The Fox in the Garden

A good share of Mary's energy this week has been expended on the house, both interior and exterior. Out in the garden there has been a lot of weeding, trimming, digging, de-mossing, and a bit of planting. Oh, and care of livestock, as well. Or perhaps better, avoidance of livestock. There is a stray cat that hangs out in the neighborhood. Like most Brits, it has gone out of its way to be friendly. Mary, however, is having none of it, as she does not particularly want a pet.

The other livestock to be avoided is the fox that sometimes sleeps on the compost pile behind the garden shed. This fox looks a little mangy, but appears to be harmless enough. I spotted him first. Mary didn't believe me, I don't think, until she walked out in the yard and met him face-to-face.



While Mary has been working on the garden, I've been working hard at some repairs in the student flat, figuring out administrative stuff, and driving. The program now owns a "sat nav" (as a GPS is called around here). Ms. TomTom has a crisp English accent, and is even polite enough to point out which exit one is to take from the roundabout ahead. This, and the fact that I am beginning to get my bearings in general, have given me confidence to take a few short shopping trips solo -- or with Mary, which is nearly like going solo, since she is just as lost as I am. Ms. TomTom, however, does not remind me to look both ways before making right turns across traffic. No mishaps yet, just the honking of horns.

Today was a beautiful, sunny day. We walked to the nearby Anglican Church, St. Margaret's, where people were, as always, unfailingly friendly (especially the Rector's wife, who happened to sit right behind us -- probably on purpose -- Mary could relate). The service, however, could have been in America, complete with a guitar group up front and the words to less-than-inspiring praise songs projected on a screen. Not our cup of tea.

In the afternoon we and the sat nav dared an excursion out of town to visit Sherwood Forest, the supposed lair of Robin Hood. The movie in the interpretive center said that the forest was 100,000 acres in the Middle Ages, but after Henry VIII broke up the church lands, the agricultural revolution, and the industrial revolution, the forest was down to only 37 acres when the national park was founded in the 1960s, and has since been expanded to about 400+ acres. So it's less than half the size of the small state park near Cedar Falls where we used to ride our bikes. Robin and his Merry Men would have been rounded up by the Sheriff in no time in a space that small!

It actually hit 27C today (which is 81F, for those who don't speak Celcius), by far the warmest day here so far for us. That made walking in the woods a warm experience. A cold beer in the shade of the back yard provided relief. The fox was nowhere to be seen.