Every now and again in the middle of the night I hear the possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) crossing the roof above me. There is a thud as it jumps from the tree to the roof, then paw-thread, then silence again. My house is connected to no.38 neighbour’s house. There is a canary island palm on the other side of his house so there is route off and also a food supply. The possum, if it is the same one, lives in the canary island palm in the front corner of the garden on no.42 neighbour’s side of the fence. I saw it once in broad daylight returning ‘home’.
Actually, perhaps it lives in palms.
For a while a brush-turkey (Alectura lathami) visited. I thought it would keep coming because my garden is perfect habitat. I thought it would become part of the garden ecology. I reduced the amount of leaf litter on the garden beds so it didn’t make too much mess. This worked because there was simply less mulch for it to throw around. And if the ground was damp less dirt was kicked up. I would come out and it would be stalking around poking at the ground or perching on the broken office chair Benjamin had put out in his court yard. But when I got home from Germany it was no longer visiting.
Everywhere there are rats, black rat (Rattus rattus) or brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) it doesn’t really matter. They are the European’s most faithful partner in life. Where we are, they are. They know no boundaries. We know no boundaries?
I saw them running between gardens beds on the streets of Bremen in broad daylight. They are on Summerfield. They are in my garden— and no doubt everywhere in between. What else is there to say?
