This is one of the "Bishop's Children" dahlias that I grew from seed many years ago. For some reason, this particular plant is producing much redder flowers than the others, which tend toward orange. Maybe because it's in brighter sun. I'm intrigued by that stripe on one of its petals -- an interesting genetic aberration.
I spent most of yesterday reading. I'm about two thirds of the way through "Juice," which I am really enjoying. It's one of those rare books that I get so absorbed in that I'm not conscious of how much progress I'm making or how many pages I've turned. Someone compared it to "Mad Max" and it's very much like that -- a survival and family saga set in a post-apocalyptic Australia. Let me just say, if the future is going to be anything like this, I'm glad I'm living now.
I got a text from Mrs. Kravitz in which she pointed out that we have rats in the garden and we need to do something about them. She's right. We have to take some kind of action. Maybe we can call a nature-friendly exterminator, if there is such a thing. As I mentioned before, we've stopped feeding the birds suet and I think we'll stop the bird food entirely for a while. She suggested putting down peppermint. I'll look into it.
She also suggested trimming the lower leaves of shrubs "so the rats have nowhere to hide," but that's just not feasible in our garden, which is full of ground cover and low-growing plants. I may need some professional advice on how best to handle that. But I recognize we can't let these animals stay -- it's not fair to the neighbors. Dammit, foxes, do your jobs! Cats, where are you?!
Speaking of foxes, I was lying in bed last night (sleepless, for some reason) and kept hearing racing engines. This often happens late at night and I've always suspected that motorbike riders race on the streets around here late at night, perhaps on Finchley Road. Well, last night I got out of bed and took a walk to see if I could tell where all the noise was coming from. Of course by the time I got outside, it had stopped and a couple of police cars went past with lights flashing -- I suspect they broke up whatever party was going on. But out on my nocturnal ramble I came across several scrawny-looking foxes nosing around in people's garbage. This is why they're not hungry enough to catch a rat in my garden.
I also found yet another discarded fiddle-leaf fig tree, set out with the trash on the corner at the top of our street. Of course I adopted it. It needs some TLC but it's in better shape than the last one, which didn't make it.
I'm missing my slide-rescuing project. Here's one of my favorites, an accidental double-exposure that created an interesting effect. It was taken in Bermuda in the mid-'50s. Look at that huge lobster! I'll go in search of more slides once we're back from our trip.
Of course the foxes will always go for the easiest option when it comes to food, and rats are defnitely NOT easy to catch. Cats won't go near them if they know what's good for them. Cutting back undergrowth would also mean no hiding places for other small animals, such as hedgehogs. It's difficult to do the right thing there! Peppermints? Never heard that as a cure against rats, but who knows!
ReplyDeleteThe double-exposed photograph is intriguing. By the way, I have now looked at every picture in all three of your rescued slides albums. I enjoyed them very much, especially the "detective" work in connecting the same people to various events.
I don't think cutting back undergrowth is even a viable option, since so many of our plants ARE undergrowth. We'd have to just mow everything down. Glad you enjoyed the rescued photos!
DeleteYour response is right, get a professional in. The putting down of poison is dangerous for all the other creatures in the garden but then if a fox eats a poisoned rat, would it affect the fox? It is hard isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI would never put poison down, period. As you said, too many other wild animals in the food chain could be affected.
DeleteUrban foxes like any other animal take the easy route for food, too many people feed them, they have bigger litters which all survive, they spread and start to cause issues, I love foxes, they should be in the wild, not feeding from dustbins. As for rats, for years we tried to keep the out of our garden, they come from next door, who refuses to let anyone find their nest, they were close to our house, sadly the only way to reduce numbers is with poison, used in a special box which hedgehogs can't get into, even now after 15 years we still see rats at the bottom of our garden. Rats and foxes are normal in our modern world, you need to call in the experts.
ReplyDeleteUrban foxes in the UK are like raccoons in the USA -- cute up to a point, but also pests! I like them in the garden, but I hate seeing them on the street tearing open rubbish bags.
DeleteThat is the serendipity of growing Bishop's children from seed! Great fun.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you could use a computer programme to isolate the images from the double exposure?
What is the saying about you're never more than a few feet from a rat wherever you are?
I'm sure a computer (or even AI online) could separate the images, but I like them blended!
DeleteThey are intriguing. I had a photographer friend many years ago who would make intentional double shots using a film camera..not something a digital camera does I don't think
DeleteMrs Kravitz needs to understand that rats do not even recognise property boundaries. In West Hampstead, the entire district is their ratty kingdom and that includes Mrs Kravitz's property. To suggest that the source of the rats is your garden is absurd and for her to suggest that you make changes to your garden because of rats is equally ridiculous. Why don't you bounce back at her with some suggestions about her garden?
ReplyDeleteI think when she said "we" have rats she meant all of us, including her -- not just Dave and me. She has called her own exterminator.
DeleteThe double (triple?) exposure is interesting. I at first thought it was one of those wedding album special effects. The stripe in the dahlia is stunning. Maybe you can develop a hybrid. It’s astounding that, with all the predators in your garden, the rats have survived. Yes, you do need to get rid of them, but Mrs. Kravitz needs to keep her nose (eyes) out of your garden.
ReplyDeleteI think our predators are lazy! Once we get a dog, that will be an extra deterrent.
DeleteLobster man has an interesting hair style.
ReplyDeleteAre you doing something to encourage rats now? No? It is nature functioning, as it does.
You are going to be one of those old men with the camera phone on and raising you fist at car drivers racing in local streets.
LOL -- I didn't even notice his hair! I think that's mostly a shadow. We have been feeding birds, which unfortunately also brings rats. We just need to stop the bird feeding for a while and encourage the rats to go elsewhere.
DeleteWonder if your local council has a rat program? It's impossible for one residence to eradicate rats.
ReplyDeleteThe council will remove rats on public property. Otherwise they compel private property owners to do it themselves. We don't want to get the council involved, which is why we're being proactive!
DeleteIt seems to me exterminating rats without endangering other animals would be quite difficult. Hopefully eliminating the bird seed will cause the rats to move on to easier food sources.
ReplyDeleteThat double exposure lobster picture is pretty neat. Every time I see someone pull a large lobster or crab out of the water I've been swimming in it makes my toes curl!
That's exactly my hope re. the rats.
DeleteI can imagine that have to be eco-friendly ways to moving the rats along.
ReplyDeleteCarlos has been taking scraps of fruits and vegetables to feed the squirrels and I worry that the Squirrel Invasion is coming and soon we'll be living in the yard and they'll be in the house!
Ha! Yeah, squirrels can definitely be too much of a good thing.
DeleteI guess when the foxes have the choice or lovely leftovers, pizza edges and other delicacies, the last thing they want is a rat that they have to actually chase and kill.
ReplyDeleteExactly! And you can't blame them!
DeleteDouble Exposures Are The Best !!
ReplyDeleteWay Cool ,
Cheers
I agree! This guy had several of them, which makes me think his film may have been hard to load for some reason.
DeleteMy first thought was you need more cats and foxes in the garden. And maybe cut back some of the jungle.
ReplyDeleteWell, we can hardly import more cats and foxes. I think we have plenty now! I will neaten up the garden a bit but there's not much more we can do on the cutting back without damaging the plants.
DeleteI have no suggestions about the rats except that yes, I think you may need professional help. I am wondering how Mrs. Kravitz knows that the rats are coming from your garden. Does she too have a camera set up? Or is she just assuming that because your garden is not the regular "tidy" English garden?
ReplyDeleteAndrew is right about Lobster Man's hair. And who wears a sweater like that in the Bahamas? That lobster is just too big. Boy, I sure do have a lot of complaints about that picture, don't I? I find it sort of creepy.
She said she's seen them come under the fence, which is probably true. Who knows where they live, though. They could live on her side just as easily as ours (or elsewhere, for that matter).
DeleteIt never occurred to me that rats would eat bird seed, suet I can see because of the fat that holds it all together. And who's to say the rats are nesting in your garden? Yes, you've caught a rat on your game camera but why would Ms Kravitz know that or assume one came from your garden if she saw one in her yard? Especially since you've recently had the most wild part in the back cleared out quite a bit. Maybe set out some traps?
ReplyDeleteI think the suet first attracted them. They might not have come for just the seed alone. But a hungry rat will eat almost anything. I'm afraid of traps outdoors -- I'm sure they'd inadvertently trap other creatures like squirrels.
DeleteThat slide almost looks like an intentional collage depicting a holiday together. That makes sense about hungry foxes. Good luck -- rats are varmints you don't want!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm tolerant of most animals but rats are a problem.
DeleteI always think of dahlias as having large amounts of petals. I wouldn't have recognized that one as a dahlia. Yes, it is best to do something about the rats. They are the kind of pests you don't want to encourage.
ReplyDeleteLike many flowers, there are simple and complex dahlias with different styles of blooms. The Bishop's Children variety is good for pollinators because the flowers are so open.
DeleteI'm quite sure your garden is not the only rat refuge. They are a problem. We just found one in our swimming pool - not in the water, luckily, but in a storage cupboard, and long dead. Anyone who has large open compost bins will be harbouring and feeding rats, too.
ReplyDeleteI found a couple of dead ones on our lawn early in the spring. I'm sure they were poisoned elsewhere and somehow came here to die.
DeleteI agree with Neil about Mrs Kravitz and her ideas about the rats. Rats love city life and I don't see how it could be caused by a garden! Anyway, maybe you should consider a terrier type dog that was bred to hunt rats when you go to adopt....
ReplyDeleteDave and I are hoping that having a dog around will help keep them at bay. They might be more cautious or avoidant if they smell dog in the garden.
DeleteEliminating the food source should make your garden less likely to bring rats.
ReplyDeleteAn exterminator might suggest trapping them and releasing them in the wild. This is what my neighbor did when he had raccoons nesting in his 3rd floor ventilation space above living space.
Your red and yellow dahlia is lovely. Orange to red is an interesting color change.
My tulips went from pink, to yellow, to red. I started with 100 pink and they all shifted.
That's an interesting color shift in the tulips! Yeah, I'm hoping getting rid of the bird seed makes all the difference.
DeleteRats are successful, and they like to eat trash and roam around in sewage so...kind of a toss up- do we let them live? I am on the "not so much" team if in the city. In more rural areas nature rather takes care to eliminate them , keep their numbers manageable. One can carry the buddhist thing too far I reckon, "let the harmful bacteria live" there is a line to be drawn, don't you reckon? We had to trim foliage from the floor so it would not be hiding places for cougar. The air circulating has been beneficial as well. We have low growing ground cover that can only hide a bug, now.
ReplyDeleteI love the story of the double exposure, Massive lobster and fancy folk enjoying what life has to offer...except for the lobster. Big eats small, they say.
Well, thank goodness I don't have to think about cougars!
DeleteI read a "cli-fi" book in May that takes place in the unspecified near future of south Florida. It might interest you. The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton.
ReplyDeleteOK, I will keep it in mind! Thanks! I've never heard the term "cli-fi" before.
DeleteI like Boud's comment. The rats are a neighborhood problem so maybe the local neighborhood group should look into it? I don't know what kind of local councils you have there.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we can realistically eradicate them from the neighborhood. Rats are everywhere in London. We just have to not give them refuge in our garden!
DeleteThat lobster is like a horror movie. I'm scared of them anyway! Rats are a problem and they do tend to proliferate where there is food for them.
ReplyDeleteHa! Well, they are objectively creepy, I guess, like big spiny bugs. :)
DeleteI love that last photo - very cool effect! I wish you well with the rat situation. Hopefully you can find a good solution that doesn't affect your other wildlife.
ReplyDeleteThose foxes need to get in here and get to work!
DeleteI wonder about how you came to know that picture was taken in Burmuda. How many times have you seen rats? But yes, I would stop feeding birds for a few months.
ReplyDeleteIt was in a box with a bunch of other slides from the same vintage, all labeled Bermuda. Apparently the family whose slides I bought lived in Bermuda in 1954.
DeleteRats are drawn to gardens that provide food, water, and shelter. Common attractants include spilt bird food, pet food, compost heaps, fruit, vegetables, and unsecured bins!
ReplyDeleteIt may be an idea to seek professional advice.
All the best Jan
I think the first step is to eliminate the bird food and put down a natural deterrent of some kind. We'll go from there! I'd really like to avoid poisons or other damaging solutions.
DeleteThe double exposure makes for an interesting photo.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't it?! I think it's a cool effect.
DeleteHow are the foxes getting into the garbage? Do people not have bins with secured lids? I like the dahlia with that lone stripe.
ReplyDeleteMost of us have secure bins, but the residents of certain flats along the high street are told to put their bags directly on the pavement because they have nowhere to keep bins. Don't get me started about how stupid that is!
Delete