I love the weird and the bizarre…and tonight I saw both in garden. First of all you need to know that our back garden is quite small. Most of it is paved, but we have these two little wildernesses; one to the side and one behind us. Our small green patch of grass links the two now that part of the fence refuses to stay upright. The lawn is about nine foot by twelve ft.
I was in the kitchen finishing the paper after eating blueberry pancakes for dinner when the Goblin quietly called from the living room for me to come quick. He was peering out the side window. It was dusk, but there was just enough light to see. We peered out over the back end of the car to the patch of grass. Earlier the Goblin had chopped up half a stale French loaf and put it out for the birds. There in the garden was a muntjac deer! They’re quite tiny and they have this weird hunched over look as if they’ve been reading too long. The first time I saw one in the yard I thought it was a dog. It was eating the cubes of French bread. Then I saw something move out from under the trees. It was a fox! It ignored the deer and started eating the bread too. You could tell they didn’t like each other, but they were putting up with each other for the easy meal. Then from the back wilderness through the missing fence I saw something move and a baby deer hesitantly stepped into the garden and still the fox ignored it. It was SO bizarre…a fox and a two deer in our tiny garden eating French bread. The fox didn’t want to share and drove the deer off which caused the back light to come on. Facing us, it continued eating in the full glare of the light.
It’s like we have our own little zoo in the backyard. Last week the Goblin looked out the window and saw a full grown badger amble from the trees into the back wilderness. Earlier today we had the baby bunnies eating the grass and the squirell out looking for scraps. We also have bats. A few years ago I found one sleeping on a net curtain next to the fridge. I have no idea how it came to be there, but after the Goblin came home from work he put some gloves on and carefully moved it outside. It flew away! We had a toad in the garage last year. I think toads are so cute and they eat spiders which makes them even cuter. The Goblin saw a weazle once too, though I’ve never seen it. There aren’t any cats near by so we get lots of birds. I think my favorite garden creature though has to be the snails. I think they’re SOOOO cute. It’s the designer in me. I love how their shells are all different, some quite beautiful. I love how they seem to move really slow, but they seem to disapear like magic. On wet mornings I enjoy seeing them squiging about, their little eyes waving on stalks. I rescued one from the sidewalk on my way home earilier in the week. It was heading for the hot road. I picked it up and carried it into the yard and set it down somewhere safe. My good deed for the day; I saved a snail!
It was a lovely day today…but seeing the deer and the fox in the garden…that made it quite special!
I miss living in a place like that. When I was younger we lived near a farmers feild. it was swampy and all sorts of little critters lived there. we had racoons in our window well, and we saved mice and voles from the neighbour’s cat. One time, we found a star nosed mole under the pine trees- it was so cool! Someday I hope I can have a big backyard garden and lure some of gods creatures into setting up residence there.
@Emily
It is lovely having animals about…at least animals that aren’t big enough to eat one…I don’t think I’d want to live in bear/wolf country!
But I think having nature around one’s home is really important for one’s mental health! Before we moved here we lived in a tiny third floor flat/apartment for eight years. Thankfully the back windows overlooked an old cemetery with lots of trees and a rookery or I would have cracked up. I love rooks! They’re a large type of crow with large grey beaks. They’re gorgeous when they fly; black moving silhouettes. We have a rookery just over the road near the grocery store. In the evening you see them flying home in groups (I call them squadrons). They’re lovely!