The Foxes Get Chinese Takeaway

We have one bluebell in our garden that isn't blue. It's a pinkbell. I know bluebells sometimes have color variations but this is a first for our garden, as far as I can remember.

I feel like I was busy as heck yesterday but when I told Dave's parents that on their regular weekly video-call, his mom said, "Oh, what did you do?" And I couldn't name anything that sounded very impressive! So I'm not sure where the time goes, but it does.

For one thing, I got my seedlings planted out, and that's a bigger deal than it sounds. There are only four or five of each type, but still, in our crowded garden, finding them a home was a challenge!

I put the cosmos and one zinnia in the long terra cotta planter that held the rescued primulas. (I saved the primulas too -- just moved them to a different pot.) Don't you love my ornamental rockwork? I know it looks like plant prison, but it's meant to keep the squirrels from digging up the seedlings.

Here's one of the sunflowers, complete with a copper slug ring (not very effective) to protect it. It's not great that our weather has been so dry, but at least it keeps down the slugs and snails.

And here are two little zinnias, with more pot shards to keep the squirrels at bay.

I am somewhat pessimistic about how well these tiny things will survive in our jungle of a garden, but at some point the plants just have to manage or not. I have one sunflower and one zinnia in some big pots at the side of the house, and those are the ones I consider our "insurance" if everything out in the main garden gets eaten -- though the squirrels can attack those pots too. I also have lots more unplanted seeds so I can always go another round if these die.

And what else did I do? Well, some routine stuff, like laundry and vacuuming and indoor plant maintenance.

Oh, and I compiled the week's video from the garden wildlife cam. Is it possible to have too much fox footage? If so, we may have it this week. At the beginning, I put out some mediocre leftover meat from a Chinese meal Dave and I ordered. The young fox came two minutes later and eventually, cautiously ate it, and then hung around for another 20 minutes or so, eating and then checking back to make sure nothing was left behind. So there's a lot of footage of him/her hanging around. (Dave has named this fox "Sharpie," because the tip of his tail is black. I think it's the same fox I saw atop the fence a few days back.)
-- In the midst of all that, at 2:54, Sharpie comes right up to the camera and gives it a sniff!
-- At 4:06, a few hours later, Crooked Tail comes and investigates the meat, but it's all gone.
-- At 4:53, we see another fox with a distinctly white-tipped tail. Q-Tip, maybe?
-- At 5:03, a pair of pigeons court each other.
-- At 5:24, the next night, I put down the rest of the Chinese meat. This time, Crooked Tail gets it, then comes back to make sure it's all gone.
-- At 6:15, I moved the camera to the back of the garden and aimed it outward, but all the footage I got was wind. I think I had it aimed too high. Nice wind video, though.
-- At 6:24, some pretty good close-up footage of a fox in the daytime, brushing right past the camera.
-- At 6:34, the fox runs into the garden from the corner of the fence, where it normally jumps in and out. About eight minutes later, it leaves by the same route.

This week I have the camera set up to film that corner, so hopefully we can see more of the animals coming and going.