We've a pal visiting from Idaho and though we have a spare futon and
plenty of room in the house, she suddenly insisted on camping out in the
garden cuz she thought it was like a tiny park. It was fun and funny to
see her little puptent and bedding out there. She said the birds weren't
afraid of her and gathered around her at dawn. Now my sweety Granny
Artemis is saying we should sleep out there too. No! Don't make me! I like
my bed!

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

The message
from (paghat) contains these words:

We've a pal visiting from Idaho and though we have a spare futon and
plenty of room in the house, she suddenly insisted on camping out in the
garden cuz she thought it was like a tiny park. It was fun and funny to
see her little puptent and bedding out there. She said the birds weren't
afraid of her and gathered around her at dawn. Now my sweety Granny
Artemis is saying we should sleep out there too. No! Don't make me! I like
my bed!

Do try it..preferably without a tent, just under the sky on a dry
starry night. It's magic, one of life's great unsung delights, not to be
missed.

Now that I'm middle aged I find my old down sleeping bag restrictive
and a bit claustrophobic, which is passing strange, because in our
heyday I could comfortably share it :-). So just improvise with
household stuff. Good ground insulation underneath (plastic sheet under
folded duvet), then loose blanket or duvet on top of you, and your usual
pillows, are softee camping but ensure comfort and sleep.

Janet.

I hate to think what would happen here, we have Foxes and badgers as well as
a couple of feral cats prowling the place at night.
Don't like the idea of providing a snack for them.

--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

On Sat, 9 Aug 2003 00:01:57 +0100, "David Hill"
wrote:

I hate to think what would happen here, we have Foxes and badgers as well as
a couple of feral cats prowling the place at night.
Don't like the idea of providing a snack for them.

I was thinking about being eaten alive by fire ants.

The message
from "David Hill" contains these
words:

I hate to think what would happen here, we have Foxes and badgers as well as
a couple of feral cats prowling the place at night.
Don't like the idea of providing a snack for them.

Nah, why would they attack something larger than themselves?

I once found a live frog in my sleeping bag, which was pretty horrible
and evinced mighty screams until I realised that's all it was; and more
recently a dead rabbit under my kip in the morning. It certainly wasn't
there at bedtime so possibly it snuggled up in the night, mistaking me
for St. Francis, and I rolled on the poor little bugger in my sleep and
suffocated it.

Janet.

In article , Janet Baraclough
wrote:

The message
from "David Hill" contains these
words:

I hate to think what would happen here, we have Foxes and badgers as well as
a couple of feral cats prowling the place at night.
Don't like the idea of providing a snack for them.

Nah, why would they attack something larger than themselves?

I once found a live frog in my sleeping bag, which was pretty horrible
and evinced mighty screams until I realised that's all it was; and more
recently a dead rabbit under my kip in the morning. It certainly wasn't
there at bedtime so possibly it snuggled up in the night, mistaking me
for St. Francis, and I rolled on the poor little bugger in my sleep and
suffocated it.

Janet.

I used to camp out a lot when I was doing herpetological studies and it
was very rough camping since we couldn't pack much into the off-the-trail
places we investigated. But in my old age I don't care for it, and my last
couple camp-outs were wussy ones with even electrical hookups. As it turns
out, if we'd slept out in the garden last night as Granny Artemis wanted,
we'd've gotten caught in a rain storm, which I quite loved listening to
from our bedroom, happy the garden was being blessed by a hard rain & that
I was not sleeping out in it. It might have been fun to actually catch and
frighten the racoon, though, who visited again last night, knocked over
the statue in the fountain, and dug up some fragile epimediums.

But I remember one camp-out long ago when in the middle of the night I was
awakened by a very loud THUMP right at the side of my head. I opened my
eyes and was staring into the enormous eyes of a flying squirrel. It
panted and gazed at me motionlessly, until I rather expected it might let
me touch it, though of course when my shoulder moved it took off up a
tree. It was a marvelous little encounter. If it had landed eight inches
closer it would've been smack dab on my face.

Before our visitor left us yesterday, we went for a woodland walk, and
came around a corner to find ourselves within five or six feet of a deer,
some of which are semi-tame around here. Even though our visitor's farm in
southern Idaho is on the route of a large band of elk, such random
encounters with wildlife are still nothing she's jaded by, and she was
quite as thrilled as was I. We stood as still as we could, and the deer
nonchallantly left the path, heading toward the sound of a second deer we
couldn't see but which was certainly not making any effort to be quiet. So
while I may have missed out on a chance to have the racoon climb over my
sleeping bag on its way to our tiny pond last night, I'm not feeling all
that deprived of wildlife encounters.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

We'd have to sleep out under the stars, drenched in bug spray.
The mosquitos here this year are huge, vicious, & very numerous.
I think I'll sleep inside, thanks. Don't want to chance
West Nile virus anymore than necessary.

Minteeleaf

The message
from Minteeleaf contains these words:

We'd have to sleep out under the stars, drenched in bug spray.
The mosquitos here this year are huge, vicious, & very numerous.
I think I'll sleep inside, thanks. Don't want to chance
West Nile virus anymore than necessary.

In that case, try sleeping out in winter. That's fun too on a cold dry
starry night, so long as you're well wrapped up.

Janet.