Smaug having his breakfast
Yes, she complained about the house, but she could never leave its garden or the dozens and dozens of birds, her precious birds, that visited the table each day.* These were her preferred company, yes the chatterings of a tree full of sparrows. One special visiter was Smaug, a jackdaw Josse had raised from an orphan fledging, who could sit on her easel all day.
* In her last years, Theo and Josse built a bird table and Josse fitted it with a video camera, so she might watch them from her sickbed.
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