Two Visitors.

I was standing on the lane at the bottom of my garden this evening when a badger appeared from the hedge on the far side of the lane, crossed it and went into my garden. A few minutes later it came out of the garden, re-crossed the lane and went back through the hedge. A mere two minutes after that, a fox came trotting down the lane and went through the same gap in the hedge which the badger had used.

It was all most unusual, not to say intriguing, because I haven’t seen either a fox or a badger for several years anywhere in the Shire. I’ve also never seen a fox this close to the house, or a badger run into my garden. I have four theories:

1. The wildlife is coming closer because it senses a kindred spirit living here.

2. Since my leg won’t allow me to ramble the lanes and fields of the Shire at the moment, the wildlife is coming to me.

3. Today is some kind of festival in the twilit world of foxes and badgers, and the gap in the hedge opposite my garden is the way to the gathering.

4. Seeing a fox and a badger together is an omen of some sort. I never research omens these days, since the last time I did so the omen was bad and proved disturbingly prophetic.

Probably not the same badger and fox,

but you never know 

There were also two snails on the path at the side of the house, one with a brown shell and one with a white one. I've never seen a snail with a white shell before. The plot thickens.