We've got a new fox!

Last night, Channel 4 TV showed the first in a series of "live" programmes about urban foxes, called "Foxes Live" (dead original, yeah?)  Anyway, we had recorded the prog. and watched it whilst having our lunch today.  I'd had a roast chicken quarter, and, being on a diet, (??!!) I always (?!) take the skin off, and any other bits I'm not going to eat.

Lunch over, I took the handful of scraps down the back garden and threw them over the back fence, onto the greensward that lays between our row of bungalows and the tree-line behind us which runs the length of the main road, and screens it from view.

We feed a LOT of birds, both in our front and back gardens, and also "our" resident crows that live in the tree-line behind us.  They know when lunchtime is, so can often be seen waiting in the trees for any scraps I throw over!  Today was no exception, but I'd hardly got back into the kitchen, when one of the crows started up, "cawing" like mad!  This was so evidently either a distress call cum anger call, that I decided to go and take a look... ...

Peering over the back fence - and fully expecting to see one of the local cats (hiss! boo!) - I was astounded, but very pleased, to see the most beautiful ginger fox finishing off my chicken scraps!  She/He spotted me, even though there was only the top of my head peering over the fence, liked his lips, and as assuredly as any "top-dog", turned and loped into the cover of the tree-line!  Magnificent!  Real joy broke across my 'fizzog', and I came scampering in to tell " 'er indoors" the glad tidings!

Both Ann and I love foxes, and over the nearly 26 years we've been married and lived 'here', we've seen, and fed, many a fox that lopes along the greensward behind our bungalow - but rarely have we seen one in broad daylight (well, grey, drizzle, today!)

Only 2 weeks back our previous resident fox, an outstandingly handsome dog-fox, had been run over and killed on the main road not 50 yards from our back garden.  I'd been driving home from a meeting, and saw his poor, mutilated, body, in the middle of the dual carriageway, facing east, so he was probably trying to turn away from the fast-approaching motor, as he'd attempted crossing the road.  Saddened, I'd pulled over, and ran into the road to retrieve his body, onto the verge, before his beautiful dark-red coat, and handsome 'mask', was crushed further by the traffic.  So seeing this 'new' fox on the block is wonderful news!  I shall probably celebrate by buying another chicken quarter which I'll save especially for our new "Reynard"!  ;-)

Well, the Field Mice have been multiplying, and there are now two families regularly coming to the scattered peanuts I put out for the birds each day. The original family of field/wood mice under the summerhouse are still there, and are distinct from the new family, who live under the patio slabs, by being somewhat larger, and less timid.

The newcomers are quite small, possibly the "ejected" litter of the summerhouse ones. They pop up through a hole in the cement grouting between a couple of patio slabs, and I notice that even when the summerhouse family are out, neither set of mice meet up. Fascinating watching them forage - they're SO quick! Dashing out of cover, or up from the slabs, grab a nut of sunflower seed and dash back.

However... the past couple of days has seen a lot of heavy rain, and today, only the summerhouse mice were foraging... Have the patio mice been flooded out?  Who knows... but I'll keep watching through the lounge windows to see "the next thrilling instalment of Mouse Manor!"

Did you know that A Field Mouse is also known as a Wood Mouse?

We've added to our back garden managerie, now, ... a family of Wood Mice have moved in under our summerhouse plinth (concrete), making a burrow that comes out against the garden fence. So one or other of them comes foraging under the bird table at various times during the day. This morning, I was out there in the lovely morning sunshine (oh I DO love retirement!), filling up the hanging bird feeders and spreading a few peanuts on the flagstones ready for the collared doves and "Woody" Woodpigeon, and out came the adult male Wood Mouse! His huge, jet-black, bead-like eyes spotted me and he stopped ... so I stopped... both of us stock-still...

Who will move first? Bound to be me, as I can't stay as still as a mouse! But no, he moved - right up to my feet, grabbed a peanut and scrambled for the gap under the summerhouse! Aah... so sweet! So I put a few nuts down near where he comes out, that way he won't have to be in the open for so long... Yeah, I know, you silly, soft, old ##**!!... ain't I that one!! ;-)

I was born in 1946, not one-thousand-nine-hundred-and-forty-six!

It seems that, although for the last 1000 years, or more, we have spoken the year date as two numbers - e.g. 19 99 - the moment the millennium clock struck midnight, and the year 2000 arrived, everyone started speaking the year date as "two-thousand-and..."

Even twelve years into the new millennium, most of the media presenters, and the all-and-sundries on TV and Radio still continue to speak of "two-thousand-and-twelve". Why???

This year is the two-hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo in 1812... sorry, how did you just read that date in your mind? Did you read it as eighteen-twelve, or as one-thousand-eight-hundred-and-twelve? This year is also the one-hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912... or did you read that as one-thousand-nine-hundred-and-twelve?

So why does everyone still insist on saying two-thousand-and-twelve?! Let's start saying it as we've said it for the last thousand years... this year is twenty-twelve (20 12). And next year is twenty-thirteen (20 13). "Simples!" as a certain meerkat might say!

I hate drivers who use hand-held mobile phones!

It could be said that, on the whole, hospitals are full of people who are not well, one way or another - agreed? Good. So this afternoon, as I was leaving MK Hospital, having been visiting a pal of mine who's got a very poorly heart, I was not best pleased to see a chap driving out of the visitor car park, drivers window down, his right elbow on the open window frame and chatting away on his mobile phone! "The dummy!" I thought, apart from it's illegal, one reason WHY it's illegal is that your concentration is on the conversation, not on the road, so an accident is more likely to be your fault - and someone might get hurt... maybe badly hurt... maybe hospitalised...

So this plonker is driving away from a hospital quite prepared to put some other poor b**g*r in that same hospital cos he wants to have a chat! See red? I went mental at him! Of course, I was walking, he was driving, but he heard me alright! He had to stop at the road junction 50 yards distant, so I yelled at him again, and he put his phone down... but I'm pretty darn sure that as soon as he'd turned at the junction he'd picked it up again - the poxy little tow-rag! Ooo! I hate drivers who pick up and use their mobile phones on the move!

They do say that hands-free mobile phone technology is just as dangerous, though I'm not convinced of that one, any more than if I had a car full of companions all chatting and laughing... should I wear ear-plugs then to stop me hearing, or taking part, in their conversations and revelry? 'Course not! It's the mobile-in-the-hand-to-the-ear that is the accident maker. The phone conversation is going right into the ear, and one hand is nowhere near the steering wheel. If anything happens, there are probably several seconds gone by (by which time there's been a big thump!) while the plonker on the phone sees what's happening, reacts, tries to put the phone down and gain control of the motor before... oops... too late... crash, bang, wallop... someone's hurt, and it's probably NOT the plonker on the phone!

Why can't cars / lorries (etc) be fitted with a gadget which automatically shuts-down any mobile phone within its confines as soon as the ignition is turned on? And don't tell me that a passenger may need to make a call, that's poppycock! We've had motors for a century but we've only had mobile phones for about 20 years, so what did everyone do before mobiles? Stop at a phone box. Same principle... NEED (?) to make a call on the move? Then stop somewhere and then use your phone. "Simples!" as a certain Meerkat might say!

It hasn't been a day for the Summerhouse, today... far too cold - even though, in the post-Christmas sales, I bought a lovely little 200watt fan heater especially so that I can use the summerhouse on a cold day. But today was never going to be one of those days. It was a miserably grey, misty, murky, day, besides being cold. And anyway, I had to go hospital visiting this afternoon.

A mate of mine was taken into Coronary Care last Monday and I've been in to visit him a couple of times since. Well, you know what it's like just laying in bed waiting...waiting...waiting...

Although, thankfully, he has a decent stream of visitors. So I went early this afternoon, when I thought most folks would still be having / "recovering from" their Sunday lunch. And by the time I got back it really wasn't a nice afternoon for the summerhouse. So that's that for today.
Praps tomorrow will be sunnier?

It seems I may have "lost" the ability to post to my blog, which would be a shame, but would also be entirely my fault as I haven't posted anything for over 18 months!

Anyway, New Year, new decisions, and one of those is to use my blog more than FaceBook to express some of the thoughts which pass through this ageing mind when faced with some of the exasperating "news" stories one hears, or sees. So first of all, let's see if this new post gets saved to "A View from the Summerhouse"... or if it just goes into the aether like smoke from an old car exhaust!