A Small Slice of Nature

When I'm trying to sleep at night, there are a few seasonal obstacles to overcome. The nights can be very warm in the south of France, and it would be so refreshing if I could have the bedroom window open... but, no. Barney, our resident barn owl, hoots throughout the night; I don't know how he can hunt- it really is constant. Owls are supposed to swoop about in total silence in order to catch their unsuspecting prey, but that's not going to go well if you're hooting incessantly. Barney's hooting was difficult to sleep through, but now he's managed to find a mate, and the hooting is now a layered wall of hoot, with no breaks. As if that weren't enough to endure, the Midwife toad is back in the stone trough looking for a mate; this means I now have another layer of sound, penetrating and relentless, like the peeping of a smoke alarm. There are also wild cats; three of them met up on the top lawn last night, making noises like air raid sirens. The window will have to stay shut.


 A few more improbable skies...





Every morning, I wake up fairly early. I'm not an owl; I'm a lark. (Did you know that the French song, Alouette is about a lark?) I love to open the bedroom window (eventually!) and watch the sun sliding down the other side of the valley, and then begin to bronze the treetops on my side of the valley. It doesn't take long to reach us.


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