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Eggy
webmaster & eldest son
Camberwell, London
More St Giles Churchyard Garden Photos5 May '04 10:07 am
Some more photos we took at St Giles Church last weekend. Indulge my current perchant for squirrels 
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moosey
head gardener
12 May '04 8:53 am
That squirrel looks - so cute! In New Zealand we have so few 'critters' in gardens and parks etc. to watch. Our birds are - well - a bit boring? perhaps subtle is a better word. Do all gardeners in England like the squirrels? Are they friend or foe?
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Bex
website manager
Camberwell, London
squirrels - vermin in fur coats5 Oct '04 6:42 am
They might be cute but unfortunately the grey squirrels are naughty little bullies 
Introduced to the UK from North America in the late 19th century, the grey squirrels have been a significant factor in the dramatic decline in the native red squirrels in the UK. The greys are aggressive exploiters of woodlands for food, they have a higher breeding and survival rate than the reds, and the greys are also thought to carry a virus which kills the reds but which they are immune to themselves.
The greys are pesky from a gardening point of view, too: favourite activities include stripping trees of bark and digging up bulbs.
So don't be fooled by that cute fluffy tail - they are vermin proper 
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Swallowstitch
honoured contributor
Geraldine New Zealand
Squirrel Virus10 Oct '04 9:55 am
Would it be too much to hope that that virus would attack my hated possums? Maybe on your next trip over from England Eggy and Bex, you could shove a squirrel up your jumper and then send it by courier to Geraldine.
After all they both have fluffy tails so maybe they share other genes as well....
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moosey
head gardener
possums and rabbits13 Oct '04 10:00 am
You probably know Swallowstitch that in Australia possums are a protected species. Try sitting with a group of environmental Australians and then rave on about your possum socks...
I guess it's a bit like the bunny - so cute, and such a devastator of land. Do you get rabbits in geraldine? Guess you probably do.
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Swallowstitch
honoured contributor
Geraldine New Zealand
re Possums & Rabbits13 Oct '04 5:51 pm
Yes Moosey, we have both types here ... there is a rabbit colony not far from the garden and we see scratches along the grass vege in the driveway although our resident rabbiter earns his jellimeat by knocking off the young ones as they emerge from the nest. Trouble is he has trained the gardener to skin and gut them for him and chop them into bite size pieces... at any hour of the day or night.
I have family in Australia and they too are aghast at the weird Aussie penchant for protecting their possums....both non-gardening husband and myself wear possum socks and let me tell you, they are terrific.. toastie toes in winter. I wear mine as bed socks and he wears his when "dressing up" for town. It is a real battle to get him to put them in the laundry basket once in a while, although it is strange but true that possum socks don't smell the same as ordinary ones.Or rather , they don't hold pongy feet smells the same.The only good possum is a dead one say I.At least the rabbits supplement the cat's food.He refuses possum meat, so does the dog but some people swear their dogs thrive on it. Makes their coats very shiny.
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Swallowstitch
honoured contributor
Geraldine New Zealand
Rabbiter in Repose13 Oct '04 6:11 pm
Planning his next foray into the gorse covered rabbit warren
reclining rabbiter.jpg
He is probably planning on what wee small hours of the morning is a good time to call his obliging gardener to fetch the skinning knife
52.41 KB / Viewed 443 Time(s)
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Swallowstitch
honoured contributor
Geraldine New Zealand
re Rabbiter in planning mode14 Oct '04 11:49 am
I was right, that's what he was doing. Wee hours of this morning and the gardener got the call "Come see what I've got"
She feigned deafness till 6am, then got up and did the job.... irritated cat was guarding his bunnybody and wanting to know why it took so long to answer the summons.
Gardeners reply unprintable.
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