On my walk today, I saw a fox. It came out of a gate in the Oval and because it was eight o’clock in the morning I initially took it to be a dog. After all you don’t expect to see foxes at that time of day and the brain is programmed to make sense of the unexpected, so when a pointed face pokes out of a driveway I was waiting for the owner of the animal to follow. Instead the fox looked at me; I looked at it and it trotted back the way it had come.
Because I was on my way to post a birthday card, I had to change my usual route and instead of going to the Brampton Park, I went to one in Basford instead. This is a very different green space, far less formal, with no flowerbeds or railings, just a wide sweep of green with football posts and a path that runs round it for joggers or dog walkers. Being high up there is also a great view over the tops of the trees to Hartshill Church. The greenery completely hides the houses and the main road and you could almost be in a country field.
Trying to keep that country/wildlife experience I walked home wherever possible along the alleys that run behind the terraced houses. The world of the backs is fascinating. There is wildlife, birds and brambles, there are glimpses of neat gardens and ones where everything has been left to run wild, heaps of rubbish and beautifully constructed compost pens. There was a lovely cherry tree and a riot of clematis along a wall. Best of all I was the only walker. If it hadn’t been raining I would have lingered, there is so much to learn about the people who live in those houses, but as it was I took a few pictures, then hurried home for breakfast.
Keep safe.
PS Neither photo is mine, nor are the houses in Stoke, but it’s the best I could do. For some unknown reason the pictures I sent from my phone haven’t arrived. They are somewhere up there in the ether but not in my in box. (Sighs!)
Misha Herwin 