Tuesday 16 September 2008

Tales from the Fairy Glade

Are you sitting comfortably, then I will tell a couple of tales. There is a family that live in a small cottage, on a country lane surrounded by woodland. They live a simple life growing their own food and keep a few hens. Does this sound like anyone you know..well it is me actually. Living as we do in the country we are invariably visited by the local wildlife. Since getting the hens we have attracted the attention of the local fox population who have put young, tender chicken on their menu. We have lost 3 birds and have disturbed Mr Fox on several occassions thus averting more attacks. On one sorte he actually had Marmaduke in his mouth. A bonk on the head with a broom was enough to make him run for is life and saved our handsome man bird.


wikipedia

It is hard because we are sharing their environment, (note that I say we are sharing their habitat and not the other way round). I firmly believe that they have as much right to be there as we have. It is just such a shame that we are at odds with each other because they are beautiful animals. At great expense we have now installed an electric fence which, fingers crossed, seems to be working and the foxes have kept a low profile. That is until yesterday at breakfast. As I sat there at the table eating a fresh laid egg I was aware of movement out of the corner of my eye. There in the corner by the chalk pile was a fox sitting there looking at me looking at him. Within a few seconds he was joined by another one who sat beside him and looked at me looking at them! It was one of those special moments in time and would have made a smashing photo if I could have gone out without disturbing them. They seemed perfectly at ease and on checking later it looks like they have dug out a bit of earth and made themselves a little den.

Several days later I did manage to take this rather poor photo whilst Mr/Mrs Fox was asleep. Couldn't get close enough but he is the brown blob in the middle of the picture!

The second tale involves a collared dove having a bath in a rut in the lane that was full of rain water. As I approached in the car, I slowed down and assumed that said bird would jump out of the way..like you do! Well, not in this instance. She cocked her head to one side and stared me in the eye. Literally stared me in the eye, and in my head I could hear her say; "just you wait a minute whilst I finish my bath", and so I did. I sat and I sat and she splashed and preened and splashed somemore. She eventually jumped out, shook her bottom at me and then flew into the hedgerow, and that was that! So wish that I had got my camera with me. Good job it was a country lane with only little old silly me at the wheel. There are those who would have driven over her and the some who go so fast that they probably wouldn't have even seen her!

A bit of help please, I note that when I click onto photos that I place in my blog, they do not come up on a seperate screen like those on other blogs. Can anyone advise what I am doing wrong. In the case of the fox piccy, if you could click on and then enlarge the photo you would see the fox more clearly. Dev X

20 comments:

HerzBlatt said...

Hello Dev,
I know what you mean but I don`t know how to help you .....I only load up my pictures and then when they are in my blog I can click on them and they are opened bigger. But why ......I don`t know...
I love the pictures of your little country road.....I love roads like these in England.....when we visited our friends in Newton Abbot we often went to Dartmoor and there we went on many roads like this in your picture.
England is so very pretty...you can be proud living on such a beautiful island full of historical towns and places.
Everytime when I arrived by ferry in Dover I felt at home....may be I was an English lady hundreds of years ago....*lol*...
I love your wonderful old Inns and pubs....your great countryside....your history....and the people who were always very very friendly and gentle....and of course I love your language....
and your special kind of humour....
Now some words because of the elk fabrics ....
If you want I can buy it at my patchwork shop and send you. I think it costs 18 Euros per meter,that`s 14,3192 Pounds...
But it is a very good material...
Best wishes
Iris

Heart in the country said...

Lovely pictures Dev. I agree with you that we share the space with the wild life rather than the other way around. I hope you can keep your hens safe from your 'furry neighbours'. I'm lucky in that my hens roost up a tree ....yes really, check out my blog for their pics, I think they may make you smile, so hopefully they will stay safe :)

Miss sew n sew said...

Hi Dev
It must be wonderful to be surrounded by wildlife where you live bit of a problem with the foxes though they are beautiful creatures and I see your point in respecting them. The man at the top of our lane feeds the foxes very naughty I know the other week we had one at our front door beleive it or not and it stayed for about 10mins for some ham I know you shoulodn't feed them but the kids were so excited to see one up close!
Sarahx

A Bun Can Dance said...

Hi Dev. I've no idea how to fix the photo thing, though I guess it does mean you'd never have any unwanted 'borrowers' of your photos. I loved reading this entry. I can sympathise with the fox problem, as we had lots of chickens when we were younger. But in spite of their 'free lunch' habits, foxes are such beautiful animals. Maybe the 2 foxes looking at you looking at them, were communicating something. Whenever I've had that experience of looking a wild creature in the eye, I've tended to think it must mean something. Good luck with the electric fence. Denise

Marja Kristiina said...

It must be wonderful to be able to observe wildlife so close to your own home! The only visitors in MY garden are the neighbour's cat and our local Common Pheasant family of four...

It's really nice that it's been so sunny lately. Got enough downpour over the summer. The leaves are yellow and flaming red and all the beauty thereof makes me breathless and oddly humble.

We're still waiting on the diagnosis of my husband's mother; she's in the hospital and the tumors have bene removed. Takes a while for the biopsy results to come in, though.

Take care!

PS. Have you received your Halloween swap gifts yet? I haven't and I haven't heard a beep from my counterpart either.

MelMel said...

I'm thinking it must have been a mistake...maybe someone having a clear out and not concentrating!!! mad!!
Charity shops rock!!!!!!!!xxx

Thing is i'm having a niggle...like i've done someone out of some money.....so will put my NSPCC direct debit up.....otherwise i'll feel bad!xxxx

Country Bliss said...

Hi, so funny - the dove taking it's time! Good luck with the electric fence there's not alot else you can do about it. as for the photos I just upload from 'my pictures' and it works don't know why, perhaps there's something in your blog settings.
Right mdf letters from www.aawoodcrafts.co.uk and Tilda fabric from www.thefatquarters.co.uk I bought it from here as you can buy a quarter for £2 rather than £11.90 a metre in Panduro.
Yvonne

Unknown said...

Foxes are Beautiful, but I do agree a pest to Chickens, I do hope that we will not encounter too many problems with them, although I expect we will as living in the countryside as you do they do seem to be everywhere! With regards to the pictures, do you 'save them as' a file on your desktop or in a folder on your pc or do you just take them from your memory card and dont actually save them onto your pc? x

Tinyholder said...

Hi Dev

Are the foxes getting into the house/run or do your chickens roam around in the garden? I know a way you could stop them getting into the run - do as they do for eglus, put a 1 foot skirt of chicken wire all around the run and the house - the theory being that Mr fox wont have the common sense to step back a foot and then start digging underneath. If they run around then I suppose it's just going to happen, I imagine it must happen all the time on farms.

I wish I did have a CK near me! I live in mid Sussex so my nearest CKs are either Tunbridge Wells or Brighton both of which are a good 45 mins away and are really busy places! The only reason I go to the Wimbledon one is because Tim goes up to see Chelsea so I catch a lift. I don't like going out of my way to places because I'm conscious of the high price of fuel these days! :-)

Pipany said...

Hello Dev. Lovely post as ever. We have had a few nasty hen & duck attacks from foxes over the years, though not for a while touch wood. I guess this is nature's way, but it sure hurts when you are fond of the animal you lose. Pretty pics xx

Curlew Country said...

Hi Dev, I have the same photo problems. Sorry no help I'm, afraid. On the robn tin front though I did just search "robin tin", simple as that and happened to come up trumps. Hope one turns up for you. Good luck!
Stephx
P.S cheeky old dove, they're so brazen aren't they.

MelMel said...

Olly got me the green bag with the ottomen roses print on last nite...is this the last bag? or is there one to go?
are you having a good day??x

MelMel said...

I'm so looking forward to L.I.A.....yippee!

I've loved them all too.....hope there is a Christmas one....mmm...if there was then they would make excellent pressies filled with treats to give to ppl...and its good way to save some money cos it looks more than it is....my friend did that with the buy one get one free....like hampers....think i may have to pinch her idea...i'm looking for ways to cut back but not look mean!!xxxxx

On my half day now....but yet another interview...i'm shaking slightly with nerves!!!eekkk!!

MelMel said...

I think your right...he looked much more hunky! yum!
xxx

MelMel said...

Cheers dor that...the dentist is the pits...thankfully i'm still on one of the dentist thta takes NHS...so the fee's are greatly reduced..but its still so very expensive!! gggrrr!!
.....i'm more annoyed because i'd put the money by to have a spend in York at the ck shop....oh well do i NEED another bag....maybe a pain free smile is nicer!!xxx

Goosey said...

Two lovely stories, I think maybe if you choose the large option for your photos they work if you click on them and come up in a seperate window.?!?

Merruli said...

We have also a couple of foxes going around here. Two weeks ago I was able to watch them play in our yard and now I heard they had even visited the yard of the kindergarden. It is so nice to see living foxes, because one gets to see them mostly dead by the motorways. Hopefully they'll leave your chicken alone and alive.

Have a happy, sunny weekend!

amanda said...

Hi-I'm new to your blog. I've been here once or twice before, until my husband decided to re arrange my favorites so I lost your blog. This is my first time to comment. I found while searching for fairies. I am a fan of your blog.

As a child I became mesmerized with fairies I saw in a children's book.

I also have Lady Cottington journals reproduced by Brian Froud.

I would like to follow your blog because I love to view your photos, see your creativity, and read your post.

I love the woods/cottage/hot chocolate coziness, which unfortunately I don't have living here in Myrtle Beach, but the beach is nice. I played/stayed in the woods as a child, and would and a dream of mine is to have a log cabin, cottage, or tree house in the forest.

I would like to invite you to visit my blog and/or my shutterfly page at www.photographybyamanda.site.shutterfly.com

Nice blog you have.

Summer by the sea said...

I really hope you don't lose any more birds Dev and that the fence does the trick - I used to keep chickens about 10 years ago and we were always getting visits from naughty Mr Fox! - Natalie x

Bohemian girl said...

I would be scared of the fox, I can tell you straight. At my mother-in-law's I could SMELL them on their patio that they visited at night. I was afraid to walk up there since then. Maybe it is a coded fear from previous generations. Who knows. Lovely post.