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Fresh from a successful quadruple bypass at Papworth Hospital, Chris Skinner returns to High Ash Farm after nine days away, still bruised from head to foot but glowing with renewed purpose. In the living room he shares extraordinary stories of the operating theatre where three members of the surgical team recognised him from the podcast and asked (unsuccessfully) to play it during the nine-and-a-half-hour procedure, and of the young farmers from the Philippines and South Sudan working in the UK to buy tractors and sunflower seed for their families back home. A gentle drive across the farm reveals hares hunkered in the overwinter seed mix, roe deer, and a young Chinese water deer, while a visit to the barn owl box — an old dog kennel Chris installed in a tree twenty years ago — shows it occupied for the fifth time, the female likely already incubating. Rat the terrier sits proudly on the day’s emails as a living paperweight, and listener warmth pours in: support for Rat’s antics, toad-spawn ribbons in Kent, bumblebees diving into daffodils, a returning rookery in a spinney, and a clever robin learning to steal from tit feeders. This reflective episode marks a new chapter for Chris and the farm, full of gratitude, second chances and the quiet return of spring’s familiar rhythms, ideal for cherishing the living heritage that surrounds us.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2432378/episodes/18921358-episode-2-65-owl-odyssey-and-second-chances.mp3?download=true

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