Guy Fox Night

A pretty quiet day around the house yesterday. I got almost no reading done, once again, because I was too busy raking leaves in the garden and doing a million other little things. I swear I'm not going to finish this book until Christmas.

Yes, I did rake the leaves. I debated just leaving them on the lawn but they were quite thick and I didn't want the grass to suffer. I piled them in the back of the garden so they can break down, and maybe we can mulch with them in a month or two. I also cut down the rest of the dahlias and put them in the shed -- job done until next spring.

At lunchtime I had to walk up to Waitrose to buy some bread, and a woman and two stone-faced little boys were selling poppies outside the store for Remembrance Day. I asked if I could use a card and the woman said yes, but then when I pulled out the card she said, "Oh, not like that. It needs to be on your phone." (I had to scan a QR code.) The little boys remained expressionless. I said, "Leave it to me. I'll figure something out."

I picked up my bread and soup for lunch, and at the till I asked the cashier to charge me a pound extra and then give me a pound coin, if possible. She said she could only do that in ten-pound increments, so I said, "Fine, I'll take £10, and then give me a fiver and five pounds in coins, please."

Thus armed with cash, I re-emerged from the store and bought a poppy. I gave them £3, which I thought was pretty generous, but the boys still looked stone-faced, if not slightly belligerent. I never saw them crack a smile. Maybe it's part of their sales tactic? I'm sure they would rather be playing Nintendo, or whatever kids play nowadays.

Here's the latest garden-cam wildlife video. It's a short one this week -- I'm trying to spare you too many clips of cats aimlessly walking back and forth. But there's good footage of one of the foxes on Bonfire Night.

First, a squirrel portrait.
At 0:05, Q-Tip trots past, followed at 0:15 by Brownie (actually several hours apart).
At 0:20, Pale Cat comes right toward us.
At 0:37, Brownie goes the other way, followed later by Pale Cat, who stops for some quick grooming and to sniff some smells.
The best clip is at 1:10, when we see one of the foxes (behind some plants in the center of the screen) reacting to neighborhood fireworks on Bonfire Night. If you've ever wondered whether or not fireworks bother wild animals, this will show you! I think this is Brownie, who I'm debating renaming "Guy Fox."
At 1:28 we see two clips of Bell the Bengal, the only times he/she turned up on the camera this week.

(Top photo: An autumnal scene in South Hampstead, on Saturday.)