In which William talks to the animals … and finds something from the Easter Bunny

William’s a London child.  His commute to nursery passes railway tracks and city streets, as well as a walk through a rather nice park. The animals my grandson sees on his daily round are dogs-on-leads, cats and urban foxes.

We wanted Yorkshire to offer him something different.  On his very first afternoon, we visited two-day-old lambs in the field at the end of the road, wobbly on their legs and clinging to their mothers.  Later we’d visit older lambs, confidently running and jumping across a public footpath as William wandered among them.

Newborn twin lambs with mum.

 

Confident lambs, confident William.

Then it was off to the duck pond.  Two Mrs. Moorhens had a chick each, so light that even pond weed could bear their weight: were they walking on water?  Mrs. Mallard had eight balls of fluff scuttling from land to pond to rushes – constantly on the move.

A moorhen chick walks on water.
A mother mallard and her eight babies.  Except the eighth is off-camera.

The next morning, good friends Gill and David invited us over.  There were puppies to pet, dogs and a cat to stroke.  And then there was Reggie, their grandson’s very own Thelwell pony.  Reggie turned out to be far too scary to ride, but perfectly good to take for a walk.

Gill, William and Sarah take Reggie walkabout.

Then William was put to work, collecting eggs.  He didn’t break very many as he dropped them none too gently into his collecting basket.  Afterwards he fed the hens.  And we went home for scrambled eggs on toast.  Thank you William.  Thank you Gill, David and the hens.

William’s collecting eggs….
…. and feeding the hens.
William’s personally-gathered eggs for a scrambled egg lunch.  Mmm….

Late one afternoon, William and I went for a walk in the woods and saw rabbits, a dozen or more, grazing the grass on the other side of the fence.

I wonder if it was one of them who left the chocolate eggs that William found in the garden when he went hunting for them on Easter Sunday?

Hunting for the Easter Bunny’s eggs.

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

29 thoughts on “In which William talks to the animals … and finds something from the Easter Bunny”

  4. 😊 You cannot start them too early. I’ve heard that evidence suggests we don’t have clear recollections of specific events/experiences at William’s age, but nevertheless these special, exceptional days are all taken in and add to his evolving understanding of the world. What a treat, lambs and goslings, and all tiny versions like himself.

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  7. It was a really wonderful weekend. Thank you. William keeps talking about “a pony called Reggie” and “chocolate eggs”.

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    1. I’d have put money on Reggie being his least memorable animal. How wrong can you be? However, no surprise that ‘chocolate eggs’ get top billing. Thanks so much for coming, and especially for bringing William.

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  10. Lovely!!! So glad William enjoyed his time in the country. You could write a book Margaret, your blogs are so interesting and entertaining.
    We’re still enjoying Spain, in fact it’s Javea at the moment. Have posted some pics on Facebook.
    Home next week x

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    1. Oh, thanks Joyce. I’m not your friend on FB, so I’ll look for you and ask you nicely if I can be. You stay right where you are though. It’s sooooo cold here xx

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  11. It looks like you had a really good weekend! William looks so confident in your photos; I’m glad he was able to take Reggie for a walk. My mother and I introduced my elder daughter to a donkey when she was about William’s age. The donkey obliged us and brayed which so shocked Alice we had to run away before Alice’s noise frightened the donkey!

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