Two Owls Watching
Today the children had lots of fun. We were in the garden, helping Gran harvest the fruit and rake the leaves. The garden is full of trees and the leaves cover the ground every autumn. They come in every colour imaginable — shades of green, brown and red — and the children were showing each other the biggest leaves with the most interesting colours they could find. They enjoyed it and laughed while chasing each other. Being in the garden is always a chance to teach the children something new about the trees, flowers and animals. Every time we go there, they come home with some new adventure, and today was no different.
While we were raking the leaves and moving earth to the places where Gran wants to grow some vegetables next year, the children spotted something special. All the work was happening around a very old nut tree. It must be a hundred years old, or even more. It’s so wide that two or even three men would be needed to put their arms around the trunk. It has really large branches, and at some point they couldn’t stand the pressure of time any longer and the tree split apart. It’s the tallest tree in the garden and a true testament to time. The children couldn’t believe that the roots underground are as big as the crown above. And while we were standing there looking and talking about this great tree, the kids suddenly started shouting, “Dad, Gran, look who’s there!” and pointing at it.
I couldn’t figure out what was going on at first. It took me a while to see what they were looking at. Sure enough, the tree was home to an owl — and not just one, but two of them, sitting in their little home deep inside where the tree had split and formed a sort of hidden space. They were watching us and observing everything with those big eyes. They knew they were high enough up and didn’t bother about us working around the tree. Kids have excellent eyes and can spot so many things from far away. We were delighted that the owls had come back to Gran’s house. She told us that seventy years ago there used to be lots of owls on the farm, but many were shot by hunters. Then they disappeared, until now. Back at home the kids eagerly read up about owls and wondered how many different kinds there are around. What another great day in the garden.
