The Farmer's Wife

On the Thursday before I left, I took my last walk around the fields (because Friday there was a monsoon). The cows were out in force. I had been photographing them as I neared the village when I ran into some neighbors out with their children. I met the kids first, as one raced by one his bike and then another on hers, and then, as the third and much smaller kid passed by, she looked up at me and said,"Are you the farmer's wife?"

These calves are brand-new, especially the little one below; Aunt D said it probably had just been born.

Up the Track, Out of the Village, and Into the Fields

If you go out of Aunt D's house and head up the road to the left, you are out of the village and at this sign in two minutes. Take the bridleway here and a track winds up and around the fields, eventually leading back to the village past the back of the manor house. There are two routes, actually, short and long; the long way is a good 45 minutes to an hour and a half, depending on whether you proceed at a good rate or dawdle on the way to take photographs of, say, a peacock butterfly that is suddenly just sitting on the ground in the middle of the track in front of you.

On my first walk around the fields, I was cameraless, so the first peacock butterfly and the bevy of quail babies went unphotographed, as did all the rabbits and birds. It's hard to take wildlife photos on the track anyway, as it is bounded on both sides by high hedges for much of the route. The hedges are full of mysterious rustlings and secrets. I never did figure out what the thing was of which I saw just the tail.

The geese are in a yard near the end of the short track.

The tree is in the pasture where I was chased by cows one evening when I was coming home from the secret cell phone tree. They did not catch me. Later, Aunt D taught me how to fend them off. You raise your arms high (or shake your cane if you have one) and cry, "STOP!" I wish I had her on film showing me this.

At the Cottage Birds, Part II: The Robins

There is a brood of young robins in Aunt D's garden. The babies have red patches on the front instead of the full-on red breast.

Sunning and puffing on the garden wall after a rain


Looking at me, and then looking some more


After a bath

Woody: A Retrospective, Part II

In honor of Woody, Woodina and the Woodlets, I present this medley of photos of various foodstuffs that were fed to the babes. Note that the bird with the red berry is Woodina. I always think that the absence of the top-of-head red cap makes her look a little like Steven Wright.

At the Cottage: Then and Now

I drew this picture in December 2006 from a 20-year-old photo of the view of the church tower from the back of Aunt D's house. Below is the same aspect now. Everything is much taller than it was then. Granted, my drawing probably strays from 100% accurate representation—I'll have to find the photo again and scan & upload it—but even so. I do remember that you could see at least a grave or two from the upstairs window.

At Thomas Hardy's Cottage

This is the house in which Thomas Hardy was born, grew up, and wrote some of his novels. You can't tell from the outside how extraordinarily small it is inside: small rooms, low ceilings, doorways through which we modern tall people must stoop, and steep and shallow staircases which have probably caused more than one death in their time.

At the Cottage: The English Birds, Part I

There were not the throngs of songbirds that I hoped to see in England, but nonetheless, there was quite a respectable showing of birds overall. Above is a pair of green finches, and below are a blue tit and a great tit, in that order. The English tits are related to our chickadees and are about the same size—that is, rather tiny (insert bad junior-high-school boys' joke here).

Wise Words About Birds

"If you see a rook, it's probably a crow. If you see a group of crows, they're probably rooks."

—Aunt D

In the Village: The Overseer

When I took this photo, I thought the bird was a crow, but now I am not sure. Jackdaw? Rook? Which one has a gray head like this? I'll look it up later today.

Later
I bleeve it is a jackdaw, yes, indeed.

The Sunrise, the Rain, the Cold (!), the Sunset

The first two photos are from Wednesday morning—we went from glowy sunrise to mist creeping in and were fogbound in about an hour. I have this to say: it is the end of July in Texas and I was COLD in the outdoor shower that morning. Tres bizarre. It continues to rain buckets here in central Texas. We are thankful that we are elevated on our hill and away from any flooding.

Lastly, sunset that same day. I was driving home and almost to Bee Cave and I had to stop to phone Hugh to ask him to run out and take some photos. Happily, he was able to immediately, because in moments the sky went gray again.

The House Guest

While I was away, Grey Kitty arrived. She is staying with us for a couple of weeks while her owner is out of town. She is a tiny slip of a thing, and she looks very wise and very old, and has no front claws. This does not prevent her from taking down Hamilton, despite the fact that he weighs about 3 times what she does.

Back at the Cabin: The Juvies

Scrub Teen Hunger Force is still At Large, with the teens getting even scrubbier during their transition from adolescence to adulthood.

This tiny cardinal has no tail feathers. I took about 20 photos of him and they are all crap; this is the best of the lot, which, sadly, is not saying much.

This little Scott's Oriole has been coming to the feeder with its parents! It is charming and wee, though in this photo it is hard to tell that it's not an adult. I'll have to get a shot of it with its mother for comparison.

While I Was Gone: Scorpion #10, 2007

Friday July 20th, sometime between 10 and 11 p.m., in the kitchen sink. Mobiles (as we call cell phones in England) do not work in Aunt Dorothy's village, because Lord S will not allow a tower; but if you go up the track and into the cow field behind the Manor House, and then proceed to a certain tree and stand to the left of it, one can phone at will. Friday, however, was pouring down rain, so I didn't go to the cow field, which meant that when I left the village and headed for London on Saturday, suddenly somewhere on the other side of Chawton, the car filled with the sound of "Sky Valley Camp" as messages started coming in.

The first was from Hugh and it said, cryptically,"Found it. He was giant!"

We did not know what this meant.

However, shortly thereafter, the message which should have arrived first arrived second instead. It said,"Am looking for catch & release," and had this photo attached, which cleared things up.

The Incidental Bottle of Wine

M found this in a shop in London. Intriguing, no?

The Afternoon of the Day in London

After an incredibly delicious lunch at the garden center, we made our way towards home, stopping outside of Mick Jagger's house across the street from a park on the Thames where we saw these Morris dancers. M ended up leaving me and J here so M could take the baby back home for her nap. We watched the dancers for a while, then walked along the river in the direction of home.

Now I'm going to quit the travelogue because all I really want to do is show some of my favorite photos. The following are all from along the Thames.

A copper beech

A swan with its leg tucked up on its back in a funny way

A gorgeous heron—have not looked up what kind yet

The Danger of Death sign—a personal favorite

On the Way to the English Cabin (The Cottage? Except It's Not Really a Cottage, It's a Late Victorian House, but Oh Well): A Day in London

I've been to England and back! I am glad to be home: as much as I love England, my aunt, her village, I missed my home, my bed, my husband, my animals (not necessarily in that order). I am still pretty jet-lagged...but there is all the time in the world to recover.

The photo above is the first I took in England; it's from the bridge above Barnes railway station in London. I arrived at Gatwick at 8 a.m. and rode the train here, where my friends M & J and little Rose came to collect me. A handsome & kind young man carried my (very heavy) suitcase up the railway stairs for me, despite my protests; "Nonsense!" he said, "It won't take a moment!" and it didn't.

After ditching my stuff At the London Cabin and pouring some refreshing and reviving hot tea into me, we drove through Richmond Park (below) on the way to a garden center and lunch. The day was fantastic, as you can see—I don't think it rained all day, and it was perhaps the only day during my visit that was entirely dry.

The Century Plant

I've been meaning to photograph this for ages and finally did today on the way back from the river. It's outside our neighbors P & A's second gate. Gorgeous! Interestingly, it bloomed a bit later than the ones I've seen in town, and has lasted quite a long time, too.

Misc notes from the rest of the day:
There are five scrub teens, not four! Saw 'em all this a.m. at the feeder. And two titmice babies, not one, in case I hadn't noted that already; saw a cardinal baby for the first time this morning, and there are also a dove youngun or two and finch babies—no telling how many with the finches; they are hard enough to tell apart when it's even just the grownups.

Finally...happy grandmotherhood to my dear friend C! Many readers (ha! as if I have "many". OK then, Some) will know who she is. She's the one who will object to the English punctuation there at the end quote and period.

And this is IT...I'm packed and headed across the pond in the morning!

In the Neighborhood of At the Cabin: The Turgid Pedernales

Great googledy moogledy! It has rained and rained and RAINED this spring and summer. Hammett's Crossing is closed; we drove down this morning to look at the swollen Pedernales River. Hugh kept saying,"It's not just a river any more; it's now part of Lake Travis!" It is higher than I have ever seen it. In normal conditions, this is a low-water crossing (see sign); now it's so high that you can't even see the road on the other side because what's usually visible from this side is now under water.