Susie, there is something so special about your writing. Most of the time I do not stop in mid-read, to take a moment to label just what it is. But today, I realize part of my fully enamored indulgence of walking next to you on the hill, working amongst the thickets and brambles, or tending with a loving hand, your nonhuman charges: your writing is timeless. It can be any year, any place. I can pretend I am in Avonlea on Prince Edward Island, back in the 1890s, imagining you writing with ink and pen by the light of the small flame of a hurricane lamp. I can envision rising before sunrise, heading to the barn to feed the horses (which you do not have) then returning to the kitchen to sit and talk with you over hot tea and fresh bread with homemade jam. You have become a dear friend, a hiking buddy, a partner in all things capturing my attention, to all things joyful and rapturous beauty, to chores of the mundane kind—but totally captivating because I am working alongside a friend. Thank you for sharing it all—whether we are creating fiction, or the wonders of every day we are blessed to be alive with a background chorus of a Nightingale. Maybe someday I will take you to the mountains by way of a trail named Raven’s Wind, show you what it’s like to dance with trees on a blanket of white. One of these days, I’ll sit by the fire with pen and paper, and invite you over. But first I’ll need to grab a lantern and head to the privy, behind the garden, on the side of the barn, about a half mile away—it will be a long night indeed.
I am delighted you stop to read even a few words... that you write a reply with such generosity of spirit and an imagination fuelled by those words is a yet more gorgeous bonus, never expected but always deeply appreciated when it arrives.
Infinite apologies for my insufferable tardiness, perhaps not necessary, I know you know me well enough by now to not be hanging around waiting but I offer them anyway, call it an act of self-appeasement — or is that worse?
I am not sure quite what level of evil I must have dealt out in a past life but I have a feeling time at permanent warp-speed is my punishment! Jeez the future looks close...
Anyway, Avonlea... I never forgot that name, Lordy I've spent half a lifetime trying to create my own, I guess this is as close as I'll get at this stage of life and I'm far from complaining... even if the chores are relentless the sheer, yes, rapturous beauty of this tiny pocket of nature is ample treasure for one pair of eyes to feast upon. But you intrigue me with a trail called Raven's Wind, a place where I could dance on a blanket of snow... the name alone conjures wild and dark mystery... I'll wait for your letter, and don't you worry about time, I have a heap of logs to stack and months and months worth of brambles to tame while I wait!
PS you'll find the privy on the side of the barn where the owlet awaits her next meal, perhaps you would be so kind as to feed her before returning, you will find food in the cave ready minced and tweezers—for feeding her, if you want to leave with all your fingers—hanging on a hook beside the bats? xx
Susie, how wonderful that you are out in the sun again! It seems as though Sonny is the only one not cursing at you. 😉 Give all the wooly/furry ones a hug for me.
Hi Rosie❣️
p.s. I want to abscond with that little owl. But then, I would likely hear obscenities cast my direction, right?
Louise from my bed I could hear the smallest of the two calling for food from the barn. The larger seems to have flown already and I was concerned mama had abandoned the other but she now has a plate of minced raw liver just in case and hopefully I will sleep without worrying…
Rosie says she is very well thank you, I don’t know how to write that in Japanese though! 🙃xx
I think it might be quite impossible for those of us who pay attention at this time of year to not feel the utter joy of all that is becoming J. Paul, and it seems that everything has its own exquisite and very different way. I love that you feel it too, I wish you a weekend filled to overflowing with the beauty of it all. 🍃
Susie, Yes, Yes, and Yes! My garden is looking especially nice after receiving over 2” of rain and now, some unseasonably cool weather to make it last. I'm especially excited to see that some of my rarest plants are having babies 😁
Susie, my rarest is a Styrax tree collected from the mountains of Mexico by the late plantsman John Fairey. My tree and a few others at UC Berkley in California are the only known in cultivation in the US! I've had a geneticist here collecting samples for further research. Many other interesting species, such as Carolina Silver Bell Tree (Halesia), Leatherwood (Dirca), Blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia), Alabama Snowwreath (Neviusia), Alabama Croton (Croton), Carolina Allspice (Calycanthus), and so many more. I've written about many of these, and my garden, Saddleridge Sanctuary, here on Substack. I hope you get rain; it's critical for our plants and our spirits.
I have just looked up your rarest tree; Styrax which I have never heard of. Then I read; "Since Antiquity, storax resin has been used in perfumes (the most famous example is the Guerlain Shalimar perfume (1925)" Shalimar was my mothers favourite perfume and I haven't thought of it in years... 🥹
How exciting! Which rare plants do you have? Not that they would likely be found here but Id love to know...
We have just had three exceptionally dry and unseasonably warm weeks here but rain is finally arriving from tomorrow onwards—typically with no end in sight but I am ever optimistic of erroneous forecasts—meaning all those plants that had already begun to take on an exhausted summer fade will hopefully bounce back to beautiful life again.
Goodness, thank you, so many with names that entice surely as much as the plant, and not one I know! I will be spending some time with Mr Google later to see exactly what beauties you have...
This calls for a whole evening and a notebook too! 🍃
Beautiful spring moments - gloriously written...and I can resonate with your daughters feelings about those dangling caterpillars after a walk in balmy weather brought them all out along the paths of a local ancient woodland yesterday!
Lin we have a caterpillar invasion this year! Not just the Rollers but every type imaginable, many I have never even seen before. I hope only that they all survive and are a process necessary for the revival of waning butterflies and moths, at least the constant dodging of silk and dangling things will not have been all horror story!
You glow like that sunrise and sunset, your every frame and every accompanying word. I want to sing like that chorus of birds at dawn to celebrate you!
And ohhhh, the beautiful nightingale, you’ve translated her song perfectly….”this is life it says, normal, transient, transcendent life.”
Thank you for offering these glimpses of your gentle heart friend.
Isn’t the song of the nightingale the best! A verification of just how beautiful this planet is no matter the time of day or night. I adore their inevitability here, perhaps I shouldn’t take such gifts for granted but I can’t imagine spring without their short lived presence. At the end of June they all leave again, the hill is momentarily quieted until the hoppers begin their own summer chorus, different definitely but equally, a treasure to cherish.
Thank you for always being such an attentive friend dear Kimberly… May Day hugs and love xx
I loved coming with you on this wander, Susie. I love knowing that you too are tending to a tangle of land and forest and critters, nurturing them to greater thriving. It’s a special experience to get to peek into your world and your tender nurturing!! ❤️
I love that you do Sumaya, I love that you, too, tend your land with love and tenderness. There are days when I feel defeated though, when I see the chaos caused by storms and worse, by agriculture and its constant need for bigger machinery, more open land to allow that machinery to move. Since moving to France, which is 21 years exactly today, I have seen more hedges and trees torn down to make way for 'big farming' than I have in my whole lifetime of living on farmland. So many animals and insects have disappeared in those years. I feel often I am battling not only brambles but the ridiculous rules set by the EU that force farmers to make decisions I am certain they would ignore if they could... they are wardens of the land after all, are they not?
A conversation probably best left if I am to sleep though...
I hope your weekend is kind and beautiful dear one... sending love xx
That owl! That river! That birdsong. And all these gorgeous creatures. And you, immersed in them, delighting in them, communing with them. What tiny, glorious moments, indeed!!
Dear Susie! So glad I took time this afternoon to catch up (somewhat) on those wonderful reads on Substack! And yours was the first and so delicious! I pictured it all. And heard the lovely sounds-thought I was walking along with you by the river! Finally, Susie, Spring seems to be arriving here as well! I have a few daffs, some pink and blue hyacinths just come up....and a miniature daff as well (I have no clue where it came from!) The tulips are growing well in the front yard. Next week I must remove the fallen leaves and old mulch (to put in the compost bin) and then add new compost and new mulch back to the front garden! Hubby's koi will probably go into the pond in the back garden...they are anxious to be free of their small winter 'hotel' in the garage!
Oh those herons are wise, aren't they!? Hubby's brother(defunct), had a small pond in his backyard (many years ago) and no sooner had he put his koi and goldfish out, Mr. Heron feasted on them all in one go!! Until we have water plants growing well in our pond, I am always on the lookout for herons, raccoons, and cats!
Lovely that Rosie is home for a visit! Such joy when our children come home!
Wishing you a glorious spring break vacation! Sending hugs!
Hello dear one, how strange it seems that your daffs have only just bloomed when I am tying knots in the over long leaves and wishing them dead so I can un-crowd the bulbs for next year. Since the beginning of this week there are elderflowers in full bloom on the lane, their scent a heavenly reminder that summer is close. We are at least three months ahead it seems... but then spring can be a short season here, the heat can arrive as early as May and everything perishes, the colours fade to a dusty beige and usually everyone, including me, is craving rain.
Herons are one of those beautiful creatures I truly hate to love... I watched two yesterday morning, fishing in a lake not far from here, they were elegant even in their indiscriminate feeding. It is, once again, just another form of beauty in survival. Thankfully they seem very fearful of humans so I imagine are easily dissuaded from your pond and lunching on your husband's unsuspecting Koi.
Small mercies in a big world!
Rosie has departed once again, it was a wonderfully long and sunny unscheduled stay, we made the most of every moment, we always do. I miss her terribly Jeannine, does that ever go away do you think?
Oh Susie! The long, unscheduled stays are the best! We never stop missing our children. My middle child (a son) lives on the west coast of Canada...I live near the east coast. And no, it never goes away! Luckily he did surprise us on Father's Day last summer and stayed for a week! It was wonderful, but not long enough!
Herons are glorious, elegant birds that I love to watch....just not in my backyard!
I love elderflowers! Their blossoms are so delicate, like lace! Do you make elderberry syrup? Do you have Linden trees on the hill? Besides oak, these are my favorite trees! Their scent is heavenly...and they are medicinal!
Take care dear Susie. Enjoy your lovely springtime.
Oh Jeannine, from east to west Canada is a mighty distance compared to the two hours by car or train to Toulouse, I feel like perhaps I shouldn't complain. Your longing must be very great... 😔
I use elderflowers for all sorts, cordial definitely, every year, also for flavouring cakes and jams and teas and the berries I use in jams, wines and a syrup infused with thyme, cinnamon, aniseed, as a winter remedy for everything flu related! There is a Liinden tree right outside my front door, when it's in flower, in June, the whole house is perfumed with their heavenly scent simply that feels medicinal but I gather a few flowers for making tisanes and tinctures also...
Today I am taking a slow enjoying spring day... my first in weeks, it feels necessary; tomorrow classes begin again until the long summer break. This is our hardest term and none of us look forward to it!
What a glorious post full of vitality and energy. Thank you.
I am so happy your spring is being beautiful for you. On the other side of the earth my autumn is being beautiful for me. 🍁
The piano playing and shimmers of leaf and water. Pulled at my heart strings, a tear even perhaps?
The heron swearing at you. I can just picture it. 😀
Your beautiful roses : Rosie full of laughter, and a favourite of mine also, the yellow Banksia. 💛
Having been living rurally lately I see the immense never ending job of trying to "tame" the land in Spring time. I have so much respect for people who create beauty and abundance, food and nourishment from their land. It is hard work.
Jo I can't quite believe that the last two weeks have been as kind as they have, kinder than ever imagined after those prior. I have been blessed with gifts far more appreciated than anything else that could have been offered; Rosie brought the sunshine and both remained for almost two weeks. ♥️
Isn't that tiny yellow Banksia Rose heavenly, I have cuttings which have taken but have never flowered... obviously I never managed the language roses as my friend did. I will never stop trying though...
It bloody is a never ending job Jo; the tending and clearing of land, the pruning, the ecological decisions that have to be made and the agony of knowing sometimes it just isn't possible to make the one I should—unless I want to live in a jungle that is!
I hope I make some good from the mayhem so my children can carry on, with the joy of knowing there is at least a little less work to do and that which is left will feed them well. 🙏🏼
Sending love back to you, I will think of you in your beautiful autumn. xx
I hope so Jo, I have such plans for this home for them so they don't ever have to worry about feeling safe, so that they could survive if necessary. It is my life's work.
Bloody Hell Susie, you are the antithesis of the doom scroll, a tonic against the ongoing agony, a parcel of peace in the endless shoutery. What a pleasure to rest in your ever loving soul and see the Earth through clear eyes, to see those troutlings scatter and the hares loping along and the owls eyes pooling the universe so deep and true.
Haha... Well I guess someone has to do it! I'm not sure how I won this job neither am I certain I'm qualified but if I make a few people smile out there on this ever turning blue dot I'll take it!
Ah the screaming obscenities of bats and the stately swears of the heron - what divine accompaniment to your days. I hope that Rosie has recovered from her caterpillar encounters and the sheep have left off the plum bark and are back to gently nibbling the grass. I visited a castle on a hill at the weekend while my family took the coach to Wembley to watch the football. The skylark sang me a secret, the stonechats chattered and buzzed from the bushes and robin shared some of the crumbs from my cream tea. Now I am back home and doing my best to concentrate on work and chores. Much love xx
HI Em, Rosie has left now, returned to her city life but despite caterpillar horrors I am not sure she wanted to leave at all this time, we had a truly gorgeous two weeks, the weather was more than generous and much was achieved. It was such a pleasure—and a change—to have help with the taming of riotous of spring!
I have just two days left before classes begin and just two days left before the weather changes too. If I didn't know better I'd say it's as if dear MN knew the dates of my holidays and marked in her diary, 'send good weather to the hill' on all the days.
I feel utterly blessed!
Now, for me also, it's catch up time, much has been ignored, or at least cast to the bottom of my forever lists while the weather was good, including Substack! I am so behind!
I hope your weekend Is beautiful, sharing your cream tea with the birds on a hill with a castle sounds enchanting, far more relaxing than the noise of a football match at Wembley, I think id have made a similar choice!
Love the glorious moments of nature you share, they are all a sanctuary with God's loving embrace. The video is a welcome escape into your wondrous world. Love and Light Sweet Susie. xoxo
Thank you beautiful, can't wait to chat later, I will likely be a little bedraggled... I have quite a day ahead of me here, probably two if the weather stays kind! I hope your enjoying beautiful spring moments on your hill darling... love and light back til later xx
Dear Susie, how soothing and heartachingly beautiful to immerse myself in these tiny glorious moments you describe, filled with nightingale song, bat swearing, Rosie's smile lighting up your kitchen, and troutlings swimming for dear life. Your attention to the details of life on your hill of le paradis feels like you are breathing life into all these moments. This is a true gift. You are a gifted writer, Susie (just in case you've forgotten and want to be reminded) and a gifted photographer, of course, too. Thank you so much for sharing your precious gifts ♥️ 🙏 🪶 ✨
Dearest Veronika, thank you for this beautiful comment and kind words for me while caring for your own deep heartache. That I write words that soothe, even for the smallest of moments brings a smile to my heart. I am not sure how or even if your days promote many smiles or feelings of any normality continuing but I pray you have the light and love of your own family and friends when the hours are darkest. Nature, as you know so well, is a great and healing balm, its gifts almost infinite.
I send you much love on this Sunday, a little grey in colour but not in feeling... the birds agree! ♥️🌺🎶 🍃xx
"I am grateful for these few sacred seconds in the presence of water dwellers, soon the river will be dry, all life will be departed, but for the now, these are moments filled with the absolute normal—beautiful—art of survival and in a world where so much isn’t, it feels holy." And I am grateful for you, Susie! Beautiful words and holy thoughts ...
Dearest Mary, thank you for always being such an attentive reader and friend, how I miss your own stories and posts here. I hope only that your absence is because you are working on others to delight our literary senses and hearts. I send you love from my all blooming, all singing hill xx
I am just here.. lingering. Breathing in the beauty of your words, letting them become a part of me. I found myself reading, and re-reading my favourite passages. And I could have watched those trees shimmering and fluttering over the water again and again. I might watch it one last time before I move on with my day. I saved this so that I could read your exquisite thoughts upon waking this morning.. what a gift. And it will carry me through the remainder of my day. Big love to you, beautiful soul. xo
Hello my beautiful friend, that you lingered over the shimmering of trees on water does not surprise me, I remember well your love of dampness and rain, days when everything is bright—or misted—by droplets! I have a feeling this month of May will be one you would relish, our long-range forecast, despite feeling like summer had arrived through April, is to be predominantly rainy! But perhaps well timed... the land is in need, my garden is looking decidedly limp already and, tomorrow I will be back in classes, whether it rains or shines will make little difference to my day.
Sending a huge Sunday hug right back to you sweet soul... xxx
Susie, there is something so special about your writing. Most of the time I do not stop in mid-read, to take a moment to label just what it is. But today, I realize part of my fully enamored indulgence of walking next to you on the hill, working amongst the thickets and brambles, or tending with a loving hand, your nonhuman charges: your writing is timeless. It can be any year, any place. I can pretend I am in Avonlea on Prince Edward Island, back in the 1890s, imagining you writing with ink and pen by the light of the small flame of a hurricane lamp. I can envision rising before sunrise, heading to the barn to feed the horses (which you do not have) then returning to the kitchen to sit and talk with you over hot tea and fresh bread with homemade jam. You have become a dear friend, a hiking buddy, a partner in all things capturing my attention, to all things joyful and rapturous beauty, to chores of the mundane kind—but totally captivating because I am working alongside a friend. Thank you for sharing it all—whether we are creating fiction, or the wonders of every day we are blessed to be alive with a background chorus of a Nightingale. Maybe someday I will take you to the mountains by way of a trail named Raven’s Wind, show you what it’s like to dance with trees on a blanket of white. One of these days, I’ll sit by the fire with pen and paper, and invite you over. But first I’ll need to grab a lantern and head to the privy, behind the garden, on the side of the barn, about a half mile away—it will be a long night indeed.
I am delighted you stop to read even a few words... that you write a reply with such generosity of spirit and an imagination fuelled by those words is a yet more gorgeous bonus, never expected but always deeply appreciated when it arrives.
Infinite apologies for my insufferable tardiness, perhaps not necessary, I know you know me well enough by now to not be hanging around waiting but I offer them anyway, call it an act of self-appeasement — or is that worse?
I am not sure quite what level of evil I must have dealt out in a past life but I have a feeling time at permanent warp-speed is my punishment! Jeez the future looks close...
Anyway, Avonlea... I never forgot that name, Lordy I've spent half a lifetime trying to create my own, I guess this is as close as I'll get at this stage of life and I'm far from complaining... even if the chores are relentless the sheer, yes, rapturous beauty of this tiny pocket of nature is ample treasure for one pair of eyes to feast upon. But you intrigue me with a trail called Raven's Wind, a place where I could dance on a blanket of snow... the name alone conjures wild and dark mystery... I'll wait for your letter, and don't you worry about time, I have a heap of logs to stack and months and months worth of brambles to tame while I wait!
PS you'll find the privy on the side of the barn where the owlet awaits her next meal, perhaps you would be so kind as to feed her before returning, you will find food in the cave ready minced and tweezers—for feeding her, if you want to leave with all your fingers—hanging on a hook beside the bats? xx
Susie, how wonderful that you are out in the sun again! It seems as though Sonny is the only one not cursing at you. 😉 Give all the wooly/furry ones a hug for me.
Hi Rosie❣️
p.s. I want to abscond with that little owl. But then, I would likely hear obscenities cast my direction, right?
Louise I found two more! One, the tiniest, is now being hand fed mashed up pieces of raw meat; not an obscenity mentioned! 🥹
Rosie says Konnichiwa 🫶🏼
Where’s mama?
Rosie, ogenki desuka?
Louise from my bed I could hear the smallest of the two calling for food from the barn. The larger seems to have flown already and I was concerned mama had abandoned the other but she now has a plate of minced raw liver just in case and hopefully I will sleep without worrying…
Rosie says she is very well thank you, I don’t know how to write that in Japanese though! 🙃xx
I feel and relate to your joy!
I think it might be quite impossible for those of us who pay attention at this time of year to not feel the utter joy of all that is becoming J. Paul, and it seems that everything has its own exquisite and very different way. I love that you feel it too, I wish you a weekend filled to overflowing with the beauty of it all. 🍃
Susie, Yes, Yes, and Yes! My garden is looking especially nice after receiving over 2” of rain and now, some unseasonably cool weather to make it last. I'm especially excited to see that some of my rarest plants are having babies 😁
Susie, my rarest is a Styrax tree collected from the mountains of Mexico by the late plantsman John Fairey. My tree and a few others at UC Berkley in California are the only known in cultivation in the US! I've had a geneticist here collecting samples for further research. Many other interesting species, such as Carolina Silver Bell Tree (Halesia), Leatherwood (Dirca), Blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia), Alabama Snowwreath (Neviusia), Alabama Croton (Croton), Carolina Allspice (Calycanthus), and so many more. I've written about many of these, and my garden, Saddleridge Sanctuary, here on Substack. I hope you get rain; it's critical for our plants and our spirits.
I have just looked up your rarest tree; Styrax which I have never heard of. Then I read; "Since Antiquity, storax resin has been used in perfumes (the most famous example is the Guerlain Shalimar perfume (1925)" Shalimar was my mothers favourite perfume and I haven't thought of it in years... 🥹
I'm all about fragrances too! There's an article I wrote about that love too 😉
I’d love to read it J Paul, is there a link you could send me?
How exciting! Which rare plants do you have? Not that they would likely be found here but Id love to know...
We have just had three exceptionally dry and unseasonably warm weeks here but rain is finally arriving from tomorrow onwards—typically with no end in sight but I am ever optimistic of erroneous forecasts—meaning all those plants that had already begun to take on an exhausted summer fade will hopefully bounce back to beautiful life again.
I hope your babies survive! 🙏🏼
Goodness, thank you, so many with names that entice surely as much as the plant, and not one I know! I will be spending some time with Mr Google later to see exactly what beauties you have...
This calls for a whole evening and a notebook too! 🍃
Beautiful spring moments - gloriously written...and I can resonate with your daughters feelings about those dangling caterpillars after a walk in balmy weather brought them all out along the paths of a local ancient woodland yesterday!
Lin we have a caterpillar invasion this year! Not just the Rollers but every type imaginable, many I have never even seen before. I hope only that they all survive and are a process necessary for the revival of waning butterflies and moths, at least the constant dodging of silk and dangling things will not have been all horror story!
Many thanks for reading, Happy May Day to you. 🍃
You glow like that sunrise and sunset, your every frame and every accompanying word. I want to sing like that chorus of birds at dawn to celebrate you!
And ohhhh, the beautiful nightingale, you’ve translated her song perfectly….”this is life it says, normal, transient, transcendent life.”
Thank you for offering these glimpses of your gentle heart friend.
Isn’t the song of the nightingale the best! A verification of just how beautiful this planet is no matter the time of day or night. I adore their inevitability here, perhaps I shouldn’t take such gifts for granted but I can’t imagine spring without their short lived presence. At the end of June they all leave again, the hill is momentarily quieted until the hoppers begin their own summer chorus, different definitely but equally, a treasure to cherish.
Thank you for always being such an attentive friend dear Kimberly… May Day hugs and love xx
I loved coming with you on this wander, Susie. I love knowing that you too are tending to a tangle of land and forest and critters, nurturing them to greater thriving. It’s a special experience to get to peek into your world and your tender nurturing!! ❤️
I love that you do Sumaya, I love that you, too, tend your land with love and tenderness. There are days when I feel defeated though, when I see the chaos caused by storms and worse, by agriculture and its constant need for bigger machinery, more open land to allow that machinery to move. Since moving to France, which is 21 years exactly today, I have seen more hedges and trees torn down to make way for 'big farming' than I have in my whole lifetime of living on farmland. So many animals and insects have disappeared in those years. I feel often I am battling not only brambles but the ridiculous rules set by the EU that force farmers to make decisions I am certain they would ignore if they could... they are wardens of the land after all, are they not?
A conversation probably best left if I am to sleep though...
I hope your weekend is kind and beautiful dear one... sending love xx
That owl! That river! That birdsong. And all these gorgeous creatures. And you, immersed in them, delighting in them, communing with them. What tiny, glorious moments, indeed!!
Holly I wish I could take your hand and show you all these tiny glorious miracles! Love to you beauty, I hope life is being gentle on you xx
You do! Through your gorgeous writing.
Love to you, too, my friend.
🙏🏼♥️😘
Dear Susie! So glad I took time this afternoon to catch up (somewhat) on those wonderful reads on Substack! And yours was the first and so delicious! I pictured it all. And heard the lovely sounds-thought I was walking along with you by the river! Finally, Susie, Spring seems to be arriving here as well! I have a few daffs, some pink and blue hyacinths just come up....and a miniature daff as well (I have no clue where it came from!) The tulips are growing well in the front yard. Next week I must remove the fallen leaves and old mulch (to put in the compost bin) and then add new compost and new mulch back to the front garden! Hubby's koi will probably go into the pond in the back garden...they are anxious to be free of their small winter 'hotel' in the garage!
Oh those herons are wise, aren't they!? Hubby's brother(defunct), had a small pond in his backyard (many years ago) and no sooner had he put his koi and goldfish out, Mr. Heron feasted on them all in one go!! Until we have water plants growing well in our pond, I am always on the lookout for herons, raccoons, and cats!
Lovely that Rosie is home for a visit! Such joy when our children come home!
Wishing you a glorious spring break vacation! Sending hugs!
Hello dear one, how strange it seems that your daffs have only just bloomed when I am tying knots in the over long leaves and wishing them dead so I can un-crowd the bulbs for next year. Since the beginning of this week there are elderflowers in full bloom on the lane, their scent a heavenly reminder that summer is close. We are at least three months ahead it seems... but then spring can be a short season here, the heat can arrive as early as May and everything perishes, the colours fade to a dusty beige and usually everyone, including me, is craving rain.
Herons are one of those beautiful creatures I truly hate to love... I watched two yesterday morning, fishing in a lake not far from here, they were elegant even in their indiscriminate feeding. It is, once again, just another form of beauty in survival. Thankfully they seem very fearful of humans so I imagine are easily dissuaded from your pond and lunching on your husband's unsuspecting Koi.
Small mercies in a big world!
Rosie has departed once again, it was a wonderfully long and sunny unscheduled stay, we made the most of every moment, we always do. I miss her terribly Jeannine, does that ever go away do you think?
Sending love and thanks and hugs to you too xx
Oh Susie! The long, unscheduled stays are the best! We never stop missing our children. My middle child (a son) lives on the west coast of Canada...I live near the east coast. And no, it never goes away! Luckily he did surprise us on Father's Day last summer and stayed for a week! It was wonderful, but not long enough!
Herons are glorious, elegant birds that I love to watch....just not in my backyard!
I love elderflowers! Their blossoms are so delicate, like lace! Do you make elderberry syrup? Do you have Linden trees on the hill? Besides oak, these are my favorite trees! Their scent is heavenly...and they are medicinal!
Take care dear Susie. Enjoy your lovely springtime.
Hugs
xx
Oh Jeannine, from east to west Canada is a mighty distance compared to the two hours by car or train to Toulouse, I feel like perhaps I shouldn't complain. Your longing must be very great... 😔
I use elderflowers for all sorts, cordial definitely, every year, also for flavouring cakes and jams and teas and the berries I use in jams, wines and a syrup infused with thyme, cinnamon, aniseed, as a winter remedy for everything flu related! There is a Liinden tree right outside my front door, when it's in flower, in June, the whole house is perfumed with their heavenly scent simply that feels medicinal but I gather a few flowers for making tisanes and tinctures also...
Today I am taking a slow enjoying spring day... my first in weeks, it feels necessary; tomorrow classes begin again until the long summer break. This is our hardest term and none of us look forward to it!
Hugs to you too dear one xxx
May this spring term float easily by like a cherry blossom after a delicate breeze!
Enjoy your day, Susie! Hugs xx
Hello dear Susie and Hello Sonny! 🥰
What a glorious post full of vitality and energy. Thank you.
I am so happy your spring is being beautiful for you. On the other side of the earth my autumn is being beautiful for me. 🍁
The piano playing and shimmers of leaf and water. Pulled at my heart strings, a tear even perhaps?
The heron swearing at you. I can just picture it. 😀
Your beautiful roses : Rosie full of laughter, and a favourite of mine also, the yellow Banksia. 💛
Having been living rurally lately I see the immense never ending job of trying to "tame" the land in Spring time. I have so much respect for people who create beauty and abundance, food and nourishment from their land. It is hard work.
Much Love Susie. Enjoy your Spring break. xx
Jo I can't quite believe that the last two weeks have been as kind as they have, kinder than ever imagined after those prior. I have been blessed with gifts far more appreciated than anything else that could have been offered; Rosie brought the sunshine and both remained for almost two weeks. ♥️
Isn't that tiny yellow Banksia Rose heavenly, I have cuttings which have taken but have never flowered... obviously I never managed the language roses as my friend did. I will never stop trying though...
It bloody is a never ending job Jo; the tending and clearing of land, the pruning, the ecological decisions that have to be made and the agony of knowing sometimes it just isn't possible to make the one I should—unless I want to live in a jungle that is!
I hope I make some good from the mayhem so my children can carry on, with the joy of knowing there is at least a little less work to do and that which is left will feed them well. 🙏🏼
Sending love back to you, I will think of you in your beautiful autumn. xx
So pleased you and Rosie had two weeks of spring sunshine.
What a gift you will be giving your children Susie and I can just tell that it's one that they will appreciate and nurture. 💖 Sending Love.
I hope so Jo, I have such plans for this home for them so they don't ever have to worry about feeling safe, so that they could survive if necessary. It is my life's work.
Big love back 💞
Yes Susie. Not all parents have such foresight and care unfortunately. To enable our children to feel safe. That is everything. Home. xxx
Home is everything, home and the love inside the walls even if the maker is gone. It is everything my parents couldn't do for me. xx
Bloody Hell Susie, you are the antithesis of the doom scroll, a tonic against the ongoing agony, a parcel of peace in the endless shoutery. What a pleasure to rest in your ever loving soul and see the Earth through clear eyes, to see those troutlings scatter and the hares loping along and the owls eyes pooling the universe so deep and true.
Thanks pal.
Haha... Well I guess someone has to do it! I'm not sure how I won this job neither am I certain I'm qualified but if I make a few people smile out there on this ever turning blue dot I'll take it!
Thanks a million for being here Jonathan...
Ah the screaming obscenities of bats and the stately swears of the heron - what divine accompaniment to your days. I hope that Rosie has recovered from her caterpillar encounters and the sheep have left off the plum bark and are back to gently nibbling the grass. I visited a castle on a hill at the weekend while my family took the coach to Wembley to watch the football. The skylark sang me a secret, the stonechats chattered and buzzed from the bushes and robin shared some of the crumbs from my cream tea. Now I am back home and doing my best to concentrate on work and chores. Much love xx
HI Em, Rosie has left now, returned to her city life but despite caterpillar horrors I am not sure she wanted to leave at all this time, we had a truly gorgeous two weeks, the weather was more than generous and much was achieved. It was such a pleasure—and a change—to have help with the taming of riotous of spring!
I have just two days left before classes begin and just two days left before the weather changes too. If I didn't know better I'd say it's as if dear MN knew the dates of my holidays and marked in her diary, 'send good weather to the hill' on all the days.
I feel utterly blessed!
Now, for me also, it's catch up time, much has been ignored, or at least cast to the bottom of my forever lists while the weather was good, including Substack! I am so behind!
I hope your weekend Is beautiful, sharing your cream tea with the birds on a hill with a castle sounds enchanting, far more relaxing than the noise of a football match at Wembley, I think id have made a similar choice!
Much love to you too xx
Love the glorious moments of nature you share, they are all a sanctuary with God's loving embrace. The video is a welcome escape into your wondrous world. Love and Light Sweet Susie. xoxo
Thank you beautiful, can't wait to chat later, I will likely be a little bedraggled... I have quite a day ahead of me here, probably two if the weather stays kind! I hope your enjoying beautiful spring moments on your hill darling... love and light back til later xx
Dear Susie, how soothing and heartachingly beautiful to immerse myself in these tiny glorious moments you describe, filled with nightingale song, bat swearing, Rosie's smile lighting up your kitchen, and troutlings swimming for dear life. Your attention to the details of life on your hill of le paradis feels like you are breathing life into all these moments. This is a true gift. You are a gifted writer, Susie (just in case you've forgotten and want to be reminded) and a gifted photographer, of course, too. Thank you so much for sharing your precious gifts ♥️ 🙏 🪶 ✨
Dearest Veronika, thank you for this beautiful comment and kind words for me while caring for your own deep heartache. That I write words that soothe, even for the smallest of moments brings a smile to my heart. I am not sure how or even if your days promote many smiles or feelings of any normality continuing but I pray you have the light and love of your own family and friends when the hours are darkest. Nature, as you know so well, is a great and healing balm, its gifts almost infinite.
I send you much love on this Sunday, a little grey in colour but not in feeling... the birds agree! ♥️🌺🎶 🍃xx
"I am grateful for these few sacred seconds in the presence of water dwellers, soon the river will be dry, all life will be departed, but for the now, these are moments filled with the absolute normal—beautiful—art of survival and in a world where so much isn’t, it feels holy." And I am grateful for you, Susie! Beautiful words and holy thoughts ...
Dearest Mary, thank you for always being such an attentive reader and friend, how I miss your own stories and posts here. I hope only that your absence is because you are working on others to delight our literary senses and hearts. I send you love from my all blooming, all singing hill xx
I am just here.. lingering. Breathing in the beauty of your words, letting them become a part of me. I found myself reading, and re-reading my favourite passages. And I could have watched those trees shimmering and fluttering over the water again and again. I might watch it one last time before I move on with my day. I saved this so that I could read your exquisite thoughts upon waking this morning.. what a gift. And it will carry me through the remainder of my day. Big love to you, beautiful soul. xo
Hello my beautiful friend, that you lingered over the shimmering of trees on water does not surprise me, I remember well your love of dampness and rain, days when everything is bright—or misted—by droplets! I have a feeling this month of May will be one you would relish, our long-range forecast, despite feeling like summer had arrived through April, is to be predominantly rainy! But perhaps well timed... the land is in need, my garden is looking decidedly limp already and, tomorrow I will be back in classes, whether it rains or shines will make little difference to my day.
Sending a huge Sunday hug right back to you sweet soul... xxx
“Everything... hungry.”
Foodie Sheep, cursing Bats, flu/ox/w?
Everything, holy!
Now, the land too; hungry
parched under sunbeams
awaiting holy rain 💦
Marisol, I send you a huge than you for your attention to details and beautiful replies.