Get home and doze in the hammock in the garden with a good book: what a fine way to end a fine day. I can listen and see some interesting urban wildlife there, including a visitor that was low on my expected list. On waking slowly and looking up, I saw a fox in the garden. We made eye contact, he was evaluating the threat from me, I was looking on in surprise and trying not to alarm him. Then turned tail & slipped out through the gap in the fence. After a while- I noticed that he was still there, curled up and waiting just outside the boundary fence. He looked up, eyeing me up with one side of his face hidden behind the fnce. Why would he stay there? Why not continue his patrol?
There is a big pile of branches, twigs and other stuff on the top left of the garden, that set me thinking- for years we’d assumed that it was a home for hedgehogs. But now there is the possibility that it is a den: a den for foxes. The photo below is of low quality, but at least I managed to sneak into the house and get the camera.
Looking here, I worry that he has mange.
Monthly Archives: Jun 2008
Wormwood in Staffordshire
Absinthium: after stopping by the road for a bike adjustment, there it was – a clump of Wormwood. It really does like sandy soil, by the roadside away from other plants; or is it stiffling the others with that Thujone? I brought a piece home to make sure of the identity. You know what it’s like, after spotting one, seeing them everywhere is easy. I want a sample in the garden.
Willington Power Station: only has 5 cooling towers, and nothing else, no generator hall, no chimneys no other buildings. No wonder it looked so ugly last time I passed it- it’s being demolished. It looks like there are plans to put housing on there (as there is everywhere in the UK).
Beautiful day; 79 miles but not very fast.
El Cant De La Sibil
Rain & mist 1240m high
Pyrénées return
Longest trainride: 15 hours by train yesterday from the Canigou region of the Eastern Pyrénées. Pictures and comments may follow, you never can tell though. More reliably – view my Flickr pages.