As we walk through the top plots, both Lottie and I sense
someone is watching us. Is it Sidney squirrel? Is a plot holder hiding behind
their runner beans? No, we see two fox cubs sunning themselves on Howard’s box
outside his shed.
They sit there looking at us as we stare at them. Is it a
game of who blinks first?
Have you ever tried to get the phone out of your pocket
switch it on, curse as you get the security number wrong then open the photo
app to find the picture you want has gone, the animals have gone, birds flown
or the squirrels given up waiting for you. Then you must focus and find it is
set to video not photo.
This pair are still there as bold as brass. I quickly take a
photo of them as they pose and pretend, they own the plot?
Lottie the whippet is frozen eyes transfixed on the pair, nose
sniffing and ear turned to alert and her two eyes are trying to outstare their four.
It is like a scene out of High Noon or a Fistful of Dollars.
Click, I capture the foxes and as if on que Lottie lets out
a single bark and they drop slowly oof the box and sulk off behind the shed.
I think they knew Lottie was on her lead and no real danger
and the exit was more of a statement and as if they were quietly sticking two claws
at Lottie up on the leaving. Not nice but after al they are not house trained
and live on the wild side.
They are gone.
As we leave the top plots and pass the farm’s yard there are
a couple of plot holders sweating over a big pile of cow manure. It’s
questionable if the steam from the manure is greater than that emanating from
the two of them busy forking the muck into their wheelbarrow?
You would think that being next to a farm we would be awash,
or knee deep in rotten muck, but such are health and safety or environmental
rules today it is easier for them to hire a huge skip, fill it every day with
the slop outs from the various stables and have it transported away each month
than donate it to the allotments. It’s a crazy world where rules force muck to be
shipped in large containers each month to probably end up in a dump, recycling
area or landfill at a financial cost to all and that’s without all the transport
miles. All we need is an area to store the manure and allow it to rot down, and
then an army of plot holders with wheelbarrows will do the rest. However, the
rules dictate any area must be fully fenced off, have a concrete base, runaways
and access and movement controls. It is only manure!
Never mind, we will all just spend more money buying compost
and the farm paying to have their manure taken away instead.
It’s like the wood chippings. The farm buys in chippings or
gets them delivered from local tree cutters who probably wish to avoid having
to dispose of them via recycling dumps. We are surrounded by trees and every
year the farm and ourselves pollard and the majority of the off curs end up
being burnt which is both harmful, environmentally wrong and a waste of
recyclable material.
The good news is that the farm have made a bid to get an industrial
chipper which will dramatically cut back
on the burning, encourage more pollarding and provide a mountain of chippings
they and we can make use of. As a gesture I tentatively offered to contribute financially
as it not only makes environmental sense but is good all round. Let’s hope it
works out and we have an endless supply of chippings for mulch, to add to
compost and to use on paths.
It strange that we all too often fail to embrace that which
is around us. The foxes are more frightened of us than we of them and we do not
have any rodents when they are on patrol. The farm animals all produce manure
which when rotted down improves soil and adds the richest nutrients and trucking
it away just is senseless. Chipping the tree off cut branches makes more sense
than.
Learning to live with wildlife, to use material resources
such as manure and tree cuttings sensibly All maybe obvious to many but not always
to those who make the rules.
