Totem

Well today I saw a fox and about time too, say I. And was this fox sighted in the neighbourhood of our temporary abode? No, it was not. It was on a site visit to the rubble-strewn wasteland that is our real house, currently unoccupied.

Of course I had to check on my little ponds - (not a sign of frogspawn, thin sheets of ice) and the wall crossing beside the grass heap. At the latter a very strong smell of fox. Nothing to be seen in Martin's, though. I checked the shed and was glad to notice the underground entrances smooth as if from use. Looking over the back wall into Jackson's, I heard a scuffle and glancing to my left, glimpsed a large fox climbing to its feet and gracefully loping away. I could only see that it was a bright orangey colour, thickly furred (suitable for the coldest winter in 40 years!) and had a small neat white tail tag.

Well that did me the world of good, it has been far too long since I saw my totem animal. Of course we do see them at night if coming home late, etc. in the Dublin streets - but proper suburban dwellers seem to be missing from the nearby district where we now reside.

By the way the house is coming along nicely but the garden will need radical remodelling!

New Year, new house, new animals

Hello there! It's been far too long since I posted anything.
Just to update - there was practically NO visible fox activity for those months anyway.
They were about in the neighbourhood, but they sure were avoiding my garden and the nearest gardens: food left out at night would be taken, but otherwise nor hide nor hair was seen.

Well....fast forward: we have moved house, temporarily: our own place is having some long-overdue renovating, which includes demolishing and rebuilding the kitchen and garage...and the builder wants us OUT, with every twig and leaflet that we own, (which is lots.)

So we are now installed in a bungalow about a mile away, very near the N11, with our furniture and possessions around us and a dreary little north-facing garden.

What we have seen, several times, are squirrels: grey ones of course, on the ground, and in the grounds of a nearby school. I'm told they are very good eating...any offers??
I saw no sign of any foxes until this week when snow lay on the ground, and took the chance to check the garden for prints.
Lots of woodpigeons, small birds and - yes, look! Fox prints!! Just one little line of but I'm happy.
So I upgraded the bird-feeding arrangements to a largish upturned wooden drawer as a suitable feeding table and now await developments.
That was yesterday, and the inviting, smelly end of a Brie rind that was left out overnight is still there..but we'll work on this and lure them in.
New Year resolutions: to post regularly, here on the blog...and a happy New Year to all my readers!