Today my ribs are much better, but Jerry wasn’t so lucky. In the meadow the dark dog fox was stealthily sniffing in the long grass. He pricked his ears, stared down, jumped, and pounced forward. He caught the mouse on his first attempt. After scaring away the roe deer the other day, this time I froze. Didn’t try to lift the bins. He still clocked me but rather than running, decided to treat me to a hunting lesson. There must have been another mouse down there as he listened acutely, did dome digging, and pounced several times more. Eventually he gave me another look as if to say ‘that’s your lot’, and moved off. I’ve caught him several times at night recently on my garden camera trap, just static monochrome. Here he put on a live show.
The bluebells are at their best now, a shimmer of blue, even more vivid on a dull day. But in and amongst there are others in flower, with names seemingly edible or heavenly: Cow parsley; garlic mustard; honesty; yellow archangel. No sign of my ‘friend’ the nut-hack today, but so what. It’s worth going in the wood for the flowers alone.
In the farmers field, the woodpigeons and crows have enlisted two grey partridge in their campaign to devour the winter wheat . The farmer has had to re-seed. The first sowing rotted following the March rains. Now in April we have a drought and the crop is struggling again to grow. We need the flour. They need to seed. If there is a lesson in there, it’s probably we all need to make the best of what is promising to be a very difficult year. Hopefully before long we’ll be able to get out and enjoy nature more fully.