Feathers dropping to the floor of a coop. Gentle wing flapping and cooing. A brush of a tickly wing against her nose. Maisie’s first memory involved helping her parents feed the show pigeons on a cold autumn evening around sunset. The aviary always felt like home, but here, sitting in the wheelbarrow amongst the fresh, earthy-scented hay and buckets of feed, it felt like heaven. They weren’t much to look at to many, but the pigeons’ deep grey down, which her parents remarked seemed to be growing in thicker for the winter, shimmered blue, green, and violet ever-so-slightly in the fading light of the orange-red sun. The freshly-fallen snow glimmered outside the barn as the tall aspens and maples’ sparse trunks cast long shadows along the white landscape, but it was nice and warm in the barn. She, ever-so-carefully, crept out of the wheelbarrow to get a closer look at the coop. Her mother picked up one of the brooding pigeons to find a little chick. “Oh no. Looks like his little leg is all bent. Maybe we should bring him in for the night ‘till the vet can get here in the morning. Maybe she can splint his leg for him. The whole flock probably needs to get looked over anyways.”
Maisie got the pleasure of cradling her little ball of fluff and feathers on her wheelbarrow ride back to the house, holding it close to her chest as it cheeped gently. She was too small to hop through this much snow so the wheelbarrow was a necessity. All she could think of was her new little baby. She liked her little pigeon and the fact that she got to help her mom take care of the little baby.
She really couldn’t sleep that night. She found herself just peeking into the box throughout the night, looking into it with its little heat lamp where the little pigeon hatchling lay, gently cheeping from time to time but mostly just resting with its eyes gently shut. When her parents found her in the morning, she was curled up next to the box with the baby pigeon. It was her pigeon now.
It only took half an hour for the vet to bandage and splint the little pigeon’s leg and give the family some medications. Maisie proudly vowed to help her mom and dad with the little one’s care. She had loved helping with the animals, but never really felt like any one of them was truly hers. But her little pigeon was finally hers and hers alone.
She spent her days talking to him, as youngsters tend to do with animals. She liked imagining that her own markings were pigeon markings too. That the grey was grey down like the flock’s soft feathers, that her blue was the little reflective shine of a pigeon’s neck feathers. She liked imagining that she, too, had wings and could fly, soaring with the flock. Her shine reminded her of pigeon feathers so much, with its gentle reflection whenever it caught the sun.
As she grew, one constant remained. Her little bird. Her pigeon, Ottawa, was her constant companion. As she grew, went to school, aged, he was always there. She showed him at their province’s pigeon show and placed pretty high too. When she got older, he was the father to his own little nest of fledglings, which she loved just as much as their sweet, friendly parents. But none of that mattered. She loved her little friend. She saw herself in that little bird. Stubborn, determined, gentle, humble, unassuming, yes, but in an endearing sort of way. A good soul in a beautiful package.
Extras:
playlist— couldn’t decide whether she was more spring or autumn but she definitely has soft country vibes to me :0
Favorite Snack: strawberries, especially with cream and croissants
Favorite Drink: she really likes peach milk
Likes:
Being outdoors
Warm days with partly cloudy sunsets
Wildflowers
Golden hour
Picnics
Shakespeare plays
Painting
Dislikes:
Scary movies
Cloudy days
The desert
Brussels sprouts
Onions
Spiders and snakes
Hobbies: wildlife photography, painting, doodling, sewing dresses, baking, costume making, weaving tapestries
Occupation: farmer of strawberries, peaches, flowers and grapes & wildlife rehabber
Moodboard:
Credit: Moodboard 1:
https://wildflowersandpomegranates.tumb ... oodboard-1Moodboard 2:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/golden-ho ... 634837787/Moodboard 3:
https://www.reddit.com/r/cottagecore/co ... y_cottage/
