June 5
We are having a wild old social time during Lockdown. Every evening, round about six, we all meet up for Evening Drinks. All four of us who live in the house. It’s been a nice addition to routine: making a good thing out of being shut in together.
We are of course absurdly lucky in being locked down in the glorious Norfolk countryside. For most of May we took our drinks outside, with the floodplain and its marshes stretching out before us.
But then it got cold again, and we met for drinks in the sitting room, which overlooks the garden. The view is dominated by the bird-feeders, of course.
And it was business as usual as we talked and we sipped, tits and chaffinches on the feeders, pheasants and the odd red-legged partridge on the ground, occasional visits from a great spotted woodpecker. Cindy, my wife, had been much taken with the trusting naiveté of a just-fledged chaffinch.
Then, as if a magician had said a vanishing spell, the whole place was empty. Not a bird in sight. But I had caught a fizz of movement in my peripheral vision, and turned my head only a fraction too late.
Ten yards from the feeders, standing on the grass, its usually upright body making a slight angle to the ground, a little owl. In one talon, giving him that slightly unbalanced look, a prize. A bundle of feathers. Perhaps – it was impossible to tell –a young chaffinch.
Little owls usually look slightly absurd, as if they are trying ever so hard to be really fierce, but aren’t quite up to the task. There is a hint of the teddy-bear in that dumpy silhouette.
No this time. This was a little owl in his pomp, with his supper, perhaps supper for his offspring, at his feet. Telling us that nature is not cruel, any more than it is kind. Nature is merely everything.
Wild June 5 Eddie’s Blog
Sounds such a lovely place.
Lockdown had been good for wildlife and a good time for people to enjoy it..
and so say all of us – nature enthusiasts. Like you I am lucky and have a small nature reserve on the isle of Wight called Naturezones. At the moment fretting over how to share it with others less lucky
Aaah – thank you for those moments of tranquility nature red in tooth and claw. So good to be receiving regular blogs again.
Thank you for those moments of tranquility followed by nature red in tooth and claw! It is SO good to be receiving your blogs again.
Wonderful description of your friend Bessie, Many thanks, Eddie. Dogs really are good friends to have and leave a little gap when they first go….but later we remember the lovely times we had together….
I too have an evening drinks routine, but in the absence of family it’s “just me and the birds”. Blue tits to herring gulls. The drought is bringing more birds to my (increasing) water bowls. (I just stick to wine in a glass). So satisfying to watch them drink and bathe off their fusty feathers.
A great idea to meet for drinks. Here in Shropshire we have been eating in the garden almost daily since lockdown and enjoying watching our nesting birds raise their chicks. Blackbirds, robins, goldfinches, starlings, jackdaws and finally, they arrived, a whole month late…our swallows.
I’m enjoying Eddie’s blog too, particularly felt this one. Of course our animals are our friends. If only everyone remembered that….
Thank you Simon, thank you Eddie. You cheer my day, slow me down and touch my heart. Eddie you are quite right with animals as friends. They can be, and are often, the best of friends. Which shouldn’t really be a surprise for as so often we forget that we are just another animal and the joys of life, and friendship, are not exclusively ours.
Thanks Simon and Eddie for these.. So much to see at the moment and what a pleasure it is. Losing a dog or any animal you are close to for a long time is always tough. Celebrate their lives and the memories they have left with you.