You know you get up early in the country when…

[Istheparsleygrowing654]

The dogs are still asleep when you leave the house

You scare pheasants roosting on fence posts and tiny birds drinking from puddles as you walk along.

Awww, my boy recently passed away and I'm missing him singing the song of his people early doors. 🩶🐓

I would give anything to see a wild Little Owl, they're my favourite owl! Roughly where are you to have such a treat? 🙏

This thread is so wholesome, it's made me so happy to read it. 😁☺️😍
The 'wtf look from a badger' 🤣 and the beautiful cobwebs fascinated horse. 🕸️ 👀 🩷

No chance. Mine recognises my car coming up the lane. Even if it's still dark he's there telling me he's starving. Birdsong, owls and dewy cobwebs for me.

This thread is making me pine for a life in the country!

🤣

I walk over. On a good day, it's mist, cobwebs, sunrises etc. On a bad day, it's thick, sucking mud, flooded footpaths and fields and driving rain.

I wish you hadn't reminded me about the thick sucking mud and the big lumps of clay clinging to his thick feathers, mane and tail. The joys of winter!

Oh I hate that thick sucking mud , I have lost jodhpur boots to it a few times while trying to catch nimble ponies .

You also know you are up early when a full moon like the last 2 nights is so bright it lights up the parks and fields.

Tenuous rural connection but when DC were small my personal metric for up too early was when Faming Today was still on R4. If it's too early for Today that is too early in my book.

those pining for country life with no mod cons.. read ' Deep country ' by Neil Ansell, brilliant book 👏

I live in the country, but hate getting up early.

Nonetheless, I suspect my neighbours agree as I am usually the first to drive down our lane and have to wait for wood pigeons to waddle out of the way

However I love being up at night. We live near the sea and I love to hear the Oyster Catchers bedding down for the night and the waves against the shore

Good morning early birds!

I am very much enjoying reading all of these 😊

Also love the sound of the sea at night!

Thanks for the book recommendationWavingfuriously it's in my Amazon basket! And the beautiful barn owl photo Thepure! We don't have them where I am and I absolutely love their white ghostly flight.

Argh, please don't remind me of the mud and rain and cold to come! I am sure that all the horse people on this thread are still traumatised by last winter's experience 😬

For now let's enjoy the Little Owls, the squirrels, the startled badgers, the intricate spiders webs and the barking deer...and trying to catch our lovely horses snoring...and the peace that comes from seemingly being the only person about!

HarrietJonesFlydaleNorth
I know exactly what you mean about the sense of others treading the same paths and opening the same gates, walking the perimeters of the same fields, years and years before... . It's hard to describe. But it definitely makes you feel part of something much larger and important than yourself. And more appreciative of what is around you.

More important than yourself (that was meant to say)

I meet the hounds out on exercise on my way to work each morning ☺️

Farming today is the best

This is the only thing I miss about where I grew up. Driving through early morning autumn field mists and disturbing pheasants/grouse etc.

I live in London now. The buses are busy from 5am. But there something nice about it walking through Soho for an early start as the bakers are delivering the bread and the coffee machines are firing up. It's just a different beauty

The dogs are still asleep when you leave the house

How do you achieve this sorcery?

They are out all day with my other half!

I used to walk through the City and Soho occasionally at that time a few lives ago to get to work. Especially when there was a bus strike in the summer.

I agree there was a certain charm to it. I was pregnant at the time and didn’t enjoy smelling all of the rubbish put outside the pubs and nightclubs on the little streets at the back of Shaftesbury Avenue.

I know what you mean though LostittoBostik!

There’s a certain anticipatory pleasure and calmness about the day as it is just starting.

@LostittoBostik I lived in the centre of Brussels over forty years ago and used to love the early mornings when shopkeepers were washing or sweeping the pavement and only the boulangeries were open. Couldn't live in a city again but there is something magical about them waking up.

@CleopatrasBeautifulNose I am exceptionally lucky and I work on a SSSI and if I go in early and walk round the reserve, it's full of treats!

I live in Norfolk, but work in London , so sometimes I leave work and as no tubes at 4am , walk along the embankment to the bus stop . It’s amazing how quiet London can be .

Leaving for work at 4am , means popping some extra hay over the door which my lazy lot eat laying down . I used to put them out then , but they mutinied and now won’t leave their stables till 8 ! Then getting in the car and crawling out of the village because the road is like glass and you’re up before the gritter . Making sure you’ve got both deer whistles on the car because every single accident I’ve had has involved a deer leaping into my car at 4am . And then getting dive bombed by the barn owls who swoop in to pick any mice off the road getting lit up by the headlights . They’re not small when they fill your windscreen up !

I love the sound of your chilled horses plominoagain. 😀

I also admire your stamina doing that commute frequently!

A barn owl swoops over the road as you drive through the mist 😊