The Foxening and the Plantening

First, a tale of our morning. But be forewarned, lots of pictures below.

Phin woke me up at 5:15 to go out, too early to eat, I encouraged him back to bed after he peed. At about 6:15 he was up and that's a good time for brekkie. I let him out, went to the bathroom, fed, watered him, brought him in, and went back to bed myself. 

I usually get a good hour before he wants to go out for post-meal doings, but at 6:40 he was up and pacing, panting. Upset.

And I could hear the crows.

We had the windows open, and I was in the guest room by the back yard, and there was a hell of a conference happening out there. 

I sat up in bed and looked out the window to see a fox, just sitting there. So I grabbed my phone to see if I could catch a shot of it before it ran off. 

Only, it was not running off. It was hunting in the overgrowth and not yet mowed area under the crepe myrtle.

The crows though. Wow. 

Those guys did not enjoy having a predator just hanging out. They don't fuss at Phineas, they know he's no harm. But this guy? Trouble! 

Caw! Caw! Caw! And the entire neighborhood was on alert. Other birds were joining in. And the entire corner was screaming the alarm.

I went and woke Doug up because I figured he wouldn't want to miss this (and I was right!). He said he heard them and wondered why they were just going on and on like that. He came to join me, and we sat and watched.

My picture isn't great because of the screen, but, it is a healthy looking specimen,  shapely and healthy. Tail is a little mangey but that's okay. We're not all perfect.

The fox was jumping up in the air and pouncing on something, over and over. It was actually funny to watch. I've seen pictures of foxes doing this, jumping up and pouncing. There are famous pictures of a fox doing this in the snow. A musician I'm friends with has one on the cover of one of his albums. 

We saw it pick up something small and black and toss it like a cat would a mouse. And pounce on it again. Over and over. Doug figured it was a mole or something small, and that the fox had killed it, and was doing what they do. After a while, it sat down and was just looking up at the trees where the crows were, somewhat perturbed by them squawking at him so much. By about then, it decided that the time to leave had arrived, so .... how to get out?

It couldn't figure out how to get over the fence. It couldn't fit through the gap in the gate. Friend, you got in here - you can figure out how to get out, right? 

It ran around the yard several times. Fast! Ran over by our back steps, around the patio, around front! Right about then I was very happy I had not let Phineas out when he was antsy. I'm glad I decided to look out to see what the crows were all about. Phin has a routine. He goes out, pees and whatnot, goes to the side of the house, and goes around back on patrol to check out the scene, comes around front, and lets us know he's ready to come in. 

They would have met, and I know Phin would have engaged. 

Would the fox leap over the fence? I am not sure. Relieved that he was sitting on the carpet behind us, we watched him pace around, trying the fence while his adversaries voiced displeasure. Eventually, it went behind the crepe myrtle, found a tree stump from a previous time, covered in ivy, jumped on it and cleared the fence. I cheered a little for it. 

We watched it stroll up the street, sniffing at my neighbors' gardens, strolling through their unfenced properties. Crows on the wing flying up the tree line and keeping everyone alert to the goings on. 

Well. Adventure. Doug went out to look to see if there was carnage or a mess or anything, and the only sign of trouble was some weeds and grass dug out, and he didn't see any hole or a nest or anything that the fox was onto that would indicate critters to watch for. 

It was 7am. And we were up for the day. While Doug surveyed the fox scene, I made coffee, and a quick pbj sandwich because I woke up hungry. And Phineas got to go out and do his thing without incident. 

As promised, pictures from yesterday. 

First, on the shelf in the veggies department outside there was a cool rock. I don't use Tik Tok so I can't go look up who the rock project is, but I do appreciate the good wishes for an amazing day.

Top picture: 3 garden plots in dire need of turning.
Bottom: all the veggies waiting for their new homes.

Flowers and Herbs ready for their new homes.

F

Front porch pot, out with the old, in with the new.

Busted crock, one of many! We'll find a repurpose for it!

Top: Rosemary, and Thyme. You can see the thyme that overwintered, and the bit we added.
Bottom: Oregano. Some came back this year and like the thyme, we added a plant.

An alternate view of yesterday's Phineas on the porch shot. Little bugger refuses to look at me for pictures!

I think Doug made a mistake, the blue/purple is (I think?) ground cover, not flower pot material. It's called Lithodora but we'll see how it does. I think it is going to need a bigger pot.

The maroonish purple one is Celosia. There were three plants in one big pot, so I took two out for other pots and left this one here in the yellow pot it came in. Looks like it will be happy there, but will miss its friends.

Phineas photo bombed when I tried to take pictures of the jalapeno peppers.

morning coffee today

digits:

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps; lots of steps inside Kohls when I took Geoff shopping. 

blood glucose:

7am: 185
5pm: 165
9:45pm: 190

food:

coffee, water 
7:15am: pbj on 647 bread
11:30: 2good yogurt. Metformin
3pm: 1/2 apple w/pb
5pm: left over curry sauce w/onions and peppers
6:30: chicken parm (1/2 a chicken breast) w/ about a cup of ziti.
7pm: metformin+jardiance
8:30pm: ramekin mixed nuts

wine