Green
Is the prevailing colour in spring and early summer : lush green leaves on all the trees, the poplar, Steve planted eight years ago, swaying in the wind and now as tall as the house, the wild poplars taken as young plants from the bed of the Crieu¹¹Le Crieu, a natural stream made up of eight contributories and used by the Romans for irrigation purposes, valves and bridges still existing. It gave its name to the village La Tour du Crieu during the Great War. spreading out, becoming voluminous and stroppy they are toughies used to ungrateful conditions ; lush green carpets all aver the land, long pile, medium pile, short pile depending on the closeness of the cut, the eye loves to take it in.

Bird life
On our arrival in September in glorious weather which lasted to the end of October I was struck by the bird life, birds to be heard on all sides, birds flitting through hedges and trees, birds in the sky, a swallow nest above the front door. I posted myself with the binoculars by the windows in the house, trying to identify them: the whole tit family, especially the long- tailed variety, tree-creepers, finches, redstarts, blackcaps and others I didn’t know, thrushes, blackbirds and the unpleasant magpies, were flying through the trees or sitting on top of the concrete pillar which supports the power-line, uttering their specific cries which could also be heard at night : owls. Steve reported a large bird in the grass near the washing line, hunting rodents or birds and not used to meeting people in this garden.

There were also kestrels hovering over the meadow, at times diving down or taking up a position on the roof of the house or in the nearby trees. On the morning of Mme El’s death, a beautiful day, I was sitting at my desk and saw a pair of them settling in full view on the tallest pine-tree out there, handsome birds, it was comforting. And not to forget the golden oriole, ‘le Loriot’ Mme El’s favourite colour, yellow. How bright against the blue sky, when you do see one! They make their usually invisible presence known by their magical flute-like song.

Nightingale
The following year, in the spring, the dawn chorus was coming right into my window. There was a distinctive bird not heard before, no doubt sitting in the box hedge outside my room. I was in fact woken up during the night by a strong, if not noisy birdsong and I realized what it must be: a nightingale, of course, and I read up what the poet Keats¹²Keats John (1795-1821), born in London, was one of the finest English poets of the Romantic period. He was famous, among others, for the Ode to a Nightingale. His prominence grew in the years following his untimely death, in Rome, at the age of twenty five. has to say on this subject. I drew Steve’s attention to the bird, we heard it all morning and often later on and came to know its tunes. One day I saw from my window two slender brown birds busying themselves on the ground by the hedge, what were they?  Nightingales, for when they flew off, they showed their characteristic reddish-brown tail by which we recognized them later when they were flying among the trees completely inconspicuous.
I told my friends in the gloomy north about it, and not only nightingales, but hoopoes, too, flying close to the house, foraging in the grass under the balcony, later the whole family, four or five of them, invading the vegetable patch and sticking in their long beaks in search of eatables.
The nightingale is singing in the night while the wallflowers are sending their sweet, spicy perfume into my room; the night is bright with stars and a nearly full moon; the two pine-trees outside my window have like a halo round their tops, a diffuse light around them which the other trees don’t have, sacred trees? Perhaps caused by the bright green and glossy new shoots up there, some interaction with light. In the morning, all-grey monotony rain about and the nightingale relieve by the equally indefatigable black cap.

Doves
There plenty of them , nine months out of ten cooing their heads off almost nonstop. Can they imitate the call of a cuckoo? I hear one in January and Frida’s son told me he did, too, but Steve says he only ever hear doves. One of them in particular cooing at a distance and with great insistence ‘rolling’ the tones in the throat, wanting to really drive something home? They are lovey-dovey, models of peace and pleasure, yet, our predecessor assured me, capable of fighting like anyone else in the world.
Their nests are as threatened by magpies as any, but doves being of a certain size, they put up a fight and manage to hold their own against the nasty predator. I saw a dove chasing one away and helped by clapping, it worked. Doves don’t fly away when I clap my hands, they know who is meant and look on, welcoming my action, I daresay. I’ve also seen that when I stirred up magpies,  doves came forward, joining forces with me.

Poem
Ich will ein Garten sein : I want to be a garden – Rainer Maria Rilke

I want to be a garden
I want to be a garden by whose fountain
The many dreams brought forth new flowers
Some isolated and in thought
And others in silent conversation.
And where they walk, above their heads
I will with words be rustling like tree-summits
And where they rest I will listen into the sleep of
The benumbed with my silence.
From : Early Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke

Ich will ein Garten sein
Ich will ein Garten sein, and dessen Bronnen
Die vielen Träume neue Blumen brächen,
Die einen abgesondert und versonnen,
Und die geeint in schweigsamen Gesprächen
Und wo sie schreiten, über ihren Häupten
Will ich mit Worten wie mit Wipfeln rauschen,
Und wo si ruhen, will ich den Betäubten
Mit meinem Schweigen in den Schlummer lauschen.
Aus : Frühe Gedichte von Rainer Maria Rilke¹³Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) was an Austrian writer born in Prague during the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Unfit for military service as wanted by his family, he devoted himself to literature and is mainly known for his poetry.

äupten
Will ich mit Worten wie mit Wipfeln rauschen,
Und wo sie ruhen, will ich den BetÄubten
Mit meinum Schweigen in den Schlummer laluschen.

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  Le Crieu, a natural stream made up of eight contributories and used by the Romans for irrigation purposes, valves and bridges still existing. It gave its name to the village La Tour du Crieu during the Great War.
• 12
  Keats John (1795-1821), born in London, was one of the finest English poets of the Romantic period. He was famous, among others, for the Ode to a Nightingale. His prominence grew in the years following his untimely death, in Rome, at the age of twenty five.
• 13
  Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) was an Austrian writer born in Prague during the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Unfit for military service as wanted by his family, he devoted himself to literature and is mainly known for his poetry.