Garden and Gas-Guzzler

Contrary to what this picture would suggest -- and we'll get to it in a moment -- I had a quiet morning at home yesterday. I worked on a couple of houseplants that needed some attention. We have a sort of elephant-ear plant with striped stems that has been prospering in our dining room for several years now, and lately it's been looking a bit yellow. I thought it might be too big for its pot, so I repotted it. But in doing so, I realized that it may be suffering from root rot, so it may not be long for this world.

I lose something to root rot every winter, it seems. This is why I tried to lighten up on the watering and wound up almost killing my maidenhair fern. Where is the balance?!

Anyway, I also repotted the bedroom rubber plant and I dealt with some outdoor plants that have died. The blanket flower, or Gaillardia, went deader than a doornail several weeks ago, and the brook thistles vanished from their pot as thoroughly as if they'd stood up and walked away. They were both several years old so it could be they'd just lived their life spans. I moved some tulip bulbs from the brook thistle pot into the ex-Gaillardia pot and now all vessels are back in use.

Well, wasn't that exciting?!

Then, Dave and I headed down to Marylebone to have lunch with our pals Gordon and Chris, who we haven't spent time with in a while. We work with Chris and we used to work with Gordon before he retired, so discussion mainly involved what was happening at work and our own retirement plans. (Dave doesn't have any specific plans yet but it won't be too long.) We booked a noon table at a pub and we got there just a few minutes beforehand to find the place dark and locked up tight. Turns out someone didn't show up for work. Some co-workers appeared at noon and got the place up and running before letting us in and it only delayed our first pints by a few minutes.

Afterwards I went walking through Marylebone and down Edgware Road toward Marble Arch, before turning around and walking all the way back up to West Hampstead. It's been a long time since I've done a photo walk so it felt good. Anybody want a free giraffe?

That top photo was the scene outside Shishawi, a shisha place in the very Arabic neighborhood along Edgware Road. I don't know what the heck was going on with that big pink stretch Humvee or whatever it is. How does the driver even turn a corner in that thing? I took 27 pictures of it before I got one that I liked, with just the right break in traffic.

Back home again, I downloaded the garden cam. When I set it up most recently, I apparently screwed up the date and time settings, because they are totally wrong, so just ignore those.

I wanted to film an area at the base of the hazel trees where I was pretty sure the foxes were making a nest. I'm not sure it's a proper den -- in other words, I don't think they're living there -- but they use it as a rest spot. I've surprised them there a couple of times when coming out the back door.

So this week's video first shows a couple of squirrels, followed by lots of back-and-forth by the foxes. Check out the one with the disfigured tail! It looks like he/she got it caught in something. We even see one of them in daytime, which is always a plus.

Finally we get some footage of them going back behind the trees and lying there, and even nuzzling each other there before making their funny little fox sounds. I dunno. I may have a fox family on my hands soon enough.