Going Through The Motions

We feed everything that wanders through our yard/garden, practically.  Here in England, we have grey squirrels, foxes, badgers, jays, starlings, woodpeckers, magpies, crows, tits, wrens, robins, pigeons, and other small birds, and feral cats and neighborhood cats.  I don't feed the deer but only because I have experience with them becoming a nightmare in the garden with little blessings of deer poop everywhere that never goes away or gets cleaned up.   Unfortunately, the larger birds have pretty much chased away the smaller birds but I have heard that there are fewer tits and robins and wrens around the last couple of years anyway.  I believe that is so because the first two years here, we had plenty of all kinds of sizes of birds.  Now we are low on all bird life!  And to my everlasting sorrow, no hedgehogs.

The cats that wander through have varied over the years.  At one time, we had as many as 6 coming and going during the day.  Now we are down to just two, one tabby and one long haired golden colored kitty.  The tabby will come up to be petted if I stand in one place long enough.  The golden cat is too skittish and never comes near me.

The squirrels are up and down the feeder and adjacent trees and around the yard all day long.  They race along the fence railing, jumping over the posts and fight each other for supremacy in the feeder.  When one of the cats comes into the yard, the squirrels scatter, run up into the trees and curse and curse and curse until the cat leaves.  I can always tell when a cat is in the garden because of the noise the squirrels make.

The golden cat has decided that a very good place to sit is almost directly under the feeder.  The squirrels have decided that if they want the peanuts, they are just going to have to race a bit faster to nab one and race away from the sitting cat.   For awhile, I don't think the golden cat was feeling well because she (no idea if male or female but she looks too cute and sweet to be a male) would just sit and watch the squirrels and never budge.  Or was she just luring them in for later???

Standing in the house one day, squirrels in the feeder and on the railing and suddenly a streak of gold as the cat races from the side of the house and up the feeder pole to land on the railing herself and swipe a paw at a squirrel.  Wowzer.  She had never done that before.  Since that day, I have seen her several times make a run at the squirrels, never quite catching them but almost giving them a swipe.  She then settles into her spot and the squirrels come and go again to the feeder with her just watching them.

I think it's all for show!  Nobody is hungry since there is food out for them to eat.  Today, the golden cat came running into the back garden and ran at a squirrel who jumped up to the railing and sat there scolding her.  Another squirrel was sitting on the ground just about 4' away from her.  She turned around and saw it and made a half-hearted run at it and I swear she could have caught it before the squirrel decided to leave.  It's almost as if they are playing tag!  Tag, you're it now you run away because I really don't want to have to go to the trouble of killing you and eating you. Yes, we are ancient enemies.  I am the hunter, you are the prey, but let's just go through the motions and be done with it. 

A Three - NO Four! Frog Day

A Three – NO Four Frog Day!

            We have a water cascade in our garden.  It has been covered up for several years as the owner of the house filled it in when his children were little.  We stumbled upon it when we were pulling out a particularly large weed and the gardener stepped into the deep end.  Long story short, the pump still worked but there were some holes in the membrane and we’ve been busy caulking and patching the stone work and concrete so we can run it and stop losing water.

            Today was the day to replace the membrane.  I have two fish living in the bottom waterfall pond section so that they can eat the mosquito larvae.   My helper (he does all the work but I have the money so I get to be the boss LOL) arrived and we gathered some buckets.  The best way to fix the holes and leaks in the membrane would be to just take out the old and put in a new.  Luckily the owner had provided me with a large hunk of fresh membrane.  So he starts pulling out water.  I warn him that there are two fish in there and he is able to catch one.  I also saw a frog in there this morning so he’s looking for the frog too.  He catches the frog and I take it and put it in the bigger fish pond on the lily pad.  By the time I got back to the waterfall, my helper had found another frog!  OK, it goes over to the bigger fish pond as well.

            By now, the water level is getting low.  I swipe the net through the water a couple of times and come up with the other fish.  He joins his pal in a bucket and later I put them in the one part of the waterfall/cascade that doesn’t have a leak and has enough water for them and enough mosquito larvae to keep them busy for a few days.  There is maybe 6” of water remaining in the lower pond.  My helper suddenly spies another frog that is decidedly unhappy with the dwindling water.  We fish him out of the pond and he goes to join his pals in the larger pond.  I set them all on a lily pad but by the time I return, they are gone.

            Wow, three frogs.  I knew there were two in the yard but didn’t realize they were both in the cascade.  Finally, we are almost out of water in the basin when my helper says, OMG, here’s another frog, a fourth frog!  He was hiding in the mud at the bottom.  He’s lucky we didn’t pull out the membrane with him in it and throw him onto the yard.  We caught him and he gets put on a lily pad too. 

            So four frogs!  My helper thinks they were living at the bottom of the basin in a layer of mud.  Quite possible and now we’ve put in a new membrane and there’s no mud there.  Well, they are in the bigger pond with most of the fish and I hope they are happy there for a while because I don’t think I can find them and catch them to put them back.  Wish they would do a better job of eating small insects though.  If they had done their job, never would have had to put the fish in the basin with them. 

My Backyard-Back Garden Polo field

     I know little to nothing about polo other than it's played on a large field, on  large horses, and a small ball or something is hit with a stick.  Not having royals in the U.S. riding about playing polo and being in the news, the best I have is watching "Pretty Woman" where it seems that the break is used to go onto the field and stomp the divots back into the ground.   "Divots" seems to be a polo or a golf term, a piece of dirt and grass dug up by the golfer or the horses hooves.

     My backyard or back garden as is the term to be used in England, has many divots but I've yet to see a golfer in my garden or a horse playing polo.  My divots come from the squirrels.  I have been in the habit for many years of feeding anything that wanders through my garden.  This includes but is not limited to: squirrels, birds, mice, groundhogs, badgers, foxes, deer, cats, dogs, moles, voles, shrews, etc. etc.  In the U.S., it was usually cats and dogs and birds and opossums, skunks and raccoons.  Here in the U.K., so far it has been deer (who ate my tulips so they aren't getting any more), cats, birds, a couple of small mice, squirrels, and I am hoping and hoping to get badgers and foxes and hedgehogs but haven't had any luck with the last three yet.  I've been told that the badgers and foxes will really dig up my garden but couldn't prove it by me yet.  What's causing my garden to look like a polo pitch (field?) are the squirrels.  They are busy burying the peanuts I've put out and then busy wandering around looking for the peanuts they have buried.  I don't think they have much luck because every morning, I find a lot of new divots in the garden but no peanuts.  I watch them through the back window and they run from spot to spot and furiously paw in the ground to get a small hole and NOPE, no peanut in there so they run a foot or so and try again.  I know they are looking for the peanuts previously buried because they've eaten all the new ones put out every morning.

     So each morning as I go out to put out new peanuts and meal-worms or whatever I am doling out that day, I am busy stomping divots back into the ground.  I feel very posh doing the divot stamp.  Julia Roberts did it quite earnestly and lovely in "Pretty Woman".  I am wondering though, where is my handsome young polo player to take my shoes and clean the mud off of them??  I'm sure my hubby would do it but he's already gone to work.  Maybe I'm in the wrong neighborhood for polo players.  Maybe I should be looking for the fox and hound riders.  Maybe I should quite feeding peanuts to the squirrels.  nah.  ain't gonna happen.  too much fun watching them scamper and stomping divots.  guess I'll have to clean my own shoes.