Here's what the garden looks like at the moment. Quite a change from a month ago, when things were just beginning to leaf out. It's getting to be a jungle out there. We've noticed that with all the rain this spring, many of our plants are bigger and healthier than they've been in years past. The cardoon, for example, looks much better, as do the little foam flowers tucked into the border under the ferns.
But what I'm really trying to show you in that photo above is the fox. See it to the right of the bird bath, watching me from behind a peony?
That critter has become quite brazen lately. Yesterday morning I was sitting on the couch when Olga suddenly leaped up and ran to the back door:
She wanted out in the worst way. But I kept her in and let the fox do its thing in the garden unmolested. I think Olga's old enough now that in a battle with a fox she might lose, but I wouldn't want to test it.
Otherwise, yesterday was quite busy. We had classes in the library for every period of the day, so there was a lot of hubbub, and amid that my boss asked me to research how we might sell several large sets of literary criticism books (about 300 volumes altogether). She thinks they might be valuable, but it seems a lot of book dealers don't want ex-library books, because they've been stamped and stickered. We're going to have to get rid of these things somehow, though, because the space where they reside is being renovated, and no one uses them anymore. (I think everything in them is online now.) Maybe I'll put them on eBay or Amazon and we'll see what happens, but I predict that ultimately we'll be giving them away.
I walked home behind a man who was having a very animated telephone conversation with someone about the purpose of underwear. (According to him, to have a layer of fabric protection between one's clothes and one's ... self, though that was not the word he used. Whether to protect the body from the clothes or vice versa he didn't specify.)
"Those people who wear thongs? There's no reason for them to be doing that, man," he said with conviction. He seemed to have very strong opinions on the matter.
I was trying to imagine who on earth he might be talking to.
Foxes are reclaiming the space we have built on!
ReplyDeleteWith all the "-cides" there is less food for them in rural areas now, much of their food being worms and beetles..although larger prey is welcome! Our neighbour farmer welcomed his local vixen as she kept the rats down...but not at lambing time!
Your garden is looking lush. Ours is beginning to catch up now we have had a little rain and warmth, but nearly 500 miles makes a difference!!
Whoever he was talking to, he was right about thongs!!
Neighbour farmer in N Wales in the 1990s that is...
ReplyDeleteI wonder if a university library might be interested in the books of literary criticism - assuming of course that universities still have libraries and that students still read books!
ReplyDeleteIt still amazes me the wildlife you have in your London garden (your beautiful and lush London garden).
ReplyDeleteThat's quite a large and healthy fox. I like when gardens become a bit jungly.
ReplyDeleteSly fox, as they say.
ReplyDeleteThis is a marvelous garden, for a city. No wonder you've stayed so long.
ReplyDeleteFoxes here would simply run if something bigger runs to them. Are yours more of a 'stand your ground' temperament?
ReplyDeleteOnce I was on the phone with an elderly lady who was ordering underwear from the mail order company I worked for. She sighed, "I'm so glad that there are still places where you can buy plain old underwear. Have you seen those thongs? I don't understand it at all. I have spent all my years pulling my underwear out of the crack of my ass and now they want me to buy underwear that is supposed to be in there."
I about fell on the floor laughing.
What a gorgeous garden! And what a fine and healthy-looking fox. I think you may be right about any sort of physical encounter between Olga and the fox. At the very least, there would be blood.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have to say I agree about the thongs. WTH?
I was surprised that Olga didn't bark at the fox.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't worry about Olga and the fox. Any fox/dog interactions I have seen have led to the fox running away at top speed. I suppose if Olga managed to get it cornered it might fight but I find that highly unlikely. Fox are extremely smart and know their territory well.
ReplyDeleteI usually shy away from buying library books without physically inspecting them. Unlike any other used book which may have been read a time or two and then sat on a shelf, library books get read dozens or hundreds of times before they are typically culled and the abuse usually shows. The worst is a few missing pages in the middle that went unnoticed until I got to that point reading.
Your garden is so beautiful. I see why the fox must love stopping by to take a little stroll through it. Olga looks very energized about it.
ReplyDeleteThongs? What a strange idea for underwear. Humans are such interesting creatures.
The conversation about underwear made me laugh. What an odd thing to be talking about on the phone.
ReplyDeleteBrazen is a perfect word for that fox. I'm surprised he didn't fun off the second he heard Olga scratching at the door. It took my a minute to find him in that top photo. He really is watching you.
The term jungle fits very nicely to your garden. Things look very healthy. So with all the foliage there's lots of cover for the fox.
ReplyDeletethat is a very pretty fox and your garden looks great and olga is a very good watch dog!
ReplyDeleteYou voiced (or wrote) my exact thought when you called the fox "brazen". It looks like a strong, healthy specimen, so I'm glad you didn't turn Olga loose on it - though I do think it would run rather than try to fight.
ReplyDeleteGood plan for Olga and the fox. You never know.
ReplyDeleteDoes your school have a FB page that parents see? It might be worth trying to sell them there. The Ebay isn't a bad idea either, but you're probably right about giving them away.
I never much saw the purpose of thongs. They just don't look comfortable!
Such a healthy looking city fox- if we see them around here they are not quite so handsome.
ReplyDeletethong , agree- what is the point and why would anyone want the uncomfortable bit of cloth or rubber lodged in the great divide? Maybe it is to avoid the granny panty line.
Your garden always pleases! Beauty!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI do think that Olga truly wanted that fox, or at least for a tad minute or two. I am not so sure I would trust him/her not to try and fight, but more than likely they tend to run away. Regardless, Rabies is always a concern, city fox or rurual. Best to keep Olga in and away from it.
Your garden is lush and lovely cover for the fox. Provides a bit of shade as well.
Have a great day/evening!
Your Fox is clearly getting comfortable with you. I am always amazed at how some wild critters adapt in an urban environment.
ReplyDeleteThongs? I don't get it.
Minnie often hears things I don't and will jump up and run to the door barking...let me out, let me out. I'm surprised Olga wasn't barking.
ReplyDeleteI have never understood the attraction of thongs. having a strip of cloth in my butt crack all day would drive me crazy.
I've rarely seen a fox although we do have coyotes. They are not so nice. Mari always wants out to get after birds, other cats or possums. She would be hopeless!
ReplyDeleteI love that top photo - so lush with a bonus sly fox :)
ReplyDeleteP.S. that guy was right about thongs. Ha!
Do you plan your garden or does it just do its own thing? Regardless, it is lovely - fox included.
ReplyDeleteI wear thongs on my feet but the g-string is damned uncomfortable. Tried it once to see what the fuss was about. Who wants to walk around with a permanent wedgy?
The fox is lovely. I often wonder how smelling people were before we started bathing as often as we do now, and how much underwear must have smelled.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, it wasn't uncommon to still smell some very stinky people out in public, not something that happens anymore.
GZ: I'm always happy to see foxes for that very reason -- I think they keep urban pests at bay. (Both rats and pigeons.) Unfortunately they probably mostly eat garbage!
ReplyDeleteYP: Perhaps, but I'm not sure how to handle that. Do I write all the university libraries? There are a lot of them! Better to list them for sale somewhere and let someone who's interested find the listing.
Mitchell: It's amazing how much wildlife is around. We don't have hedgehogs, though, sadly.
River: I do too. Ours tends to get very leafy and I like it that way.
Bob: Although not particularly furtive. It acts like it owns the garden!
Boud: It's VERY unusual to have a garden this big in London.
Debby: Ha! That's awesome. And she's RIGHT! I think our fox would run too, unless cornered.
Ms Moon: Yes, there would be blood. Best to avoid that.
Ellen D: She's not much of a barker, especially indoors. She mostly just barks at me when she gets impatient, or at squirrels!
Ed: Yeah, a fox will run first, for sure. The fox is also a lot more nimble than Olga -- it could easily leap the fence, for example. But I wouldn't want her to corner it somehow.
Robin: Aren't we interesting? Who came up with that idea and WHY? LOL!
Sharon: I love overhearing bizarre conversations. There used to be a website called "Overheard in NYC" where people could post overheard conversations, and it was hilarious. It's probably still out there somewhere.
Red: Yes, the fox definitely has lots of places to hide out!
Gidget: Thank you! Olga is actually a terrible watchdog. Unless there's a fox or squirrel involved she'd sleep through anything.
Kelly: It's funny that it didn't try to scamper away even when it heard us at the door.
Jeanie: Yeah, we do have a FB page. Good idea! I'll have to ask the web folks about that.
Linda Sue: Oh, that's a good point. I hadn't thought about the lines. Maybe that's why they exist!
Beth: Even if she couldn't catch it, she'd rip up the plants trying to get to it! Fortunately there is no rabies in the UK, so that's one thing we don't have to worry about.
Jim: I guess foxes are a bit like raccoons in the USA, which are quite urbanized.
Ellen: Yeah, Olga just doesn't bark at the door for some reason. But she will whine and stand up on her back legs!
Margaret: As nervous as I am about Olga and a fox getting into a scrap, I can't imagine the danger of her mixing it up with a coyote!
Bug: He IS right. It was just such a funny conversation!
Caro: We didn't really plan it. We started with the roses and some of the larger plants -- which were already here when we moved in -- and underplanted with lots of odds and ends we bought here and there. (And some of it grew naturally!)
Pixie: Yeah, it's true -- I don't recall running into a really smelly person in a while. I definitely remember encountering them when I was in college. LOL