Urban Wild

A photograph. Ordinary. Some bushes, grass, a few flowers scattered round. The ground a bit dry after the hot weather; nothing too spectacular.

But wait. Hold on a moment. Have another look. There, in the centre of the pic - what's that poking its head up above the grass?

Right in the middle of Norwich city centre, mid-week, lunchtime, the traffic humming, shops doing business at a hundred miles an hour, people rushing around. Two foxes, playing in the hot summer sun, rolling in the grass, play-fighting, while the rest of the human world walked by oblivious.

I was spell-bound. I reached, ever-so-slowly for the camera; by the time I got it up to my face, they'd spotted me; one ran for the cover of the bushes, the other stood looking straight at me, just long enough for me to take one snap, then it bounded off. Standing statue-still, a few moments later, it poked its head out and had a cautious sniff of the air, but the moment was gone.

High summer in an invisible city, a single side-step away from our own.