Clowns and Trellises

You may remember I found one of these mysterious "Vote 4 Clowns" stickers in Hackney many months ago. Well, now the stickers have come to me -- this one was on the high street near the West Hampstead tube station. Interpret it as you will.

I have nothing much to report from yesterday's workday. I was busy, mostly covering books. We're buying a ton of stuff for summer reading promotions, and we've got to get all that ready. The paperbacks get covered with a plastic laminate that must be trimmed and fitted, and the hardbacks get a plastic dust-jacket protector. My hands are actually sore from book covering. (Nothing to do with my age!)

Then, walking home, I came across this on the sidewalk:

In case you can't tell, that looks like a couple of pet cages, a patio umbrella, some miscellaneous metal objects and three conical trellises, all abandoned next to a public trash bin. I sent this picture to Dave and said, "Can we use these?"

"The trellises would be cool," he said.

"OK, I'll grab the two big ones," I wrote back.

"The number of times I've heard you say that!" he said. And only when that comment got laughs from multiple people did I realize that I'd accidentally started this entire exchange in a family chat involving Dave's sister, nephew, niece and her husband, and possibly several others. Oops.

Anyway, I brought the trellises home, where they are momentarily sitting in our front hallway. Incidentally, I also found the chair, the window and the rocking horse discarded on the street over a period of years.

I put our garden cam back out the other day after several months of absence. Just thought I'd check up on the critters and see what's happening out there. Here's a condensed version of the result -- two cats, a fox and Olga, vigorously scratching around after probably having done her business, fortunately off-camera. Oh, and any concerns I had about the absence of squirrels were clearly unwarranted, because I have about a million squirrel clips. (I included one of a squirrel dirt-bath.)

I don't love the way that first cat is gazing into the trees, and then climbing into them. That spells bad news for our birds. I thought fox urine was supposed to deter other animals, but clearly the cats aren't worried!