Animals – Cynthia Reyes

A Good Home, An Honest House, Animals, Canadian life, Family Moments, Home, Pets

Not Yet, Not Yet

August 11, 2016August 12, 2016 Cynthia Reyes

Blog Photo - Julius and Dawson Sleeping

The mind knows it’s full time

But the heart beats to a different rhythm

It’s time, the mind says, knowing

Not yet, the heart says, hoping

He’s shaky and blind, says the mind

But such strong spirit, says the heart

Blog Photo - Dawson runs

His hind legs are weak, says the mind

But watch him gallop, says the heart

His mind’s diminished, says the mind

But he has such heart, says the heart.

Blog Photo - Mister D — Photo by Hamlin Grange

The two of them, the mind and heart

Together in the vet’s office

In sad reconciliation.

The fight over.

A life over.

Goodbye.

Goodbye dear friend.

Fare thee well, loved one.

Thanks for being our faithful companion.

Dawson listened quietly as my daughter, then my husband, thanked him for being in our family, and bade him a loving farewell. Then I read to him: from An Honest House, the chapter I had lovingly written about him.

Would you believe it? He lay perfectly still on my lap the whole time I read, attentive, as if taking in every word. I shall miss him.

A Good Home, Animals, Birds, Country Living, Ducks, Gardens, Gardens and Wildlife, Garlic

Wonders Never Cease

September 13, 2014September 16, 2015 Cynthia Reyes

Every so often, I wish I had a well-behaved garden.

The kind where everything does what I want, when I want.

Where flowers don’t stray into lawns and lawns don’t stray into flowerbeds, and the strong wind didn’t break one of the arches on the arbour my dear husband so carefully built.

But this I know:

Real gardens offer up surprises each week, each day and sometimes, each hour.

Like flowers blooming in unexpected colours.

And interesting visitors.

Like this large bird in the apple tree.

And wild rabbits.

Cleaning themselves without a care in the world.

Like this mother duck, with her ducklings.

She must have squeezed herself under the fence.

This ant, dragging a dead moth many times its size. It took the moth way across the verandah.

This beet, expected to be dark red, is somehow orange.

A single squash. It’s from a vine that strayed from our neighbours’ squash plantation.

“It’s yours”, he says. The thing will grow to almost half my height. No kidding.

These onions, because they delight and surprise me each late summer.

And the garlic, just because the sight of them when newly harvested always surprises me.

The sight of our daughter’s little doggie, coming around the corner at full speed. Well, sort of.

And this shadow “selfie”, which I didn’t know was there till I downloaded it and nearly jumped in surprise.

Gardens: places of surprise and discovery.

Dedicated to all gardeners, everywhere.

A Good Home, Animals, Art, Artist, Country Living, Farm house, Garden, Gardening, Gardens and Wildlife, Home, Life in canada, Nature Paintings, Rabbits, Spring, Wild Rabbits, Wildlife, Winter

It’s A Wild Life

June 19, 2014June 20, 2014 Cynthia Reyes

It is a truth universally suspected that a family in possession of a wildlife painting must be in need of some wildlife.

Years ago, my husband’s family had a farm and he and I became custodians of it. The farm was on a hilltop so we cleverly named it Hill Top.

Husband, children and I summered and weekend-ed there. I loved that farm and wanted a name sign for our front gate. So my husband commissioned a local artist to make one for my birthday. Author-illustrator Beatrix Potter – she of Peter Rabbit fame and a farmhouse named Hill Top — came to mind.

The moment that sign went up, Peter Rabbit, his parents and all their friends took up residence in our gardens.

They ate us out of home and land. As soon as we planted vegetables, herbs and flowers, they ate them. There was soya and wheat growing in the fields. But why travel so far, when there’s good stuff nearby?

My husband couldn’t bring himself to hurt them — not with that sign out front. So there we were, hoist on our own petard.

When our family moved to another home, there were no rabbits — we thought.

And then two auspicious things happened:

We visited the old farmhouse. Our daughter noticed that the new owners had removed the Hill Top sign and begged them to give it back. They graciously agreed.

Soon after, our resident red fox – a predator of rabbits — upped and died. It might have been the sight of the sign that did it. But there was his carcass, lying across our stream.

It took gallons of expensive fox urine to protect our gardens that year. (If you want to learn more about that inauspicious episode, you’ll have to read my next book.)

And now?

Years after moving to our current farmhouse, we’re besieged by wild rabbits — again. Squirrels too, but they don’t eat shrubs, herbs, flowers and vegetables.

Last winter, the rabbits were so starved for food that they ate all my clematis vines, plus the barks of several tender young trees and shrubs.

My husband did a very manly thing: he shouted at them. The rabbits ran — and immediately returned.

We decided to sympathize. Wild rabbits, too, have to eat.

But soon it was spring — time to plant vegetables.

Husband decided the rabbits should be moved to a nearby nature park. He set a humane trap filled with things that Beatrix Potter said wild rabbits love: carrots and lettuce and cabbages. But we might as well have posted a sign saying: “This is a rabbit trap.”

Truth is, these particular rabbits mostly eat grass and clover so far this spring.

Truth is, our daughter has named them Fred and Penelope. (At least, she thinks there are only two. But where there are two, there are — or soon will be — a dozen.)

And truth is, my husband has put the sign up again.

Methinks it’s a sign of surrender.

Photos by Hamlin Grange.

A Good Home, Animals, Barns, Canadians, Country Living, Couples, Dogs, Life in canada

At Home with Valerie Rowley Pt. 1

April 28, 2014June 24, 2015 Cynthia Reyes

My mother always raised chickens. And when my husband and I got a place smack-dab in the country, some years ago, I wanted to raise chickens.

“Too much flippin’ work,” he said. “Never mind the fact that chickens attract weasels, foxes, you name it. No chickens!”

I got the drift: No chickens!

So imagine my delight in discovering, years later, that someone I know raises chickens. And – what’s more – invited me to come visit with her and them!

That someone is designer Valerie Rowley. She has 5 varieties of chickens.

“Silver Laced Wyandottes (small, bossy little hens); Buff Orpingtons – large, golden, affable hens – the archetypal Easter chick in fact. We also have Black Australorps – the Angelina Jolie of chickens with lustrous black feathers and large round eyes. “

“Then we have the big Light Brahmas. Grey and black with lovely feathery feet, they always make me smile. They are extremely vocal with a wide chicken vocabulary of sounds and a clumsy, waddling gait .”

“And then we have the Ameraucaunas. They lay the blue and green-shelled eggs – a throw back to a jungle fowl years ago. Sweet birds but tend to get picked on and rarely fight back.”

Happy memories from my childhood came flooding back at the sight of all these chickens roaming around the barn and the yard outside.

But raising chickens does have its challenges. Just the other day, Val was busy sewing a “chicken saddle” to protect the back feathers of Cleopatra, a hen who had attracted the amorous advances of Mr. T., the rooster.

Mr. T., Val says, “is still currently denuding more than a few of his favourite hens of their neck and back feathers in the throes of his passion”.

Well … er … ahem….

After saying hello to Mr. T and the flock, I then met the dogs. Val and her husband Chris raise and train Belgian Shepherd Dogs – the Tervueren variety.

“There are four varieties of Belgian Shepherd, but I like the Tervueren because it is not only extremely smart, athletic and loving but also very beautiful. And aesthetics mean a lot to me of course! They are also a healthy breed – not so popular, therefore not badly bred.”

Val says the Tervueren is not a dog for everyone. “They can be strong-willed and when young, often in constant motion.”

“You have to like exercise to own one of these dogs! But when they work well they look amazing. Neither Chris nor I would have anything else now.”

Thank you, Val, for a really lovely visit.

Next: Part 2. Val’s favourite spaces in her house and garden.