Our garden is a disaster area!? From the neat, well looked after patch that we inherited when we bought the house, it has disintegrated into a haven for wildlife and a place I am afraid to traverse.? I took my life in my hands to go and collect apples from the dwarf tree at the other end but you wouldn’t have caught me delving into the long grass to gather fallers – you never know what you might encounter!? That was the Man of the House’s job.
Ditto for the tomatoes in the ‘greenhouse’.? I use single inverted commas because said greenhouse is one of the plastic variety; perfectly serviceable but not designed to make it through more than one season, once the wind gets up.? Still, from the plants our neighbour gave us plus some others we bought ourselves, we managed to enjoy a few pounds of fruit (yes they are mini-mini ones!), which were absolutely delicious, by the way.
As the garden is in such a state of ‘naturalness’, it is hardly surprising that there are many varieties of birds that visit throughout the seasons.? The overgrown grape vine – which does produce grapes, but I’m too scared of the plant to go near them – provides a haven and a buffet for several species.? We have seen pigeons, starlings and sparrows in there, to name but a few.? Make a noise and, at any time, you can see a flock just propel itself out from under the leaves and into the air, only to return as soon as the perceived danger has passed.
A few years ago we had a vixen that came regularly into the garden.? We started to give her scrap, as she looked bedraggled and poorly.? Eventually, she would come onto the patio and sit, patiently, outside the door until we gave her something.? She was very calm and very sweet.
After a while, we stopped seeing her and wondered if she had met the fate of so many urban foxes.? Soon, we forgot about her, until one day when she showed up again – with her boyfriend – a big, beefy dog fox – in tow!? After that, she really did disappear – I think she was just telling us that she was settled and not to worry.
The other day, a new fox, this time a dog, started to come in to the garden.? We first saw him playing with something on the meadow (I won’t call it a lawn!) and we eventually realised it was a shoe of some sort, either a slipper or a trainer.? I think it has now been buried by the bay bush.? Can’t wait to see what comes up next year!
We know that it’s not a great idea to feed urban foxes and we won’t be encouraging this one.? Besides anything else, he looks too healthy to need our help.? We will, however, spend as much time as we can watching his antics and taking pleasure from his happiness.