Fox Family, St Patrick’s Cathedral by Dora Hurley
‘sup?
He loved lockdown.
Mark at the Jam Art Factory writes:
We’ve a new A2 limited edition giclée print, “Fox Family, St. Patrick’s Cathedral” by our newest artist Dora Hurley. This design is from her ongoing “Wild Dublin” series which explores the city through the eyes of some of Ireland’s beloved animals. For a chance to win this print, just tell us your best story, anecdote or memory about city-dwelling animals.
Lines remain open until Friday 10.30am.
The Jam Art Print competition appears here every second Thursday.
Sponsored Link
Bang of three wolf moon off that!
Which is a compliment
ah that brings me back
I have no animal stories but I love that.
I’ll buy one :)
Same here. Brought a smile to my Chevy
Had a place once with a beautiful riverside view, majestic pair of swans lived just at that stretch. Glorious. Until one evening a pair of strange male swans turned up and proceeded to beat the living daylights out of daddy swan and “enjoy the company of” mammy swan, taking turns to distract daddy while the other had his way.
Sorry the story is a bit dark, but the print is lovely.
I’ve Foxes living in the front hedge
And they’re divils for opening the bins
So I got bungee cords to keep them out
Little poopy poopster poos helped themselves to one of me *runners instead
Meanwhile the lad in the backyard has come to an arrangement with the dog
She leaves her butcher’s bone out for him when she’s done
He has his turn
And leaves it back at the water bowl
I left them in the doorway rather than walk muck into the gaff
Omg, that print is so beautiful. I love foxes so much, I have two tattoos. I fall in love with them since I read “The little prince “. I saw my first fox here in Ireland and I was over the moon. I followed him to take some pictures and he stopped and looked after me. I just couldn’t handle my excitement :) every time I see one, I run to see it as close as as possible. They’re unique in this world.
if you’re ever up near goatstown, park up at night time at the goat grill. at the back of the car park is an overgrown field. shine a torch in there and you ‘ll see dozens of pairs of foxes eyes twinkling back at you.
do it soon as i think they have planning permission to develop it. it’ll be gone soon enough.
I thought this recommendation was going in another direction for a minute!
That is one lovely poster, “Fox Family, St Patrick’s Cathedral by Dora Hurley”
My young brother learned how to make the cuckoo call by blowing into his clasped hands, and in the Spring he would be out at all hours making the cuckoo sound which resonated in the cul-de-sac where we lived in Terenure. It was the talk of the neighbourhood, this cuckoo that came back each year, and they’d be out looking all around for the elusive bird. Only he and I knew the truth, I feel bad about the ruse now, but I hope it brought a bit of joy to someone, maybe.
.
Shared a flat with my sister and her boyfriend when I came to Dublin first, spring 1990, Leinster Road. Every other morning I heard muffled woo-hoo type noises from their bedroom, which I understood to be them having a morning shag. After a couple of horrified weeks they decided to go away for the weekend. But that Saturday morning I heard the same woo-hoo noises. Intrigued and more than a little curious I went into their room, no-one there. I opened the curtains. To my surprise and delight I found a lone pigeon perched there doing what pigeons do I suppose. Woo-hoo, woo-hoo.
Or maybe it was Verbatim and his brother up the road in Terenure.
ha
I grew up beside a family of swans in the outer reaches of west Dublin and have always felt an affinity with them. A good 30 years ago now I moved to the Harolds Cross end of portobello. At the time the canal swans hadn’t moved much beyond the Crumlin area. I noticed a young couple would arrive from time to time and try to make a home. The first year they were too young to mate but lived as a couple. I took to feeding them every night. I started with bread but we graduated to chips from Apriles. They just loved the chips and they would happily hop onto the path and eat out of my hands. There were a couple of very cold winters and we chipped our way through together. They came and went and in the third year they had cygnets. I didn’t feed the cygnets chips fear not. I even persuaded the council to put a couple of water beds out, which they took full advantage of. Today they are lots of breeding swans along the canal there. I’d like to think my canal walks and chips helped.
I saw a grey squirrel on Dame Street a couple of weeks ago.
It was at 05:30 so I got meself a witness He saw it too so it must’ve really happened.
I call him Squirrel-Bro.
I think he’s Asian.
(Not the squirrel, the bloke… )
In these pandemic times I have taken to walking in the evenings and re-familiarizing myself with once very familiar streets and paths in my locality. Sometimes after a day of working-from-home it’s become an essential calming activity, it’s either that or have trouble finding sleep. As I walk I can’t help but reminisce about when I first walked there many decades before. While many changes have taken place in that time many more remain exactly the same, the same wall that I, back then, struggled to lean over to see the same river below. The same Chestnut Tree I collected conkers from underneath, the same hill we ran/cycled/rolled/sleighed down. Back in May this year, as I approached home not long after sundown I passed a piece of waste ground that has always been a piece of waste ground, out of the corner of my eye I notice some movement in the undergrowth, it gave me a scare at first, something small and brown. I moved to safety and waited. Six very curious puppy foxes soon emerged to gambol just a few feet from me, some were brown and some were red. While foxes have inhabited our urban world for a long time now I still marvel to see them working the night, surviving, thriving and clever enough to rely on themselves and not impose too much. Around the same time I first walked these paths an author by the name of Tom McCaughren visited our school to talk about his book, Run with the Wind, about an extended family of foxes and their struggle to survive. I would highly recommended this series of books for anyone with children that have an interest in our wildlife, they are still having an impact on me to this day.
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/tom-mccaughren/run-wild/
I loved those books, can’t see a fox without thinking of fox cub bold
+1 Janet
Any of you who enjoyed Fleabag might remember the final scene when she meets a fox at night on a deserted city street. Hers may have been CGI but mine was the real deal.
I shared a house with four others and we often spent evenings shooting the breeze over spaghetti and wine. One of the housemates was partial to E. This particular night, all loved-up and no where to go, he was holding forth on power animals and how we all had one, even if we hadn’t met them yet. The notion was greeted with mockery, but I was entertained even as I considered him a bit of a flake.
Before going to bed, I went for a short walk to get some air. Ahead of me on the footpath was what I thought at first was a dog. One with a long bushy tail. It sauntered along the quiet street, then stopped, turned its head and looked straight back at me. It was a fox. I had met my power animal, it seemed.
Lily.. have we met..?