Thursday 22 October 2009

a moment with nature and a childhood book

This morning i had one of those beautiful, unexpected moments that nature likes to send us now and then. I got up and as i passed the landing window i looked out of it, as i always do. It looks out from the back of the house, over the bit of overgrown scrub directly behind us and over the fields and to the houses in the distance. This morning it is wet outside, though not too cold and so there is a slight mist hanging low over the ground and that strange silence the countryside holds on such a morning.
This morning that view was different though. This morning there was a creature sat on the wall in the scrub. At first i thought it was a cat, which caught my eye because there are not many round here. But then i realised it was too big for a cat......and then i noticed the black tips to it's ears and the huge bushy tail as it moved to get a more comfortable footing. A FOX!! Oh what beauty, it was glowing in the half-light. It sat on the wall for ten minutes, it's ears turning to follow sounds.......it's nose lifting in the air catching a smell on the breeze. Then it gingerly felt it's way down the bramble that has grown over an old metal frame leaning against the wall.....and disappeared from view into the bramble patch.
And so to the childhood memory. I have noticed that a new film is coming out, and it is a stop animation of one of my favourite books from childhood. And what should this book be about? Oh but a fox. A fantastic fox. The Fantastic Mr Fox! I loved this story as i child, i read it over and over. And i was going to buy it for Bam for Christmas and a tiny part of me feels jealous that now this wonderful story which so few had heard of, and that felt like a little secret i could share with my son, is now going to be seen by the whole world. I should be happy though that so many more are now going to enjoy this story and i hope love it as much as I.

What a difference though between Mr Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox and my glowing morning companion.

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