Taexalia

wild.life

Beginning With Fox Droppings

I have been staring at my screen trying to decide where to begin again on this blog. The more I think about it, the less likely I am to write about it. So I went to my stats page for a bit of inspiration... and the top reason people are finding this blog is because they want to identify poop. Fox poop is the poop of choice today. Well - if I'm going to write a pile of shit in an effort to be creative, I might as well try to be useful. *grin* Personally, I think that getting to know ... read more

Haiku ~ Mountain Hare

Mountain Hare moves first

Chooses direction later

Move and see what's coming...

Red Tailed Bee Taks A Dram

I found this little fellow on my garden path looking a bit dazed and confused. He seemed to be trying to get somewhere, but unable to fly.

Our bees are precious and they are under threat and I tried to help by sending Himself inside to dilute some honey with water on a saucer. I nudged the bee off my finger onto the plate and he immediately began to drink. It took quite a while for him to get his fill, but then a bees tongue is a ... read more

Flying Solo

I gaze out at the hazy blue sky, relishing the bright sunshine after days of wind and rain. I am up early, getting things done, energised. A movement catches my eye and I am mesmerised by the sailing shape of a Buzzard. This is the front window that looks over the town to the Forth and I am used to watching Buzzards out the back windows. I relish this unusual sight.

Then a Crow flies into the ... read more

Butterfly Flutterby

I caught a segment of the BBC morning show this morning that left me disappointed and throwing my hands up in the air at what passes for "work" these days. The segment was supposed to be highlighting how gardeners can help to combat the decline in butterfly numbers by planting butterfly friendly plants. You can imagine my disappointment (and random mutterings) when the entire segment seemed to focus on "plant Buddleia and aren't ... read more

Morning Sunshine

I confess I am tired of the snow.

It's hard walking a hound in a world where the motion of cars is The Most Important Thing. This translates to a street where the pavements have been used as a dumping place for snow. We have to walk on the road. Is it on the road, or in the road? Either/Or.

People are digging out their cars and throwing snow onto the pavement, ... read more

Snow Shoes

It finally snowed last night. All week I have been seeing pictures, news reports, status updates and chatter about snow. All week I have been trying to big up the slivers of frost caught in the gaps between paving stones, willing them to expand. Last night we took the hound for his bedtime walk. I wore a fleece and a singular pair of trousers. It was cold, but yet again - no snow. As we rounded the corner and looked out over the Firth, we could see the ... read more

Autumn Gateway

Doorways, gateways, arches, wooden doors with big iron hinges and locks, caves, animal burrows and places where trees meet across a path... These can all be liminal spaces, places where a transition is made. I found a wonderful liminal space whilst walking at Lochore Meadows, Fife. As I ambled along the path and rounded a bend, I was taken with the vision of the natural archway that the Hawthorn and Scots Pine made, and the way they framed the Sycamore ... read more

Life Death Rebirth

Samhain, Hallowe'en, the end of summer...

The life force is ebbing inward

The oak leaf is reborn with each new colour

When it is gone

The acorn holds

A promise

First Frost

I remembered to take my camera with me this morning, but I forgot to take a pair of gloves. I will have to give in and accept that summer is officially over, and go in search of my winter warmers.

I don't think that Jack Frost arrived so early last year, yet the Hawthorn and Rowan are laden with red berries and this suggests a hard winter. Folklore, I'm told, and yet the early frost suggests there might be some truth to ... read more

Red Fox Droppings

If you are not one of the many people who arrives on this blog looking for photos of fox droppings, feel free to look at my old photo of an urban foxie and then move on... You have been warned.

I could tell that there was a fox about this morning before we crossed the road and entered the less used path to the Crow Tree. I can't tell you how I knew, I just knew. When the Hound began to get ... read more

Lone Pine Standing

This Lone Scots Pine stands overlooking the Firth of Forth near to where I live. I see it every day, a constant and consistent marker on the journey. Some days I don't really see it, or even acknowledge it's presence and other days, like today, I pause to look at it and take in it's stature. I wonder how this tree came to be growing here. It is the only Scots Pine in an area sprinkled with pockets and swathes of mixed deciduous ... read more

Dance of the Red Fox

We went for a walk yesterday morning and one of the differences between the greyhound and the humans was highlighted as we climbed the steps to the high field. His nose engaged and his body language hinted at the traces of something interesting that happened earlier, he sees first with his nose, then his eyes. With us, our eyes engaged first with him and then with the changes in the landscape we noticed... a small area of ... read more