Critters in the Garden

Last night it came over quite cloudy, well that’s what we thought, but when The Man looked out the window it was snowing.  Today is much brighter than yesterday and the sun is breaking through the clouds a bit giving the snowy scene below a bit more sparkle.  Looking down from our third floor window we see tracks in the snow from the foxes that must live close by. We hadn’t seen any for weeks, but they are still very much in evidence. In the summer there were three of them. By their playful behaviour two of them must have been quite young.  The first time we heard them screaming at night I thought someone was being murdered. Foxes  are very much at home in the urban environment and it is not unusual to see them quite close to people, obviously not bothered by the proximity. On the train one day we passed one curled up seemingly asleep in long grass near the railway line, quite unperturbed by the passing rail traffic.

There are squirrels and crows and the garden too. We throw bread and occasionally fruit down for them. We were surprised to see the crows burying morsels of food in the ground, not that the foxes keen noses or the squirrels let it stay hidden for long.  There are magpies here as well. Not at all like the ones that live in NZ. These ones have very long tails. Occasioanlly we see robins too.

I had hoped to overnight my ‘bug’ would have fled, but no such luck, so another day at home for me. Not that I mind it too much really. It’s given me a chance to reorganise the Blog, (what do you think of it?)  I’ve a new Diana Gabaldone book to read. The Scottish Prisoner is another of her Lord John stories. I bought it a while ago and had intended reading starting it over Christmas, but didn’t. So yesterday, accompanied by a fresh coffee I picked it up and began reading. She is such a descriptive writer; I just love her portrayal of characters. Her books are some of the very few that create pictures inside my head when I read. And having been Scotland, and visited to Stone Henge and a few other historic sites, helps the pictures form much more easily