Thank goodness for Della. She stopped by today to let me know that she had seen a fox, as bold as brass walking down the fields near her farm , pen-y-cefn-isa, and although I know that foxes are always around, her warning put me on top alert so to speak.
Tonight, just before the light turned into dusk I made a point of leaving the warmth of the wood stove to go and watch the hens form themselves into small groups outside their respective hen houses (the turkeys and ducks had already been put away into their own houses)
Before I got to the field, I could hear the smallest of my bantam cockerels, Pirrie(above), angrily chattering away from his vantage point on the top of the ark roof. In immediate response the roosters Jesus and old Stanley started to run up the field and the three guinea fowl started to scream from the Churchyard wall. I caught sight of Hughie, Alf and Ivy and all three of them were craning their necks in the direction of the riding school in anger and panic.
I followed their gaze, and there standing 50 yards away with his face poking through a gap in the fence was a large fox.
Despite my advancing years and wellies, I galloped forward shrieking like a girl, and the fox turned and trotted off ( not galloped but trotted! how bloody rude was that?)
I stayed out until every hen was locked up and the guinea fowl were safely up in their Churchyard tree!!
Thanks again Della
x
Our second film of the day, as it turned out, was not a bag-of-laughs either!
