fox – Jennifer Michie

January 10, 2018 / 1 Comment

Two Foxes

I ran through one of my favourite neighbourhoods this morning and right past one of my favourite houses that has a giant dog statue who sits on their porch. He is dressed up for every season and holiday. Today he had on his Scottish tartan tam and scarf, to ward off the chill that was in the air.

I stopped running just before I hit the footbridge over the train tracks. Sometimes I enjoy sprinting across it, it’s like you are flying through the air as you run across the bridge and disappear amongst the tree tops.

This morning I had an inkling not to run. When I have that feeling, I know I’m in for a treat. Sometimes it’s a robin who talks to me from the apple tree or a muntjac who is munching on grass along the banks.

This morning, it was something truly special. I came out from under the trees, just in time to see two foxes strolling up the hillside by the tracks. They walked slowly and then one stopped to let the other one move to the front and then they disappeared into a thicket and down into their burrow.

It made me so happy. My heart was singing. I’ve been worried about my foxes, I haven’t seen them in a little while. So, I’m pleased to know that there is a cozy den, nestled in the banks by the train tracks where two foxes live and this spring when the wildflowers come out, if I’m really lucky, I’ll see cubs rolling around in the grass.

{Imaged HERE // Pinned HERE}

July 6, 2017 / 0 Comments

Call of the Wild

This morning I was lost in a crazy dream. It was a hodgepodge of characters that included the White Walkers from Game of Thrones and the Ring Wraiths from Lord of The Rings. Lord only knows how I ended up in this nutsy little dream of mine? I heard screaming in this far off Neverland and looked around me. I spun in a circle thinking it was the noise the Ring Wraiths make; then I thought it was a child screaming for help. The scream faded and I opened my eyes and stared up at the ceiling. The glow from the humidifier bathed the ceiling in a golden pinkish hue. I rolled my head to stare at the clock, it was 3:27am.

I must have just been dreaming I thought, but then I heard it again. This eerie cry in a perfectly hushed world. I was now fully awake and I knew exactly what that noise was. I crept out of bed and over to the window and I slowly pulled up the blind and started scanning the street below for him. He wasn’t there. I turned my head from left to right, I pressed my forehead to the glass peering straight down. I couldn’t see him. With the next call, I realised he was just down the street.

It took everything in me, not to run outside in my nightgown to see where he was. I’ve been looking for him all summer. I’ve been worried about him. But last night I knew he was well. My fox was back.

January 11, 2017 / 0 Comments

F-O-X

At this time of year, it is normally dark when we leave our house in the morning. It was dark this morning as Mr. Michie locked the door, we silently crossed the street to the glow of the streetlamp. As we walked along the High Street, I glanced across the road and suddenly grabbed Mr. Michie’s arm, bringing us to a halt.

There in all his glory was the most gorgeous, breathtaking, majestic fox, walking down the sidewalk. There were just a few cars driving down the road. He waited for a clear opening before he crossed over to our side and stood for a moment on the bridge. He turned and looked at us. Mr. Michie said, “Hello!”. He sat for just a split second and watched us, calmly; he wasn’t afraid. He slowly turned and padded over the bridge and around the bend.

He passed one of the train drivers coming up the hill and by the time we had made our way over the bridge, he had crossed the street and was heading for the staircase that would take him along the footpaths and back to the banks along the tracks.

It was a moving experience. Neither of us spoke, we just watched in reverence. I have a thing for foxes, I always have. To be so close to him was incredible. On one level I was in complete awe and on another, it saddened me to think that our worlds are so interlinked because we have encroached upon his.

I had a few chances to take a picture of him, but I couldn’t do it. It didn’t seem right. This was a moment to be savoured, to slowly devour, not to worry about snapping away or lining up the perfect shot. I looked for him all through my walk this morning as I made my way along the footpaths next to the tracks. I hope he made it home safely. Seeing him this morning, was like being given a gift. A tremendous gift.

March 23, 2015 / 2 Comments

A London Saturday

We had some errands to run on Saturday. So, we got up early and left the house not long before seven.

We stopped off for breakfast:

Strolled by Lina’s to look at the giant candy Easter Eggs in the window:

And just happened upon this fella:

I love when errands become lazy strolls, walking hand in hand down almost deserted streets. It’s as if all of London belongs to you, or at least a small slice of it.

May 4, 2014 / 0 Comments

An Auspicious Day

I knew yesterday was a lucky day! Yesterday, I used a new bag I had purchased in a sale ages ago and put on my new sneakers as my first ever pair of pink Converse had bitten the dust. I couldn’t figure out why my feet got so wet in the storm we had last week and then I noticed a big hole in the side of my shoe, plus the rubber soles wore worn paper thin. The shoe repairman near my school said there was nothing that he could do to fix them, so my sneakers and I parted ways.

With my new aqua colored Converse on we headed out the door and into London to see the Matisse Exhibition at the Tate Modern. I have long been a fan of Matisse and I will be sharing a couple images of the show with you this week, but this is about about an auspicious day.

I have not seen my fox since the early Fall and I had been worried about him. I normally bump into him by this point in the year, but our paths had yet to cross. But, yesterday they did. As the train pulled out of the station with the sun streaming down, I gazed at the meadow that runs the length of the platform. As we neared the tunnel, I saw two reddish ears poking up and I knew it was him.

I only caught a small glimpse, but he majestically laid amongst the wildflowers, sunning himself. His beautiful rusty red coat, standing out from the greens, purples, yellow and white flowers dancing around his head.

I looked around the train in excitement, but no one else had seen him. No one else had shared in the magic. He was my lucky sign, today was going to be a good day! Welcome to Spring, Mr. Fox, I’m so glad we are meeting again.

{Postcard from Franz Marc to Kandinsky/Found HERE}
{I’ve written about my Fox before: My Fox & Reynard the Fox}

January 20, 2014 / 0 Comments

Winter

Winter is a slow, low time. Everything
is hiding from the cold; just staying alive is
enough. Days are short, but the long frosty
nights blaze with stars and spring
is just a moon or two away.

I saw the most delightful children’s book this weekend. It was illustrated by Mark Hearld. An artist whose work I truly admire.

This was one of the first pages I turned to. With my love of foxes, I was sold! It has gone on my wish list of books, at it has been so charmingly constructed.

{A First Book of Nature, by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Mark Hearld}

November 18, 2010 / 0 Comments

Blackbird LetterPress

I adore Blackbird Letterpress. This is a company that I have been paying attention to for a little while now. Their cards are simply beautiful. Maybe, I am so in love with it all, because I did printmaking in College?

I have an appreciation for running things through a press, for pressing patterns into paper and the feel of it in your hands as it comes out the other side. The sensation in your fingertips as they gingerly touch the depressions in the paper. Or, what it feels like to peel back the layers of padding, to see how your print has turned out, after inking it for the first time.

I love paper, I love pressed paper, it gives your chosen item a vintage air and these cards certainly have that.

The yellow grizzly bear looks as if he has crawled out of the pages of your Grandmother’s photo album as a memento she stuck in from their family Summer trip to Yellowstone. There is just such a simplistic beauty to these cards. I don’t know if I would be able to give them away to someone; they would have to be another lover of paper items, like me.

I plan on getting a few of these and framing them to hang around my house, because one’s house should never be without a fox and a grizzly bear adorning the walls!