Gone – my word of the week

When barn owls fledge, they make short, practise flights at first. Eventually the flights are longer, but they return to their roost and are still fed by their parents for a handful more weeks. The mother owl flies in, mouse in beak, unsure if she’ll find any recipients for her offering. Then they are gone, leaving the nest far behind. Off on their own adventures.

Mama bird, I see you.

We are most definitely in the depths of the fledgling stage. One child returned, while another one flew further afield, this week. I may never find the bottom of my washing basket before spring, at this rate. The hound is feeling it all. He had a really off day, when he ate nothing, including his favourite treats. He’s OK now. Accepting the new status quo, with one or other of the family gone. It won’t stop him checking the car every time it rolls up our drive. Just in case someone is sneaking back home again.

Hey hound dog, I see you too.

Skiing

Youngest returned from his week of skiing, on Saturday. Tired, but feeling good about the week. He’d made progress. I’m grateful that he’s had this opportunity. It’s his last time going with the school and I know he’ll miss it next year. Maybe not the coach journey. It’s a long way. Thirty hours worth of sitting and watching the world go by. Actually, that sounds quite good to me.

Meal out

We don’t go out to eat often and I can’t ever remember going out for a proper Sunday roast, but we decided to go to the pub where Middle daughter works. Eldest wanted to see where she works, as who knows if she’ll still be there by the time her big sister is back in the country. She was working, but she did bring out the gravy and organize a doggy bag to take back to the hound.

The meal was enormous, but oh, so yummy. The flavours were spot on and it was soon gone. Middle had cooked part of it, so it was nice to report back that we had enjoyed it.

Gone

A few days later, Eldest left for her semester at another overseas university. The run up to her going had us… well…running around. Once she had her visa, we could go ahead with the plane ticket. That gave us a real deadline to get everything else ready. Her communications once there and daily living needed a bucket load of research. At the last moment, she decided she did want to take cash, so we bombed into town to the one place I could find where they had it in stock that day.

Talking to the cashier, we discovered that she came from there and knew exactly where Eldest was going. She was so sweet and kind, and asked which University she was going to. I have never seen someone’s jaw drop so far and beam at the same time. She kept telling me that I must be so proud. Certainly was by the end. Eldest has worked extremely hard to get there.

Next day, we drove Eldest to Heathrow and she was gone. I was so relieved to get a message from her when she landed. A lovely friend met her at the airport, helped her to find her way to her accommodation and buy some food. Each day, she messages me. She seems to be finding her way around and making friends. That really is all I can ask. Apart from reminding her that she is there to learn too.

Mystery in the hen house

Up until a couple of weeks ago, we had four hens. Two Leghorns who laid white eggs and two brown hens that lay brown eggs. I can guarantee that the egg colours are right as we split them into two henhouses over the winter.

Then one of the Leghorns died. It happens. Mysteriously, we are still getting two white eggs, plus one brown egg, which should not be possible.

Each hen only lays a maximum of one egg a day. I clear the henhouse each day of eggs and the extra white egg cannot be from the previous day. So how am I getting two white eggs? We do have six wild, female pheasants living in the garden at the moment, but their eggs are much smaller and would they have the tenacity to sneak into the hen house? The hens would be up in arms, or is that wings? To be honest, it still doesn’t make sense. A mystery, for sure.

Now all the excitement is over, you may wonder what I’m going to do with my time. I reckon a lot more crafting and a start on the kitchen garden. Well, until next time they all fly home.

I’m joining in with Anne’s word of the week linky. Seeing as my last two weeks have been Ready and Steady, it only seems right that this week should be Gone.