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To celebrate a second splendid day, or perhaps just because we could, we went off to check on the osprey nests on route 22.
If there were hatchlings, they were keeping their heads down and the only adult was on a nearby tree, but before I could focus on it a car came up the road forcing us to move on.
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After checking the second nest, we swung back and parked by Dead Lake from where I could focus on the bird which was now sadly against the light.
At least you can appreciate the magnificent beak.
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On a bright, still morning the lake was photogenic.
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As always, I looked up.
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A few wispy contrails were morphing, lending definition to the early morning scene.
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Route 22 is one of our busier roads, but apart from the car that appeared at just the wrong moment, there was no traffic in sight.
It was a splendidly calm, cool morning.
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Some days it’s as if everyone just picked up and left!
You can drive through the village and not see a soul or a single car on the street, then next day they line the road on both sides and you wonder what’s going on.
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The flow of water down our hill has slowed a little though more rain is in the forecast.
The puddle at the bottom of our property was ankle deep, the overflow leaking into a field and to a stream that continues through the village.
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Not many months ago, we were at near-drought conditions but usually as we travel about, we encounter water courses everywhere.
It’s fascinating to think of water coming from our hill ending up in the Hudson or ultimately the Atlantic Ocean.
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When I was very little, one of my hair ribbons came off as I paddled in the sea at Bournemouth and my mother told me not to worry, that Aunty Kay would collect it when it reached America and would send it back.
For weeks I waited, but it was never seen again.
Children do not forget!
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Perhaps I was a strange child, but I seem to have kept a mental list, over time, of all the things I was told that weren’t true, like Santa Claus and the tooth fairy and – other things.
Eventually, I figured out that my parents weren’t perfect!
Do we all start life thinking so?
Raising children may be life’s greatest challenge and I’d venture to say the most serious responsibility, which is one reason I never wanted any. It was a daunting idea and I would not have been equal to the task, to the balance between loving care and discipline.
Yet it strikes me that people turn out offspring without thought or any consideration of all that parenthood will change.
When I was young, we still sent Santa messages by putting our gift list onto the fire and running outside to watch the smoke going to the North Pole. Then Christmas Day arrived and I didn’t get the more exotic gifts I had asked for. So I stopped believing in Santa at the age of 8.
I love the reflections in the watery photos.
Best wishes, Pete.
Thank you, Carolyn, for your interesting, as always, memories of your childhood. I love the clever story about your lost at sea ribbon! The pictures of the bird are good with light or without it! Your musing about not having children makes me assure you, you haven’t missed anything. Looking after animals is a better choice, for sure.
Joanna
I love the tale of Auntie Kay and the hair ribbon!
I was grateful to my parents for the beliefs in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy! Disappointed, certainly, to learn they did not exist, but glad I believed in magic for a while. Perhaps, being a first child, my perspective was different. I enjoyed my younger brothers’ belief, and never disabused them.
I was less grateful for the indoctrination of religious beliefs, which took much longer to escape, and which caused more angst than joy.
Like you, I never wanted children, and I have no regrets on that score.
The reflections in the lake are beautiful – it creates such a peaceful picture and makes me wish I was sitting there on the shore right now. I never believed in the tooth fairy (and I’m not even sure that I believed in Santa Claus – maybe because the idea of snow was a bit strange to us). But it was fun to see how my brother’s kids – when they were little – enjoyed the appearance of Santa Claus … maybe Berto in his red suit and long white beard was much more convincing than my uncle years ago 😂.