Enter the dragon

Chinese New Year came around quickly - January 23rd, the last two years it's been in February. Serves me right for suggesting we launch a work project to co-incide with Chinese New Year, but thankfully despite the the tight time frame it launched OK.

Another project I want dealt with before the Chinese New Year is out is our downstairs bathroom/utility room, but it's early February and still not much to report. The builders came back with a quote of £8k but this could've escalated depending how difficult it is to find waste pipes under the concrete. We've decided to go back to Plan A which is to expand the existing downstairs cloakroom to accommodate a shower, and separate the utility room from the garage. The builders popped round last night and discussed plumbing some more, and suggested ways of improving the water pressure so now we're waiting on a revised quote.

In the meantime, winter has finally kicked in with the current outdoor temparature at -3 degrees (Celcius). It might even snow at long last. Great time for the boiler to start leaking everywhere - it's got a condensation pipe that's not attached properly any more (deteriorating sealant or something?). I've been texting the guy who installed it all day but he's busy. And it's Saturday tomorrow, eep. (Pictured: the canal near our house, with ice!)

This morning this fluffy fox was right up against the glass doors peering in. I showed him my (vintage) rabbit fur coat and mouthed 'You're next' and he promptly walked to my rosemary bush, lifted a leg and pissed on it. I feel a fox war coming on.

Foxy

Foxes in Hackney have had justifiably bad press lately, thanks to the awful incident with the baby twins being mauled in their cot while they slept (not far from where we live, actually).

We've noticed an increase in fox presence the last few months. Twice we've had a cub on the roof of the glass extension, which I can assure you, is incredibly freaky when you're looking up at a hairy belly and the doors are wide open.

Lately there's been a sunbathing fox over the fence from us. (Pictured - photo taken from the top floor, she's that brown smudge next to the hedge. Excuse the parched lawn). She's there in the morning, the evening and whenever it's sunny. I thought foxes were nocturnal? One of my neighbours bought a sonic sensor which is meant to keep foxes and cats out of his garden, but I've seen the local tough cat sauntering straight past it without so much as a twitch.

Fantastic Mr Fox

The Easter weekend meant four days of eating, drinking and more drinking
finishing on Monday with a BBQ. During this time we saw a lot of our
friendly neighbourhood fox. I was about to throw away a chicken carcass
and decided that the fox would benefit from some remnants of the plump
organic bird, so tossed it onto the deck. Sure enough, the fox came back
and disposed of the carcass. Rob had been drinking - a lot - and said he
was going to make the fox "work a bit harder". He tied a length of blue
string to a chicken wing and chucked it onto the deck, holding the other
end of the string. Our dinner guests laughed politely but I could tell
they thought it was a bit odd (one of them is a vegetarian!). We turned
out the lights, and lay in wait, camera poised. I felt a bit like Bill
Oddie bird watching, waiting for the money shot.

The fox came back, and took the wing and unfortunately ran round the
side of the house and not out onto the lawn. The string became taut then
the fox let go, so we reeled the wing back in. A few minutes later, the
fox was back, cautiously peering over the deck. It went for a second
strike and this time ran onto the lawn - hoorah! It tussled with the
string for about a minute, before it succeeded and ran off with its
prize. Strangely satisfying.

The next night, we tried piling some past-their-best sausages onto an
upturned bucket. This wasn't so successful as the deck was covered in
stinky sausies the next morning. We won't be putting out food for the
fox any more.

Postscript. By popular demand here's a video of that first visit, when Mr Fox snaffled the wing, only to run off round the side of the house...