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 poop is a fab passtime. Most wildlife, especially mammals, tend to stay hidden - and who can blame them? - so it adds something to a walk if you can get a sense of the secret life of a deserted path, and who has been sharing the space.

Foxes are quite common in the UK. In towns and cities, their populations are on the increase as they take advantage of our untidy behaviour. Urban foxes are often more visible and daring than their rural counterparts, possibly because there's not the same culture of lamping in gardens and parks as there is in the countryside. (A practise this blogger wholly disagrees with, in case it wasn't obvious.)

In the countryside, you are more likely to see fox droppings than you are to see the fox - but you might have some difficulty differentiating it from all the other poop (especially those left by irresponsible dog owners! don't get me started!), so here's a few tips and a wee sketch I made for you. I may add new photos for your viewing pleasure at a later date, but there is a blurry fox dropping here.

The general rule of thumb is that a carnivore dropping is usually sausage shaped with one rounded end and one pointed end. In the case of the Red Fox, their dropping are used to mark territory and they are often found in the middle of a path or - even better - on a raised place such as a step, a rock, a tussock, or even a handy mole hill.

Foxes have a varied diet and they scavenge as well as hunt. This means the colour and content of their droppings can vary a great deal, especially in Autumn when there are lots of berries to gorge on. Fox droppings may contain bones, feathers, fur, insect chitin and recycled Chinese takeways. Fox droppings are usually 8-10cm long but foxes will often spread their droppings out which makes it harder to see the pointy end, or the full size. Over time, your powers of observation will get to know the poops in a given spot and hopefully you will get the best confirmation of all - a fox sighting.

Have you found any interesting tracks and signs recently?

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Beginning With Fox Droppings originally appeared on Taexalia on January 15, 2012.

Mountain Hare moves first

Chooses direction later

Move and see what's coming...

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Haiku ~ Mountain Hare originally appeared on Taexalia on September 14, 2011.

I apologise in advance if this turns into a mish-mash of ideas and a ramble. I'm trying to tease the Who I Am Response out of the knotted tangle of Emotional Reactions of what I have seen over the past few days.

I reject the idea that the riots that have dominated several English cities are simply a product of poverty, or race. I see people from all walks of life indulging in this behaviour - men and women, boys and girls of many ethnic backgrounds. They are not dressed in rags, they are in possession of mobile phones and some of them have jobs - a graphic designer, a teacher and someone who recently joined the armed forces - these are not poverty stricken, unemployed youths from the ganglands.

I have heard several interviews where perpetrators claim the responsibility lies with the government, and yes in some ways it does - but I cannot accept the failures of government justifies violence, destruction, theft and killing. Even if I sometimes see the government indulging in those very same examples of behaviour.

I do not wholly support the Police - their methods are highly questionable and their management of crowds fails often, and even leads to the death of innocent people. We need to know the full story of what happened in the taxi that resulted in the shooting of Mark Duggan. We need to know the full story behind claims that a 16 year old girl was attacked by 15 riot police at the vigil following his death - did police methods inflame things? If so, they need to consider their part in this.

I reject the idea that rioting that spread was in any way a protest against Mark Duggan's shooting. It looked more to me like a free for all opportunity to steal coveted consumer goods and destroy other people's property. That is unacceptable to me as "protest".

I am bemused by the apparent lack of police response in many areas. I am bemused by the reports that instructions seemed to be "stand back and let it happen". I understand that they were stretched and dealing with a highly unusual and challenging set of circumstances, but I cannot help but recall my own negative experiences of police behaviour. I experienced kettling during a political rally in Edinburgh - the road was officially closed to traffic by the council until 5pm to allow space for the protest to conclude with the rally. At around 3pm the police began to close ranks and try to herd us onto the pavement, squashing us together like sardines. They had no legitimate reason for doing this and it felt very much like they were trying to instigate trouble. To this day I think it was an abuse of power, but I know that if trouble had erupted it would have been the protesters who would have been tarred with the brush of disgrace.

Another encounter with Police springs to mind - this time in London following an American Football game at Wembley. We were walking to the tube station and crowd management techniques apparently involve mounted police creating breaks in the crowd to filter folk down in stages. The policewoman on the horse nearest us beckoned us through and we stepped forward and then the policeman on the other side shouted and backed his horse at me and I thought I was going to be trampled. I thought it was disgraceful that in following the instructions of one officer, another felt entitled to endanger me and intimidate me.

On neither of these occasions was I breaking any law, acting in an unruly manner or damaging anyone's property.

So to watch the footage of riots, violence and looting and see officers standing back leaves me confused. It seems like a massive swing to go from over zealous treatment of peaceful people (including the death of Ian Tomlinson) to the softly softly approach taken this week with violent rioters.

Of course in some places the police did not even turn up, so stretched were their numbers - but at the very least questions need answers and there needs to be better definition over what is acceptable from a crowd and what is acceptable from police.

Seeing the wider reaction and commentary to the riots, I can at once understand the anger at what these people have done but I also find myself wondering why things erupted this way - what were the catalysts, how can we create a phoenix from the flames and heal the rifts in society that breed this contempt?

I hear the calls for water cannons and rubber bullets, the calls for intervention from the army and I feel sad that we collectively seem to want to respond in kind. For to respond to the specific incidents that have taken place with any of these extreme measures equates to instantly over-riding guidelines and policies with a knee-jerk reaction. I appreciate experienced police officers who have experience of using these methods in Northern Ireland speaking out and saying that none of the incidents have warranted rubber bullets etc. In London, at least, the increased police numbers seems to have averted repeat performances without the need to resort to violence.

One theme running through this for me is the group dynamic - how the frenzy builds and people allow themselves to follow the crowd and do things they would not normally do, or say things they would not normally say. There has been a freedom or safety in numbers for the people who gathered to loot and riot, and this group dynamic also plays out in the reaction that calls for a violent response in return.

The even bigger picture spreads out and I think of Norway and the recent attacks and I think of the response from the Norwegian Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, when he called for more democracy in response to terrorism.

"If one man alone can show so much hate, imagine all the love and humanity a whole nation can give." ~ Jens Stoltenberg

It is difficult to separate the judgement and anger at what these people have done - the injuries to people and animals (five police dogs were injured), the destruction of homes and businesses, the theft of so much property and the arrogant joy some of them express at their achievements. I'm quite sweary when I listen or watch, but I think we have a lot to learn from all the threads of this tangled web and a measured response is better than a reactionary retaliation.

We can demonise the people who burned down homes but we must remember that the police are not pristine providers of safety and freedom any more than David Cameron is an honourable man who upholds peace - his example as a leader involved in several armed conflicts, who in his own youth partied with the Bullingdon Club (a club who rent restaurants and vandalise them as a bit of posh fun) and has employed a man of questionable media practises in the form of Andy Coulson.

I'm still thinking, and sorting and need more coffee...

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Riot Responses originally appeared on Taexalia on August 10, 2011.

It's a while since we journeyed to Orkney, but it's never too late to share snippets from the journey...

Travelling along the main road (which by the by is two lanes - one in each direction) we saw a howe (hillock or knoll) in the middle of a field, and we stopped in by to make arrangements. Further along the road we saw the Barnhouse Stone, protected by fencing in the middle of farmland. As we travelled towards a narrow causeway between the Loch of Harray and the Loch of Stenness, we could see a landscape unfolding marked by stones rising from the earth, some solitary, some in alignment, some in groups and in the distance the hazy hint of a great ring.
The road took us past the spit of land where a couple of houses overlooked an insignificant hump - where recent excavations have revealed an important site described as a "stone age cathedral." Just last year gave up the only example of "painted" walls in a Neolithic site in Britain. The dig is closed until June, so we simply drove by musing about the way these islands continue to reveal our past.

And then the Stones of Stenness loomed before us and I was almost out of the car by osmosis... I stopped just inside the gate to take them in, their towering size and their placement within the wider landscape. These stones mark the oldest stone circle in the Orkney Isles, and one of the oldest in the British Isles. The whole circle was really an ellipse and it is believed this circle was never finished, with possibly two of the twelve stones never erected.

I walk amongst the stones and am immediately centred. I cannot see the modern fence lines, power lines, buildings... I see the stones in the landscape without clutter. They are welcoming and somehow peaceful despite the hard, cold wind that is blowing my fingers to ice. The stones have ragged edges and many lichens soften the aged shapes - the air is so clean up here.

I walk slowly and listen with inner ears and then I step towards the stone that speaks. I lay my hands to him at shoulder height and lean my body in so that my heels are off the ground and I close my eyes. The sense of spinning and the vision of a vortex offer to sweep me away, and for a few moments I let them.

Then it is time to go, and just as we are turning away from the stones, a group of three young men arrive. There is a smile between us as they approach, and I muse about the more than five thousand years that these stones have been connecting people as they stand in silence...

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Meeting The Standing Stones of Stenness originally appeared on Taexalia on June 14, 2011.

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 tiny, tiny thing - can you see it in the photo?

Once he finished drinking, he climbed onto a twig I had provided and spent another wee while just resting before he flew away. I hope he's guzzling lavender pollen somewhere as I type...

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Red Tailed Bee Taks A Dram originally appeared on Taexalia on June 7, 2011.

It is said that once there was a great Sea Serpent who came down through time named The Stoor Worm. The Stoor Worm was so enormous that one woman could spend a lifetime travelling without seeing all of its great body. Many tales abound, or have been lost or forgotten but the tale that is spoken most often is the tale of Mester Assipattle and Mester Stoor Worm.

The great Mester Stoor Worm held the people under a spell as it writhed in its wild ways and moved outwith the laws and rules of men. It would rise without warning and eat villages, towns, crops and livestock leaving trails of devastation in its great wake. Or sometimes it rose and laid bare things which had been hidden since the dawn of time, unlocking secrets from the past and leaving mysteries yet to be solved.

At one time the Stoor Worm was holding a community to ransom and it is said the serpent was demanding a meal of seven maidens every Saturday in exchange for respite from its infernal power. Now the people were getting to the end of their tether with giving up their daughters and the great Stoor Worm was showing no sign of leaving and so it came that one day the last seven maidens were brought to the cliffs, tied and abandoned to their fate. As the Stoor Worm began to raise its head and its mouth began to open and its drool began to slaiver, a man appeared in a small round boat and sailed himself right into the Stoor Worm's mouth. Mester Assipattle sailed down the Stoor Worm's throat and into the great beast's gullet. There he unloaded his cargo, which was a pile of smouldering peat, into the Mester Stoor Worm's liver.

Mester Assipattle was ejected with the first writhing cough as the peat fire took hold in Mester Stoor Worm's liver, and the people watched in horror and awe as the Stoor Worm began to swell and smoke. The first time the worm's head smashed down in pain, many teeth were sent flying and these teeth fell into the sea and remain today as the Shetland Isles. The second time the Stoor Worm smashed its head in agony, more teeth were thrown down to form the Faroe Isles. The
thrashing of its forked tongue cut into the earth and water rushed in to separate Denmark and Sweden and a second thrashing created the Baltic Sea. The great Stoor Worm curled its writhing body into itself and lay down, and if you visit Iceland today you may still see the fires in its gullet burning and exploding. With a final crash, the last of the Stoor Worm's teeth landed in the sea and so formed the Orkney Isles.....

Author's Note

The tales of Mester Assipattle and Mester Stoor Worm belong to everyone and are told by storytellers in many different ways. This is my telling. Please feel free to tell your own version, but if you wish to use this version please contact me. Thank you

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Mester Assipattle and Mester Stoor Worm originally appeared on Taexalia on May 5, 2011.

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 picture and swipes at the tail of the Buzzard, disturbing the smooth soaring motion. Another Crow joins in as they harass the Buzzard to move along. I cannot choose between them, admiring the Buzzard for its solitude and graceful flight and also the Crows for their gutsy defense of their boundaries.

Perhaps today I am more about the Buzzard, moving on and away from distractions and crazymakers...

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Flying Solo originally appeared on Taexalia on April 7, 2011.

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 we all having a lovely staged chat in this pretty garden?"

The guest of the slot appeared to be a dedicated butterfly conservationist who was billed as an "amateur gardener". We didn't hear very much from her, or get much information about the beautiful garden she has created as a haven for butterflies. We did hear a lot from the wittering "reporter".

Well, yes, of course you can plant Buddleia. You can especially plant the pink and lilac shades of Buddleia that flutterbies like best. But what if you want more? Or what if you want to attract/help butterflies and you don't have a garden big enough for a Buddleia?

Here's some collected wisdom on butterfly friendly gardens:

• Single flower forms are preferable so butterflies can get to the nectar (think Pot Marigold instead of French Marigold)
• Wall planters, window baskets, hanging baskets and patio pots are fab if space is limited
• Hang a bowl filled with pieces of ripe fruit (bananas, strawberries, oranges, apples etc) covered in fruit juice to make a simple butterfly feeder
• Make a mineral drink by placing some rounded pebbles in a saucer and add some muddy water and place in full sun near their favourite feeding place

Butterfly plants:

• Buddleia - pink and lilac forms
• Petunias
• Trailing Lobelia
• White Alyssum
• Million Bells
• Bur Marigold
• June Berry
• Lavender
• Ivy
• Hops
• Wallflowers
• Honesty
• Heliotrope
• Scabious
• Phlox
• Rudbeckia (fulgida)
• Aster
• Purpletop Vervain
• Echinacea (Purple coneflower)
• Purple Loosestrife

Once you have planted up some butterfly plants, get involved with the Butterfly Conservation Trust Campaign and Big Butterfly Count (July 16-30).

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Butterfly Flutterby originally appeared on Taexalia on April 5, 2011.

When I skimmed my RSS reader this morning, my eye was caught buy a post entitled How To Create Change: Don't Help People. I opened the post and, before I started reading, I made a few wee assumptions...

• I was going to read a timely reminder about saying No to time predators
• I was going to read something wholly inspiring and uplifting
• I was going to nod my head and agree with everything I read

Although the timely reminder didn't materialise in the post itself, I was prompted to revisit the idea of time predators and remind myself that it's OK to say No to time predators - and that saying No to time predators doesn't impact in any way on how nice I am.

I've struggled recently with time, generosity, boundaries and balance. It's really easy for me to say yes to everyone who asks and then find myself short of time/energy to take care of my own projects and goals. I'm practising, always practising, being mindful of my own needs rather than allowing other folk to plant themselves at the centre of my universe.

But the Men With Pens post didn't really deal with saying no to people. The article focuses on Not Helping People from a different, and in my view, slightly skewed angle.

Instead of the author accepting responsibility for his own need to help people when they haven't asked, or asking his readers to accept responsibility for their need to interfere (which, let's face it, is what a lot of unsolicited helpfulness amounts to), the author indulged in half a post of demeaning commentary about how the people who don't want unsolicited help are really happy in their misery.

I found myself with a wry smile on my face as I realised this post was advising busy bodies to let go of control and stop trying to make other people just like them - which is advice I do agree with.

He's right in that folk often don't want "help" if they haven't asked for it. For myself, I find other people's attachment to how they think I should change annoying and sometimes draining. I much prefer to be left alone to muddle through and help myself, rather than hear about how someone else thinks I am failing/not measuring up to their standards - especially when I haven't asked them.

So yes, I'm all for busy bodies reeling their needs in and focusing only on helping folk who have specifically asked

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How To Create Change… originally appeared on Taexalia on January 10, 2011.