When is the last time you have looked through binoculars? Can you still remember? I know I couldn’t. I must have been in my teens. Nathan’s grandfather passed away a little over a year ago and one of the things Nathan was given of his grandfather were his old binoculars. You will find them on the windowsill of our home office which overlooks the field across our house. Binoculars were a forgotten object to me until recently.
It was dusk. I was sitting on the desk across that windowsill and out of nowhere decided to play around with the binoculars. I was astonished by how clear and how far I could see everything! As I was scanning the field I suddenly saw a red object moving. I realized it was a fox. My first reaction was: O how cool! A fox! We don’t see those around here often. But then I realized something… the fox was heading towards the field where all the sheep with the newborn lambs were. Horror filled me and I tried to explain to Nathan what was happening while I was already heading towards the front door. No time for a coat, no time for shoes, off I ran with my slippers on. Once in the field I could see the fox crouching and slowly heading towards the lambs. It heard me and ran towards some bushes. I started to circle around the bushes while trying to avoid the sheep poo. Maybe I should have worn wellies. I was trying to make some weird noises in order to scare it away, but the fox was nowhere to be seen. Then some sheep started to follow me. I was trying to shoo them away by saying that I didn’t have food for them and that there was a flippin fox hiding in the bushes. They stopped following me. I don’t know whether they understood me or were just too lazy to walk too far.
Back I went to the house to fetch the binoculars I left with Nathan and put on a coat. Somehow I still didn’t change into some shoes. Call it rebellious or foolish? When I came back out I noticed something strange. The fox was back, which wasn’t really a surprise. The fox was slowly maneouvre-ing it’s way through the field, but the sheep and lambs were not reacting at all. The lambs kept playing and the sheep stayed right where they were. The fox noticed me again and slowly headed to the bushes at the back of the field. Out of sight. I let out a big breath. Why did the sheep not react? Were they frozen by complete fear? Or were they familiar with the fox? I wondered all these things while continuously scanning my way through the field. After a couple of minutes I felt a bit more at ease. It seemed like the fox had really gone, for now.
I started to observe the lambs and their mothers with the binoculars. Sometimes I didn’t really understand why they weren’t moving away from me, but then I realized again that I was of course quite a while away from them! As I was standing there I noticed the little lamb sleeping next to its mother with a smile on it’s face. Until it was rudely awoken by a mother bleating her way past them. The mother stopped next to a lamb, smelled it and realized it was her little one. She scratched the ground a bit with her front two legs and plopped herself down next to it. A little later I observed a group of lambs playing around and jumping off a rock in the middle of the field. I smiled. I felt as if the binoculars gave me a superpower. I now had the ability to steal little moments I wouldn’t have been able to see with my bare eyes. I wasn’t able to capture those little moments on camera, but I sure did in my mind. When it got darker I decided it was time to head back inside. I took one more peek at the lambs and prayed that they would be kept safe.
Much love,
Jenna
I really enjoyed reading this!