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ORDINARY MIRACLES
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:03:40+00:00November 27th, 2024|
ORDINARY MIRACLES Why is it so easy to find ourselves in anxiety, overwhelm, resentment, disappointment, when there is so much to be thankful for and truly enjoy? Even living with ‘My Dad’s Swallows’ has become [...]
BADGERS AND BABOONS (AND A JOT OF JULIE JUJU)
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:03:46+00:00May 30th, 2024|
BADGERS ‘The meek shall inherit the Earth’. Er…I’m not sure this is true. It is the honey badger who shall inherit the Earth. Whoever thought to call this ferocious creature something so sweet as ‘honey’ [...]
ANDY & FLO
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:03:49+00:00May 24th, 2024|
On the morning of 3 May 2024, I walked into the Poppy House and collided with a swallow. During the six months we have encountered each other in the doorway, Andy and Flo have always [...]
WITCHY FACE
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:03:55+00:00April 12th, 2024|
WITCHY FACE & THE BIG OL’ DUMMY ‘M’, the head of missions, lasted four months at Glee before leaving for the faster pace and promise of fortunes in the big smoke. I have been my [...]
DAD’S SWALLOWS
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:04:01+00:00March 16th, 2024|
There is a Native American custom where the tribe surrounds a grieving person because they believe they are closest to the creator as a living person can get at this sacred time. When I kissed [...]
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ALL THE BLOG ENTRIES
ORDINARY MIRACLES
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:03:40+00:00November 27th, 2024|
ORDINARY MIRACLES Why is it so easy to find ourselves in anxiety, overwhelm, resentment, disappointment, when there is so much to be thankful for and truly enjoy? Even living with ‘My Dad’s Swallows’ has become [...]
BADGERS AND BABOONS (AND A JOT OF JULIE JUJU)
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:03:46+00:00May 30th, 2024|
BADGERS ‘The meek shall inherit the Earth’. Er…I’m not sure this is true. It is the honey badger who shall inherit the Earth. Whoever thought to call this ferocious creature something so sweet as ‘honey’ [...]
ANDY & FLO
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:03:49+00:00May 24th, 2024|
On the morning of 3 May 2024, I walked into the Poppy House and collided with a swallow. During the six months we have encountered each other in the doorway, Andy and Flo have always [...]
WITCHY FACE
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:03:55+00:00April 12th, 2024|
WITCHY FACE & THE BIG OL’ DUMMY ‘M’, the head of missions, lasted four months at Glee before leaving for the faster pace and promise of fortunes in the big smoke. I have been my [...]
DAD’S SWALLOWS
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:04:01+00:00March 16th, 2024|
There is a Native American custom where the tribe surrounds a grieving person because they believe they are closest to the creator as a living person can get at this sacred time. When I kissed [...]
HEAD OF MISSIONS AND THE 3 SECOND HAIR CUT.
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:04:05+00:00June 10th, 2021|
HEAD OF MISSIONS AND THE 3 SECOND HAIR CUT. Head of Missions. Aka Ian Flemming’s James Bond. M is back! We are all ecstatic, especially Faye. What a reunion, what utter joy to have our [...]
PRAYERS
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:04:09+00:00June 10th, 2021|
PRAYERS At the time of writing, ‘Prayers’, we are eight months into lockdown. Eight months on my own with my thoughts. There is such terribly sad news coming in. A friend and mentor put it [...]
LURKER
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:04:14+00:00June 10th, 2021|
I have a lurker. I’ve been so hung up on snakes. It was only a matter of time, as soon as I let the thought go, a snake would appear. Isn’t it always that way? [...]
SPRING IS SPRUNG
By Julie Hartley|2021-01-07T19:14:00+00:00January 7th, 2021|
SPRING IS SPRUNG In August, Zac goes off his food. I know these dogs so well. Well, we have been together 24/7 since I arrived at Glee in March after all. I suspect he has [...]
HOLLOW
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:04:19+00:00December 17th, 2020|
HOLLOW I usually average around two to three songs a month. The muse has left me, now my average is one. If am lucky. God has left this godforsaken town: ”He packed his [...]
DITCH THE FEAR
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:04:23+00:00December 17th, 2020|
DITCH THE FEAR Both Finn and I seem to take an age to get over our illness. I was chatting to a friend and she told me to, “Ditch the Tick.” It’s not so easy. [...]
NIGHT OF THE GUNS
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:04:29+00:00December 17th, 2020|
NIGHT OF THE GUNS “Boom!” A loud gunshot wakes me up at about 9 o clock in the evening. I go to bed very early, as the horses tend to tap dance on the stoep [...]
QUEEN OF THE MAY
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:04:33+00:00December 17th, 2020|
QUEEN OF THE MAY May starts on a high with my 49th birthday. Angel organises a birthday ride for me at the neighbours and Mrs Angel cooks a roast leg of lamb in my honour [...]
THE BEST DAY
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:04:38+00:00November 20th, 2020|
THE BEST DAY Most of April is spent worrying about Queen and Finn. Queenie is impossibly thin. If I am to believe her dentist, she must be about 30 years old. Her start to life [...]
ANGEL IN A BLUE DRESS
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:04:44+00:00November 5th, 2020|
ANGEL IN A BLUE DRESS Everyone has their own little quirk, but I am taking mine a little far. I am not talking about me being a compulsive namer of things, that one I can [...]
ZAC’S WINDOW
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:04:47+00:00November 4th, 2020|
ZAC’S WINDOW Moving to Glee is a little like the end of a romantic comedy. The lovers have re-united and they live happily ever after! I am in the honeymoon phase and as with any [...]
CHALLENGES AT GLEE
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:04:52+00:00October 25th, 2020|
CHALLENGES AT GLEE My builder, Crazy S, did a beautiful job of renovating my cottage. I call her Swanky, ‘cause she is faaaar swankier than she used to be. Swanky Before [...]
A FARM CALLED GLEE
By Julie Hartley|2025-06-16T13:05:00+00:00October 18th, 2020|
A FARM CALLED GLEE I have been taking isolation verrrrry seriously! On 3 March 2020, my horses were on the road and so was I… with a bakkie load of chickens! Finally, I was [...]


















