Yesterday Beverly, Tim and I went for a Sunday drive on the spur of the moment after we finished our brunch at our favorite Somewhere in Time Cafe. Fall colors aren’t peaking here yet, in fact many trees are still completely green. Perhaps next weekend I can find some color to photograph… I wanted to revisit a tree in North Stonington that I saw one autumn day maybe fifteen years ago when I was doing some family history research in church records out there. I don’t think we actually found it, though.
At some point we pulled over because a hawk was sitting on the fence of a pasture. When Tim sopped the car he flew off, but then came back and perched on top of a telephone pole. Not the most picturesque place for a photo shoot but I tried! What amazed us was that he kept taking off to fly in a huge circle and then land back on the telephone pole. He (she?) was eyeing us and kept spreading out his feathers to impress us, I presume.
We stopped for free-range/local eggs and had much better luck photographing a curious, healthy, and happy looking hen. No doubt we’ve had at least one or two of her eggs! But not only are we voting against cruelty to animals with our purchases, scientists are finding that, compared to typical supermarket eggs, eggs from free range hens have 4-6 times as much vitamin D, 1⁄3 less cholesterol, 1⁄4 less saturated fat, 2⁄3 more vitamin A, 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids, 3 times more vitamin E, and 7 times more beta carotene! Nature knows best.
In the 70s there was a television commercial for Chiffon margarine with a hook in it that stuck with me for many years, but for the opposite reasons than the corporation intended. The narrator hands Mother Nature, a woman dressed in a white robe with daisies in her hair, a tub of margarine. She is “fooled” and mistakes it for her sweet creamy butter. When the narrator tells her that it is really margarine she stands and calls for thunder and proclaims, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!” Being raised by a couple of nature lovers I would never dream of trying to fool Mother Nature. Because we can’t fool her. We may think we can, but the joke winds up being on us.
We chanced to pass by an open house at a very charming Victorian for sale, so we turned around and stopped to explore it inside. It was fun imagining what we would do there if we owned it. One bedroom had its own tiny little sun porch which I fell in love with. Tim thought the attic would be a good place to spread out his computer paraphernalia. And Beverly spotted a little den off the kitchen with a convenient tiny little powder room connected to it. We all wanted to know if the cat came with the house. 🙂 It’s kind of sad, though. The house has been on the market since January and they’ve lowered the price three times already.
We chanced to pass by an open house at a very charming Victorian for sale, so we turned around and stopped to explore it inside. It was fun imagining what we would do there if we owned it. One bedroom had its own tiny little sun porch which I fell in love with. Tim thought the attic would be a good place to spread out his computer paraphernalia. And Beverly spotted a little den off the kitchen with a convenient tiny little powder room connected to it. We all wanted to know if the cat came with the house. 🙂 It’s kind of sad, though. The house has been on the market since January and they’ve lowered the price three times already.
We rarely go out for Sunday drives any more, trying to do our share by not burning fuel unnecessarily, but it was fun to go exploring for a change of pace…
What a lovely post! And an enchanting chicken!
🙂
Thanks, Val. She was a charming hen – it warms my heart to know that it’s possible to keep chickens humanely, and that it’s better for our health, too. The horrors found at factory chicken farms are so unspeakable.
He thanks for taking us on the drive/journey with you! Very interesting… I have just begun to see “our” hawk around too. Not close enough to photograph!
Glad you enjoyed our meanderings, Jeff! I was amazed the hawk came so close to us, and that he kept making those huge circles in the sky and coming back again. Perhaps he was trying to impress us with his remarkable wingspan! 🙂
Barbara, I really enjoyed reading this post. I too saw a hawk yesterday, or should I say a Marsh Harrier. I visit a RSPB nature reserve close to where we live. The notice board said that a sighting had been made during the week. Just before heading for home I spotted him flying close to the ground before finally resting on a perch. We always talk about keeping chickens or bantams. My granddad kept them when I was a child. I have a friend who keeps chickens and we take as many as we can (eggs). We only eat free range or organic, so your post was well read and received. I really enjoy reading your posts. The narrative paints a picture even before I look at your photos. Still have the hairs standing from your last post!
Aren’t nature reserves wonderful? I had to go find a picture of a Marsh Harrier and I see they are in the same family as hawks. Did you get a picture? Have you painted one before?
My mother used to keep chickens before she died, and we accepted all the eggs we were offered. 🙂 I was so excited to discover this little family chicken farm in our town – a retired doctor started it up. Happily, there’s a huge demand for free-range organic eggs and we have to get there early if we don’t want to miss out. He often sells out before noon.
Thank you Keith, for your kind words about my writing. If only I had more time and fewer responsibilities I’d be writing a lot more…
Wow, you got so close to that hawk, how amazing! Eggs from happy chickens taste so much better. There’s a small farm down the road where we get ours. No one takes the cash, they just trust everyone to pay and take the right change. Feels great buying things there.
You’re so right about the taste of eggs from happy chickens, Cait! I forgot to mention that part of it! Our farmer uses the honor system, too, for paying when he isn’t there. It’s as if returning to a natural, uncommercialized way of doing things goes hand in hand with a return to honesty and goodwill. It does feel great!
I’d love to be able to take a picture of a bird of prey that close up! Lucky you. We have peregrine falcons in the area, and I heard them circling all summer, but one never landed close by. I’m pretty sure that in late spring I saw a bald eagle flying many thousands of feet up in the sky – I certainly don’t have the lens for that shot!
It must require a lot of patience (and the right camera equipment) for nature photographers to get the shots they do. Wondering if you’ve seen the movie “Winged Migration”? They must have attached a camera to a bird because in the film it was if we were flying along beside all sorts of migratory birds. Incredible documentary, available at Netflix.