Many thanks for the suggestions about the skunk - I'm on to it. Meanwhile back on my evening walk yesterday, across the way a little, I came across this elusive creature.

The reason for the sudden movement was to check out this ever so nonchalent being...

Skunks, smokin' crows and beds for just about everyone... just a normal day around this bloggerhood.

This is near our front door. If you sent the orange powder you see in the top of the picture to the lab (I've always wanted to do that, just for the heck of it), you'd find it was cayenne pepper. The large black ominous looking pipe is exactly what you jolly well think it is - a specially designed vaccuum cleaner embedded in the ground that will suck up skunks and other fourlegged creatures before you can say "There is a God after all." Ok maybe not, its just a regular drain, but surely to goodness, I had you going there for a fraction of a second.

Yes I have officially gone bananas. No, ok, we were woken at about five this morning by the lunatic skunk who was either trying to get in or out of our crawlspace. I suspect "in" sounds about right, MrsSkunkville being nocturnal. MrsS obviously does serious weightlifting at the gym as there were quite sizeable stones being flung willy-nilly in all directions, and if I might add, a term at finishing school would do her no harm, if she were allowed within a mile of place. I'm sure they'd teach her a thing or two about personal hygiene while they were at it.

But I digress. Anyway initially I put a large brick in the hole to stop any more entering or exiting but then I fretted about it all day in case I'd blocked the critter in, and she was sobbing and sighing but more seriously, getting pissed off with noxious consequences. I do not want to do her any harm. I just want her to leave. So when I came home from work, the house stunk a bit, so I rolled the boulder away from the cave, but for good measure left a dose of cayenne round the entrance. The good book says they don't like the stuff. I know it might sounds cruel, but either the fourlegged or the two legged occupants have to leave, and we're not moving. This is not the Stinkville Motel. Skunk, get thee to a nunnery, or basically anywhere out of here.

Well you can't really see what I'm really getting at in this photo. So we have a bit of rain. The occupants of this house must think its winter, because they have a roaring fire blazing in the hearth, from all the smoke coming out of the chimney. But then there are several crows (not the dead ones from yesterday, thankfully) fighting each other for the privilege of sitting on the chimney pot. Quite the scuffle going on there amongst the murder of crows, each trying to get prime seating on the warm stack.

I could not resist this one. The sign on the garage says "NO DUMPING".

and this one comes complete with headrest, mighty fine it is too, apart from being a heavily used, sopping wet mattrass. Yours for the taking.

Interesting pattern on this bed, I'd reckon.

A switch was flicked overnight and today it's been raining heavily, something we've not seen for a while. So this evening what did I see in the alleyways - beds, beds and more beds. Like someone is going to want these after all that rain - not likely.

Two Dead Crows - and whatta you got?

Alright, alright, I know, this blogging by pictures is easy enough. You just upload them and away you go. But then its easy to get by without writing much.

I've not a lot of time because Gregoire will be screeching for his supper. Which is not quite fair because we take turns to cook. And even I have worked out that it is my turn this evening.

Ok crows are in the title so we'll talk crows. So you see, down the alleyway in the last week we saw two stone dead crows. Not thirty feet from one another. West Nile, I hear you croak ? Well who knows. Crows are pretty sharp customers, I would doubt they got poisoned. There have been a lot of vermin around here, so there's probably rat bait in every block. We check the local municipal information on crows. If you get the darned bird into the lab with 48 hours it will be checked for West Nile.

Well of course our two dead-uns did not make it to the lab. I could have taken pictures, but that seemed a bit gratuitous. They've been flattened a few times by local cars so are as flat as a board. I found out today though that they still stench to high heaven, as I took pity upon them on my litter pick-up route, and carted them away, and disposed of them.

Talking of smells, I think the skunk has come back to live. We've blocked every hole imaginable to the crawlspace, but he/she obviously still thinks this is the Motel Six or something. Each evening around 10pm, the "smell" appears and out I go on to the deck in the hopes of seeing the creature, and probably just as well, I don't, otherwise I could get a nasty dose of something.

Which reminds me, I must away to sort out the evening meal...

There are lots of bike routes in our neighbourhood. Which is great because theoretically on those streets there are less cars.

I wonder if snails and flamingoes usually get so close..

and the darlek was back again this year : "You will be exterminated..."

The phoenix got a lot of attention, rightly so...

We were recently out at a Lantern Festival - if you check the blog a year ago you'll see similar pictures. Well this year we went and there were many imaginative lanterns, this pig being one.

This is such a lovely garden. Sure there's a bit of morning glory getting in on the act on the right, but whole effect is bright, vibrant and colourful.

In our neighbourhood there are so many avid gardeners. This is a kiwi tree, and there were hundreds of kiwis. Every branch was loaded. I sure hope the occupier of the house like kiwis because there's enough for fruit salad every day until Christmas.

This is a view walking along by the blogtrain. It feels a bit like the Berlin wall, though not as a oppressive. I imagine this path would have been quite pleasant before the blogtrain came along, not that it is too shabby now. Its quite secluded, with trees all along the way.

Just in case you run short, there was a bit of money in this tree. The catch here is that if you actually got to the money, you would probably break your neck. It was in a tree, just out of reach.

The amount of stuff to be given away in our neighbourhood is quite incredible. Thing is, you haven't a clue whether it works until you get it home. This lot was quite tempting but we resisted. We have actually got a CD player, video player and Lord knows what else, but thanks for offering...

A yard with a rather terratorial cat. I wonder does she realize she is now a blog star?

We were out on a stroll the other day, and came across a coat hook in the woods, complete with coat....