny cobbled bridge on the outskirts of Winchester into a nature reserve that was so perfect xx
Hi sweetie, so far so good for the owls, I am hoping (with a heavy heart) that the last is getting ready to fly. I will miss her, even if it has cost me a small fortune in organic chicken! May I should have just fed her the anarchist! 🫢
I am beginning to think writing kitchen drama maybe a little less traumatic Holly; I wish I knew for sure if I was doing just one thing right for this little owl... she's still there and she seems happy in the dust and the gloom but do so wish Chloe Hope was near by for expert advice?
A gazillion thanks beautiful soul... your comment means a lot. 🥰
PS I am not wild about anarchist chickens either... they are not choosy about who they sink their claws into when in a rage!
Hi Susie, I went looking for another post, hoping that you had written that baby fluff had flown… no news yet. Hoping that no news is good news. Keep us posted, please! Don’t envy you, though, caring for wild beings who are so beautiful and fierce and tender yet knowing they will leave too soon. Here, I got yelled at a few years ago for taking a grey heron who had been hit by a car to a refuge center. “Don’t ever do that again! They are wild and must live in the wild.” Yes, but a human hit her. (I know it was a female because she spent one night in our entryway before we took her to the refuge center the next day, and she delivered a beautiful blue egg.) Sometimes bureaucracy in this country is too cruel.
Oh Louise! Firstly I am so sorry to have missed this comment… I had planned to update through Notes but time was yet more elusive than ever and as you have possibly noticed, Substack time vanished all together! Today I am forcing myself to ignore everything and catch up a little which means ignoring never ending chores but hey, they will wait for me I am certain—even though its mother day here!
I managed, only by getting up at 4h30 this morning to send out a quick post with news https://ahillandi.substack.com/p/on-a-hill-which-might-be-heaven?r=1mrn9s I have a video of me feeding that little ball of fluff I will post in a little while to Notes because I forgot to add it!
Your story is heartbreaking, I am praying your heron survived, and her beautiful blue egg. Do you not have bird sanctuaries where you could have taken her? I had already called the sanctuary here just in case I needed expert advice or help although it is a good two hour drive away.
Susie,
How are you and your unwrinkled face? I love it with the wrinkles! I hope the swelling is down and you are out of pain. Horrible, that.
But for your bit of fluff.... I await the video with bated breath.
About the heron, that WAS the bird sanctuary. Alas....
Louise I am entirely recovered, un til the next appointment of course... a change of dentists is imminent if I can find one!
That WAS the sanctuary? I am speechless! 😭
You know what, on second thought, when I come visit you at Avonlea, I’ll bake the bread and check on the owlets, while you take care of the chickens.
If you don’t mind, I think Hercules is a great name for an owlet to grow into.
Those damn chickens Lor… I may join you with the bread baking and just let them deal with the anarchy themselves!
Hercules… I love that!
Baby owls!!!!🦉 I wasn’t sure where your story was going to go. I have expected you to be crawling through brambles stalking field mice. And I would be right there with you because that’s what your writing does.
That made me smile Ben, believe me, if I thought I would have caught a few mice be crawling through the undergrowth I would have, feeding a baby owl good fresh meet is hard on the bank account as well as the sleep schedule!
Thanks always for reading, I so appreciate you my friend!
I love the drama and urgency of the writing here, Susie. The bitter truths of life and death in the country.
Its not all fluff and roses is it.. I am sure you remember well Jeffrey! Thanks so much for sharing…
I read this very much remembering T.H. White's The Sword In The Stone and Archimedes. Ever since I read that, I have had a hankering for an owl friend. There's just something of between-worlds to an owl. I am so grateful for all you share. x
Huge thanks for reading Alex, I understand that hankering more than you can even imagine... especially after these last few weeks. I think this last owlet, the one I have fed from less fist size, is readying herself to fledge the nest now and I have to tell you, it will be with a heavy heart the day I find her gone. I can only hope she may remember the human that reared her from her dusty beginnings and maybe, just maybe, perch a while on the terrace of an evening to say hello. It's a big hope I know.
Have you a heatwave arriving too? Mad, mad weather! x
I am sure you know I am joining you in this hope! It might well happen, too, and probably at a strange time (such as when they begin to nest themselves). There’s every reason to hope this does happen, and that’s a lovely thought. x
Oh how I loved this, Susie. I am so glad you dared to interfere with the henpecker.... ugh, I hate when that happens. And I do need to know more about the fate of the baby owls! I once hand fed an owl chick many dozens of dead mice, and I still wonder what became of him, all these years later. Thank you for inviting us into your world, my friend!
Oh Kendall, you too? There is always one hot headed henpecker in the coop isn't there! I think this particular anarchist has learned her lesson though, she has returned to the others as meek as a mouse! Small mercies make big, big sighs...
The little owlet is faring well, preparing to fly and leave me and my broken heart to watch the night sky in hope of a shadow returning, just to let me know she remembers.
I think I too will wonder about the life of this owl I befriended... probably for the rest of my life.
Thank you for being here dear soul, I hope your week has been kind. xx
Wait whaaaaaaat?!!! Life and death both teetering in a precarious dance! I seriously need a daily owlet update now though. How are they doing today? Are you still feeding them? Are they getting stronger?! And what in the world is going on with those hens?! We had a rooster pull off the comb of his mom after he tried to mount her and she rightfully refused, but hens pecking each other to the death?! Oof Susie. Your experience of beauty is never without its violent contradiction.
Hi beautiful, apologies for making you wait for updates! I thought I'd be able to post daily Notes this week but between feeding the last remaining little owlet,, controlling anarchy—sheep as well as chickens—and a tooth extraction—me—that went far from planned, my time has been waylaid!
But, the hen pecker has been released from confinement and is meek and mild again, lesson learnt, I hope 🙏🏼 my sheep have invented a new game involving head-butting each other until blood has flown copiously, thankfully I have miracle spray for healing such injuries and, the good news, the saddest, my heart is happy but heavy, this morning when I arrived with breakfast at 5am for my little owl, I found her gone. She left me with a half eaten mouse in the dust and a beautiful memory which I will never forget.
I hope only that she remembers the human hands that saved her... that she returns from time to time, even briefly, to perch on the terrace to say hello.
Oh never a need to apologize! Especially for not posting on Notes and engaging in this machine. :) I am so happy (sad) to hear your owlets survived and thrived in your care and are now off soaring in the night. I bet every time she savors a morsel, she'll feel your hands near. xoxo
I hope so Kim… I miss that ball of airy fluff but am so happy she is alive and thriving.
Ohh Susie, my heart goes out to you for taking care of the baby owls 🦉 the chickens 🐓 and actually áll living creatures -big or small-❣️I do hope the baby owl survives… As always your photos are beautiful!
PS I learned two new words: Lordy and kerfuffle. 🤗
Hello dear JoAnna, Sometimes I do wonder at the sanity of this often heartbreaking, sometimes crazy, always exhausting life I've chosen, If I stopped to breathe for a second and look around I would probably run for the hills! 😂
So a quick update... this morning I thought the little owl was gone, I shed tears even... tonight she is back again, do I laugh or cry? Its tough!
My bad tempered hen appears to have learnt her lesson, time will tell though... 🤞🏽
Thank you lovely lady, I appreciate so much that you are here, especially if you learn a new word or two!
Sending much love for a wonderful weekend ahead... ♥️xxx
Oooof! That's a lot of heart breaking feathery tales about your lovely winged friends Susie!
You made 'me' feel quite tired just reading your recounting of becoming a Brown Owl Mumma and a Chicken Referee, especially after a long day of teaching too. You certainly need some new badges to stitch on your uniforms! ;)
Thank goodness for your sky watching and keen ears at night and the ability to not only find the owlets but to raise the temperature of a chicken fillet to that of a just killed mouse, that's cooking for nature at its best!! You could start your own Chicken fillet branded food for baby owls....not! I should know when I pick up, or (sorry) tread on, plenty of just made warm ones in the middle of the night when my big boy brings me gifts!!
Jokes aside Susie, as always you make me laugh out loud and read your words with wonder all at the same time!
My sad news from our Spanish Hill is that our red squirrel population seems to have totally disappeared since winter :( Not a sign of a single one anywhere here. Water is no longer being taken at the tree feeders and we just cannot understand, unless it's some kind of disease, where they have gone.
Hi Sally, I am so very sorry to hear of your disappearing squirrels, since my one sighting earlier in the year—I was so excited—I have seen no others. I have tried to research reasons, there are many, too many to list but it seems here on the hill there are three; pine Martens, cats both wild and domestic, the American black squirrel (although he too seems very absent) and toxic agricultural practices in crop fields close to woodland. It feels all very desperate, and even more sad. Disease is a possibility too. Do you have grey squirrels living close by? If so they may well be carrying the Parapoxvirus which often they show no symptoms of but if the Red Squirrel catches it they invariably die.
Nature is a hard master sometimes... perhaps why I always try to be light hearted when I can, I'd spend three quarters of my life crying into the wind otherwise. I am delighted you can smile with me... it feels important, especially when the world around us seems so very unfunny at the moment!
Keeps smiling dear one, may your weekend be bright and beautiful with a squirrel sighting to make it perfect! Heart thanks to you for being here. 💛
Oh my goodness...I wasn't expecting to see my name at the bottom of your beautiful post! Thank you for your sweet recommendation, lovely you. I think the world of you, so this is very special to me.
You know that little emoji with the hands covering the eyes... that little peek between the fingers? That is how I read your words this morning. My heart was swelling over those little owlets, adoring them...wishing, hoping they would be ok... yet scared to read the next sentence. But of course, this was written by you. And of course you would tend to them. Oh, I hope they thrive. Please keep us posted!
What a gift, to have a place where owls return, year after year. They know who they can trust. They feel safe to raise their young near you. My heart breaks for the mother owl, and what might have happened to her, but I believe on some level, she knows that you will protect her babies.
Thank you for looking out for all the vulnerable creatures. It must be heartbreaking at times, and so so rewarding to live so close to the land.
Kerfuffles... such a delicious word!
Much love to you, Susie xo
Hello beautiful, thank you for your wonderful comment... Of course I recommend your Substack! Who wouldn't want to begin or end their day with such heavenly images and words! I love that you are here...
I know that little emoji Jaime, it's how I've felt every morning as I peep behind the door at the end of the barn with warmed chicken breast, I've dreaded to find the last of the three gone, this morning I thought she had, she was nowhere to be seen but again she called from her corner this evening... should I laugh or cry? It's going to be so hard when she finally does fly.
But what a blessing to have owls returning to my barn year after year, to have had the chance to learn just a little about a gift of nature I will never take for granted but am infinitely grateful for.
Kerfuffles and Skulduggery... I love them! And though I try not to use those words too often, brace yourself!
Much love to you too beautiful, I hope the weekend is kind to you xxx
Oh I do hope you will keep us posted on your owl babies, Susie.💜
I was hoping to post updates to Notes but between various other crisis of the ovine kind and a dental crisis of the human kind, mine, time has been difficult to grab a hold of. But, to date I can tell you the two largest have fledged Mary Beth, the smallest—me heart— remains, I thought this morning, she too had flown but she was either well hidden or has returned for her meal... I am uncertain whether to be relieved or worried. Either way I was so very glad to see her sleeping in her dusty corner this evening. 🥹
Gah! That is the best update. I am so glad they are receiving your loving care.
What a wonderful piece Susie. I recently read The Company of Owls by Polly Atkin and I think you would love it if you haven't already read it. I have been on a wonderful journey of learning more about birds this past year or so, owls included, and have found it just so enriching.
Thank you so much Genevieve, I have heard much of The Company of Owls, all good words but have yet to get my hands on a copy. You make me wish it to be soon!
I am learning, albeit slowly, about the habits of owls, they are intriguing mysterious creatures and, that they are wise seems to be absolutely true.
I hope one day you have the chance I have had, to rear an owlet, it is a truly magical experience. 💛
Thank you for this lovely piece, Susie.
How kind you are.
I think the reason the owls have returned to your barn for generations is because that family know that if disaster were to occur, as it did this time, you in your goodness and kindness would help them.
I imagine you walking about on your hill, speaking with everyone, breathing or blooming, in their own particular language.
And I’m sure those languages do include owl and chicken speak!
Your interpretation of what was going on with the chickens sounds pretty accurate to me!
Well done for tackling the murderous Mademoiselle. I wouldn’t have been so brave.
Feral daisies. A sign of hope growing and growing, running wild?
Dearest Kay, you are such an attentive reader, you seem to feel rather than understand the details between the lines and for this I am eternally grateful.
Thank you, from my heart, it means the world to know that someone is paying attention.
It is quite a thing to live in a country that is not my own, to learn the language has been a battle of tearful and wilful determination. I am adequate—just—in every respect, written spoken, comprehension, no more.
To understand nature, perhaps not every nuance but certainly those that require the knowledge of a mother seems easy by comparison!
I will never be fluent, but oh Kay, how I love the learning...
I am sending you a huge armful of daisies in thanks, vicariously of course, but I hope you can imagine them. ♥️x
Dearest Susie, I love your posts. Thank you. They are a joy. And thank you also for your sweet replies to my comments.
About learning the language - I can imagine the battle. Well done for emerging victorious. I have a sense that your abilities there are really way more than adequate.
Anyway, I think that the most important language is that of the heart. And in that, you are clearly fluent.
Thank you for the beautiful daisies. I am holding them as I write this.
I don’t think I will be able to find any flowers here as lovely as these from your hill, so am sending you instead, the sweet songs of the Birch tree across the road from where I am sitting.
I believe that the travel time for tree songs is instantaneous, so those sweet songs should come floating over your hill right now.
Birch trees signify new beginnings, renewal and purification . Sounds good.
❤️x
Thank you so much Kay, your birch tree songs are received and loved…
Maybe living in a country that is not my own has made language seem so much more important and alive than it possibly would have had I never left. I read @Chloe Hope’s essay this morning and these words leapt out at me “When we do not share a language with the beings we love most in the world, they themselves become a language we must learn.” I can say from my heart that I try always and will never stop, so maybe the language I speak and know best does come from the heart but, and my deepest love to you for saying to the contrary, I am so very far from fluent though I am happy to die learning.
Sending wishes back across the ether for a beautiful and peaceful Sunday to you xx
My Sunday is beautiful and peaceful, thank you Susie. More so for reading your lovely new post earlier today.
I’m very happy to hear you like the birch tree songs.
Yes, I do understand what you mean about language. Living in a place where our native language is spoken, we do take for granted that ability to communicate with words - and sometimes the communication isn’t just the words but the way that things are phrased, the meanings alongside and beneath the meanings.
What @Chloe Hope has said in her essay is so true.
And to be happy in one’s learning makes it a joy rather than a task, doesn’t it.
I hope your Sunday is beautiful and peaceful also, and I wish you a beautiful and peaceful week ahead. xx
Thank you Kay, I do apologise for such a terribly belated reply, I have been tied up in the language of children; to be more precise, children’s excuses for not having handed in work they should have, it takes some learning… without laughing! best this week was ‘my trousers were too tight, I couldn’t sit down!’ What can one possibly say in reply?
I am far more at home with the language of nature… somehow it seems far more plausible!
Have a lovely week xx
Dearest Susie,
No need to apologise. I can imagine how busy you are.
I laughed when I read that excuse! What is there to say to that indeed!
And yes - nature always tells the truth!
Thank you, and a lovely week to you also. xx
They do what they do - we do what we can, and you, my dearest Susie, are a saint - keeping together and keeping it all together so perfectly imperfectly. You are gentle and wonderful and kindhearted, Saint Susie of the Hill. I pray for a settling in the henhouse and that the owlet thrives on shredded chicken from its surrogate mama, and that it soon finds its wings. Sending all my love for a less chaotic week xx
Hi Em, you're too lovely... but you know, I do indeed do what I do, it is rarely together though and if I achieve perfectly imperfect it's a miracle of juggling time and work and meals with refereeing sheep and chickens and everything else that comes hand in hand with this crazy life I have created on a hill in France!
Little owlet is growing and thriving, I was worried for days but now, I think, very soon, she will fly which of course is going to be the saddest moment to see but one I will hold in my heart with love and maybe just a little pride. I hope only that she remembers human hands that helped...
I am not sure I'd recognise a non-chaotic week any more, I'd be wondering what was wrong! 😂Sending love right back...xxx
I stand by my words - I think you’re a miracle and I’m so glad to be friends and to read of the organised chaos. I’m hoping to see photographs of your tawny adoptee..? What a heavy responsibility and also sad that it’s been necessary and also wonderful and magical to become a little part of a wild life. I walked along the river yesterday - farther than I’ve gone before and I cried with joy when I found my way across a tiny cobbled bridge on the outskirts of Winchester into a nature reserve that was so perfect xx
I am sending you a virtual hug Em... thank you so much!
Oh my... a cobbled bridge sounds like the sort of place fairies may well e hiding! I am so envious...🧚🏽✨xx
Oh dear Susie. I do pray the owlets survive. I would have wrung that chicken’s neck. Love n light such is life 💖
Hi sweetie, so far so good for the owls, I am hoping (with a heavy heart) that the last is getting ready to fly. I will miss her, even if it has cost me a small fortune in organic chicken! May I should have just fed her the anarchist! 🫢
Love and light right back to you ♥️xxx
Eleanor Anstruther talks about writing kitchen drama. You are writing barnyard drama here. And it is superb! I truly loved this piece, Susie.
And I am in awe of you. That anarchist chicken would’ve scared me silly.
I am beginning to think writing kitchen drama maybe a little less traumatic Holly; I wish I knew for sure if I was doing just one thing right for this little owl... she's still there and she seems happy in the dust and the gloom but do so wish Chloe Hope was near by for expert advice?
A gazillion thanks beautiful soul... your comment means a lot. 🥰
PS I am not wild about anarchist chickens either... they are not choosy about who they sink their claws into when in a rage!