Listening to the wind, looking at the stars
Dawn and looking at the window frame at the foot of the bed change colour from pink through yellow to white as the sun rose. I got up early and spent some time talking to Dick and Joan over toast and coffee.
Lorraine's house deals moving swiftly, and it seems she has found a buyer for her house, and the offer on her new house has also been accepted. Still very stressful doing all this remotely.
Out in the clinic Joan and Dick are keeping a rescued cat and its kittens. These animals are all in bad shape, and Dick, a retired vet, is treating them. He took Lorraine and I there to help. Lorraine holding the kittens, and Dick dropping pills into their mouths and rubbing their throats gently with his big hands. I stood by a door, and made sure that no kitten got treated twice.
A quick go in the hammock, looking up into the tree, with Baxter the cat on my chest, and Nico the dog sitting below.
Then a walk through the fields and into the forest beyond. The fields and hedges filled with goldenrod, Queen Anne's lace, and purple napweed. Dick like a tour guide this morning. Stopping to tell us the ages of his three donkeys. Then into the forest, pointed out sugar maples, black cherry, or how the ash grows by the side of a field. With Dick's tilly hat, beard, and big stick, plus his voice that can be heard across fields, and his patient healing of everything from donkeys to tiny kittens it's hard not to think of him as a Tom Bombadil character.
Later I had the opportunity for a spot of meditation, listening to the wind is passing through the trees like a tide. Interrupted by a thrum of a hummingbird, and after a while, Nico the big golden dog, sighing bored at my feet.
Late afternoon Toby and Dick set off to meet Romy, and Joan drove Lorraine and I off to Creemore, meeting Ethan en route to form a convoy at the Maxwell Meats crossroads. Joan and Lorraine chatting in the front seats. Everyone seems to like Lorraine very much, which I am very pleased about. I was in the back, rubbernecking at the big land with its wide open fields, thick wooded hills, and huge sky tumbled with clouds.
We all met at a nice French restaurant in a very pretty town of Creemore, literally across the road from the small Creemore brewery. Only in Lewes have I drunk a beer with a smaller carbon footprint. A really nice family meal. Romy straight from work, and everyone laughing and cheery. Good French food. I had moules and chicken. Nice service too, the waitress bending confidentially to ask if I needed another beer. Beside me Ethan had snails and a steak. Ethan is such a brilliant meat chef, that serving him with a steak must be like showing a weekend watercolour to Picasso.
Home was almost an hour's drive across country. At one point Joan had to break hard to miss some small deer scampering across the road. Arriving safely and the rain clouds were gone, and the stars were out, and I while everyone headed into the farm, I walked into the darkness to gaze up into the great swathe of the milky way.
I love this place.
Below a walk in the woods, view from the hammock with Baxter on my belly, and one of Dick and Joan's sunflowers.
Dawn and looking at the window frame at the foot of the bed change colour from pink through yellow to white as the sun rose. I got up early and spent some time talking to Dick and Joan over toast and coffee.
Lorraine's house deals moving swiftly, and it seems she has found a buyer for her house, and the offer on her new house has also been accepted. Still very stressful doing all this remotely.
Out in the clinic Joan and Dick are keeping a rescued cat and its kittens. These animals are all in bad shape, and Dick, a retired vet, is treating them. He took Lorraine and I there to help. Lorraine holding the kittens, and Dick dropping pills into their mouths and rubbing their throats gently with his big hands. I stood by a door, and made sure that no kitten got treated twice.
A quick go in the hammock, looking up into the tree, with Baxter the cat on my chest, and Nico the dog sitting below.
Then a walk through the fields and into the forest beyond. The fields and hedges filled with goldenrod, Queen Anne's lace, and purple napweed. Dick like a tour guide this morning. Stopping to tell us the ages of his three donkeys. Then into the forest, pointed out sugar maples, black cherry, or how the ash grows by the side of a field. With Dick's tilly hat, beard, and big stick, plus his voice that can be heard across fields, and his patient healing of everything from donkeys to tiny kittens it's hard not to think of him as a Tom Bombadil character.
Later I had the opportunity for a spot of meditation, listening to the wind is passing through the trees like a tide. Interrupted by a thrum of a hummingbird, and after a while, Nico the big golden dog, sighing bored at my feet.
Late afternoon Toby and Dick set off to meet Romy, and Joan drove Lorraine and I off to Creemore, meeting Ethan en route to form a convoy at the Maxwell Meats crossroads. Joan and Lorraine chatting in the front seats. Everyone seems to like Lorraine very much, which I am very pleased about. I was in the back, rubbernecking at the big land with its wide open fields, thick wooded hills, and huge sky tumbled with clouds.
We all met at a nice French restaurant in a very pretty town of Creemore, literally across the road from the small Creemore brewery. Only in Lewes have I drunk a beer with a smaller carbon footprint. A really nice family meal. Romy straight from work, and everyone laughing and cheery. Good French food. I had moules and chicken. Nice service too, the waitress bending confidentially to ask if I needed another beer. Beside me Ethan had snails and a steak. Ethan is such a brilliant meat chef, that serving him with a steak must be like showing a weekend watercolour to Picasso.
Home was almost an hour's drive across country. At one point Joan had to break hard to miss some small deer scampering across the road. Arriving safely and the rain clouds were gone, and the stars were out, and I while everyone headed into the farm, I walked into the darkness to gaze up into the great swathe of the milky way.
I love this place.
Below a walk in the woods, view from the hammock with Baxter on my belly, and one of Dick and Joan's sunflowers.
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