Vixens

On my recent trip to London, I was surprised one night by the sight of a fox near St. Paul's Cathedral. I was trying to get a cab and I saw an animal slip across the road then through some railings into the churchyard. At first I thought it was a cat, but the shape, tail, and gait were all so distinctive. In all the late nights I've spent out in London I've never once encountered a fox and so I thought it a rare sighting.

I've since learned (as is often the way with seemingly unique experiences) that foxes are not at all unusual in London.


This image from a guy who seems to have a bit of a thing about foxes (http://www.permuted.org.uk/).

First my friend Graham Rice told me that he had seen a fox a few years ago in the Chelsea Flower Show early one morning during set up, before there were many people about. It was apparently trotting through a display of desert succulents.

Then, while reading the highly enjoyable second edition of Alan Bennett's autobiography, Untold Stories (faber and faber, 2005), I came across the following, written after the author has been down to the Mall to see the extraordinary scenes following the death of Princess Diana:

"The evening is redeemed by an extraordinary sight. Despite the hundreds and hundreds of people trooping past, here, on the grass by the corner of Stable House Street, is a fox. It is just out of the light, slinking by with its head turned towards the parade of people passing, none of whom notice it. It's quite small, as much fawn as red, and is, I imagine, a vixen. It lopes unhurriedly along hte verge before diving under the hedge into St. James's Palace grounds. Besides us only one woman notices it, but that's probably just as well: such is the hysteria and general silliness it might have been hailed as the reincarnation of Princess Diana, another beautiful vixen, with whom lots of parallels suggest themselves."

And then, finally, I rent a movie called Breaking and Entering, which has a promising cast--Jude Law, Juliette Binoche, and Robin Wright Penn--and is set in London. It turns out to be one of those movies that doesn't quite pull it all together but guess what features in several scenes? Right, a fox. This time not slinking much, but screaming quite a bit in the most ominous and intrusive manner.


Not a real fox, but movie magic.

It turns out that one can buy the model who served as the fox from a company that sells movie memorabilia (http://www.premiereprops.com/). And, as quoted in a review on Salon.com the fox is "The one wild thing in your life, and it makes you crazy."

Nature is Wonderful

On a walk in the woods yesterday, Maeve and I saw a selection of variously colored banana slugs.


This one is yellow.

For anyone not familiar with these behemoths of the Pacific coast, they go by the botanical name of Ariolimax columbianus. They are found in the woods in California up to British Columbia. They usually delight and disgust children.

Seeing a few of these on a hike the other day reminded me of an article I wrote 10 years (10 years!) ago for Virtual Garden. It's no longer available on-line, but I turned an old-fashioned paper printout into a pdf.


Click for a big version.

Escargot en amour

A all-time favorite from the New Yorker.

Sign Language

From the Brompton Cemetery.

Can anyone guess what 'Anti-Climb' paint would do to somebody foolish enough to make the attempt?

Ready, Set, Garden

After life coaches, birth coaches, fitness coaches...now we have garden coaches. The NY Times discusses a recent trend.

A new addition to the landscape, gardening coaches — or gardening mentors as they are sometimes called — are the personal trainers of the prune-and-plant set. Their target audience — do-it-yourselfers in search of enlightenment — occupies a middle ground between the people who simply sit back and watch, while others do the planting and mulching, and amateur plant killers whose gardening strategy can best be summed up as trowel and error.

My friend--and fine gardener--Tom Wilhite offers just such a service in Sausalito, CA. I would say he sees himself as a guide, helping his clients to learn by doing. In this photo, he's teaching Julian something about the joys of succulents. Or perhaps advising on mulch.

Interloper

There's been an otter in the park pond for the first time since we've lived in James Bay. Julian and I have seen it a few times. Apparently river otters do visit the park from time to time. This picture was taken a few weeks ago; we saw the otter again last night.



I do wonder if it might be eating eggs and/or ducklings?

Here's an interesting fact. Otter droppings are called spraints. I pretty much guarantee you didn't know that.

I don't know quite how an otter would get into the lake as there are no above-ground rivers that run in or out of the park.

Perhaps I will go and have a chat with the park staff. I am very curious about this otter.

The Garden of Eden Imagined

Not quite how I imagined it. Wonder who they used as horticultural consultant?


Image and story from BlueGrass Roots blog.

Herons at Home

While I was away at Chelsea, the heron colony at the end of the road was apparently scared off by a rogue eagle the local media dubbed 'Birdzilla'. There are fears that the colony might be gone for good.

Funny enough, I was having lunch with the folks at Butchart Gardens, who had also been at Chelsea for the first time. One of them was saying that the herons had taken up residence in her back garden. I do hope they aren't gone for good from the park!

A little more Chelsea. Here's a lovely seating area from one of my favorite show gardens, the Westland Garden, designed by Diarmuid Gavin. It won a silver.


Diarmuid Gavin's Westland Garden at Chelsea, 2007.