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Ah, the simple life... My grandfather would take me along and we'd go to the neighbour to fetch eggs. He had a plastic bucket that he put them in with some old
by kebman 5y ago
Ah, the simple life...
My grandfather would take me along and we'd go to the neighbour to fetch eggs. He had a plastic bucket that he put them in with some old newspapers scraps in the bottom. I heard that before the war they didn't even need money. He'd simply bring a bucket of milk, and he'd get a bucket of eggs in return. But it was of course a lot simpler to bring money. It was far cheaper than in the store too.
My grandfather knew what all the birds were singing. Every bit, plus their behaviour. He'd especially heed the magpie, because it's a smarter bird. If it warbled this way, it meant that the weather would stay warm. If they warbled in another way, it meant that it might become rainy. He said that the birds knew, because their lives depended on it.
Another more commonly known sign is dependent on where the magpie makes its nest. If it it's high in the tree, then it will most likely be a warm and sunny summer. But if it is tucked way down in the tree, the summer will be cold and wet. It makes sense. There's more protection from the elements further under the leaves, but it's also colder there. If I were a magpie, I'd want to make a warm and nice nest for the summer, but all that could be ruined if I didn't heed the weather.
One day, the grouse was seen perching atop the family house. When I told this to my grandmother, she went silent at first, and then she told me that it means someone will die in the family. This was of course terrifying news to me. But it also turned out to become true, because my grandfather also died that year. May he rest in peace.
- randompwd 5y ago> One day, the grouse was seen perching atop the family house. When I told this to my grandmother, she went silent at first, and then she told me that it means someone will die in the family. This was of course terrifying news to me. But it also turned out to become true, because my grandfather also died that year. Do you actually believe the grouse perching on house was foreshadowing??
- x3iv130f 5y agoCould be a gentle way for an elder to let their grandchild know that they are passing soon. Does the Grouse know? Probably not. The grandmother would though.
- bluepizza 5y agoThat's a very nice way of seeing things. Thanks for that.
- zikzak 5y agoWe had similar sayings around the number of crows you'd see together. As I got older, I realized if you spend enough time outside you'll see any combination of crows you might need to fit the rhyme and have a little talk. One for sorrow, Two for joy, Three for a girl, Four for a boy, Five for silver, Six for gold, Seven for a secret never to be told. We would say "Crow" instead of "for". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_for_Sorrow_%28nursery_rhyme%29?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_for_Sorrow_%28nursery_rhym...
- samvher 5y agoHuh - I know these numbers from a Counting Crows song (“A Murder of One”, one of my favorites). Never knew this came from cultural heritage.
- pbhjpbhj 5y agoIn rural England I've heard of that for magpies (which are corvids I think), but never crows themselves. Someone I know from Scotland sings a song with the same sort of pattern but about crows proper (like 'Ten green bottles' but for crows - "the last craw wasna' there at a'").
- wrboyce 5y agoInteresting, in the UK I know this for magpies but I also know some additional lines which are absent from the Wiki page… One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told, eight for a wish, nine for a kiss, ten for a bird you must not miss. EDIT: It seems the 8/9/10 lines are from Magpie, a British children’s TV show: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magpie_(TV_series)#Theme_song https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magpie_(TV_series)#Theme_son...
- kebman 5y agoDoes it matter? This is an old belief told from one generation to another. And in the instance of my family, it certainly turned out to be true. Later that summer, during an especially hot and bright night (it's midnight sun where I come from because it's above the Arctic Circle) I saw that grouse on the tractor road further down the fields of the farm. It silhouetted in the midnight sun. It surprised me to see it standing in the middle of the road like that, like it was mocking me, so I got angry and chased it off the property. It went off into the property of my grandmother's sister. And later that year, also she died. But look, there's probably a reasonable explanation for it. When farmers grow old and sick, they often move away from their cabin, and in with their younger family and children further away, who take care of them. So when the house becomes derelict, wild and otherwise shy animals dare to move closer. But of course, old people would only move away from their farm if they were in a bad shape. And there's your omen and the logical explanation for it.
- graderjs 5y agoNo need to surrender your beliefs to some egghead who's not imaginative enough to see the world with wonder. Who cares about someone else's logic that is too narrow to contain the wonder of the universe. No need to pander to their inability to believe. They sit on their high horse telling other people they are crazy, then the grouse sits above them and they drop dead. Good story. The end.
- busymom0 5y agoThe ending of your comment gave me a chuckle. Thank you.
- bryanrasmussen 5y agowell, maybe so but they say a stray dog come howling around Johnny Miller's house, 'bout midnight, as much as two weeks ago; and a whippoorwill come in and lit on the banisters and sung, the very same evening; and there ain't anybody dead there yet.
- graderjs 5y ago
- LocalH 5y agoEverything is filtered through human perception and pattern-matching. Everything. There's a difference between groupthink religion (which tends to spread exponentially when unchecked) and harmless little beliefs like this. So what if someone notices a pattern where there isn't one? It's known that animals can sense certain scents that can indeed be foreshadowing of death or health decline. Isn't it even the slightest bit possible that the grouse may have smelled something that humans couldn't begin to perceive? More importantly, do you have any proof or knowledge that would actively disprove this? No, that's not a requirement in science, but it is a handy discussion aid.
- jim-jim-jim 5y agoAre you talking about European or Australian magpies?
- DoingIsLearning 5y agoGrouse only exist in the northern hemisphere so it will likely be some type of Euro-Asian magpie.
- DarknessFalls 5y agoWhat if he grips it by the husk?
- mellavora 5y agoShouldn't that be: “What do you mean, an African or European Swallow?"
- falsaberN1 5y agoI know you are referencing something, but in this case it's a very legit question, Eurasian magpies are corvidae (and remarkably clever ones at that), while the ones found in America or Australia aren't. Now if I could find who decided to name them the same...
- xvedejas 5y agoAmerican magpies are indeed corvidae, unlike the Australian ones.
- helloworld11 5y agoMonty Python became unavoidable after the above comment. Thanks.
- skzv 5y agoThat was a beautiful story. Thanks for sharing it.
- galangalalgol 5y agoBoth your story and the article seem quite controversial, and I'm not entirely sure why. For your story, I've noticed there us a certain sort of atheist that becomes offended of even a ghost story is told with too much sincerity. It reminds me of conservative Christians denouncing harry Potter for supporting witchcraft. So that might be it. But there is also the urban vs rural thing. People can't seem to accept that some people like living differently than they choose to.
- thisCtx 5y agoI grew up rural. I buy into a lot of the “bird” wisdom. Science is discovering dogs can smell disease. Our modern world isn’t more complex, just more distracting with asinine theory chasing. It’s always been ridiculously complex in ways we can’t imagine, we’ve just started realizing it in detail. Turns out animals with their “lesser” cognitive powers are tuned into the hidden complexity in ways we barely understand. Yet we deem ourselves the more advanced species. Humans will surely kill themselves off and the specifically evolved for their ecosystem “dumb” animals will remain.
- pjbk 5y agoThat's trial and error knowledge gathered through billions of years and quintillions of individuals from multitude species. Hard to compete with that.
- zadler 5y agoStill, it’s hard to justify a grouse signaling a coming death by sitting on top of a house. That is magic to us at this point and such a tale would usually be met with skepticism. The things about the weather I don’t have much of a problem with.
- erikpukinskis 5y agoSeems perfectly possible to me a bird could sense the difference between a vibrant, active person and a person close to death.
- generalizations 5y agoI agree it seems possible, but the motivation for acting that way seems missing.
- thisCtx 5y agoSame motive you have when smelling something rotten; embedded biological response.
- mrits 5y agoIt seems like the bird would want to position itself based on the current day's weather and not the average of the next 3 months.
- goda90 5y agoThey can't exactly move their nest after they lay their eggs. You gotta choose what will survive the worst case.
- BurningFrog 5y agoItself, yes. Its nest, no.
- joejerryronnie 5y agoThe bird is going off of the 50-day moving average
- danielrangel 5y agoBeautiful family memory thanks for sharing
- mcbishop 5y agoThanks for sharing. I love a book called 'What the Robin Knows'. It's about the knowledge of birds, and the insight they give other animals.
- axaxs 5y agoThanks for the rec, just ordered it!
- tailspin2019 5y agoThis highly enjoyable comment reminds me of the pleasure of reading Walden (by Henry David Thoreau)
- BearOso 5y agoExcept Walden was either satire or hypocrisy. Thoreau was rich through inheritance. Emerson lent him the cabin and land. It was only a 20-minute walk from his mother’s house, where he went for dinner every night.
- tailspin2019 5y agoNone of that has any bearing on my enjoyment of the book.
- tonyedgecombe 5y agoHow dare he live so close to home, what a fraud.
- michaelmrose 5y agoHow many people died in that town in your lifetime where no bird perched on a roof. How many birds perched on roofs that nobody noticed where nobody died.
- axaxs 5y agoNice story, thanks for sharing. A shame this isn't written down someplace. I'm still learning and trying to teach my daughter, myself.