The Uni Adventures: Raymond the house plant.

I don't know what it was that made me pick him up that afternoon shopping in Sainsburys... Maybe it was the way he was sat all alone on a shelf with a 50p label hanging from his stem. Or was it because of his vibrant green leaves and bright red cluster of flowers? ...Perhaps it was because a plant seems to make a house a home...

Whatever it was, when buying the week's food shopping with Laura that first month in September, something inspired me to reach for the little plant and take it home.

When we arrived back in the kitchen I reached into the carrier bag and pulled it out, presenting it to the others with a grand flourish and a flick of my tail.

"Tadaaaaa!" I grinned, plonking it on the table.

"What's that?" Ace frowned, poking at it with his paw.

"A plant! It livens up the place, don't you think?" I said, tilting my head.

 "It's pretty!"Lisa nodded in agreement.

Andy leaned back in his chair and raised his eyebrows. "Should we name it?"

This inspired a whirlwind of ideas, and we conspired for a good ten minutes before somehow resulting at the sparkling, blossoming, heroic title of:

RAYMOND!

"Raymond." I nodded, "Yup. I like that. 'Ray' for short. That sounds pretty cool, huh?"

"Just needs some sunglasses and he's set" Al grinned from his perch on the kitchen counter.

And there Ray the houseplant came into our odd little group! Over time his leaves drooped and crisped, Andy accidentally kicked him across the kitchen, Ace knocked him off the microwave, and Ray looked started to look very sorry for himself. The others shook their heads and doubted he would make it through the Christmas holiday, especially after we smothered him in fake snow, wound tinsel around him, and sat him in a paper Christmas hat twice his size.

But we returned from our break over December to find him flourishing beautifully! His plant pot became a storing unit, and whenever somebody had something that they wanted to share, they gave it to Ray. By the time summer hit, he had acquired a 5p coin, a flapjack, a pen lid, a piece of crossword and a Japanese bottle cap.

Still going strong, Ray has soldiered through the hard times of life and set an example for us all: It doesn't matter if you're kicked about a bit, you just need to wrap some tinsel around yourself, sit in some sunlight for 2-3 weeks and before y'know it, you'll blossom!

Its my blogiversaryyyyyyyy!

Eeeeeeeeeee!

A year today I started writing my blog, how crazy is that! I've rather liked sitting down with a cup of tea and jotting down my ponderings in a little pocket of internet. I'd like to thank you all for your support, love, and for reading! It's been great fun and I'm so excited to share the upcoming adventures and stories with you!

To celebrate a year of blogging, Laura has released a limited run of Fox screen-prints! All hand printed and waiting for you! Just send an email to laura@coppolaro.com or leave a message on www.facebook.com/thewondrousfox to purchase one!

Also, after we round off the Uni Adventures series, this month we have some special stories planned to celebrate my blog birthday! So keep those eyes a-peeled!

Thank you again friends, have a wondrous evening!

Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of love,
Fox

The Uni Adventures: Remember, remember...

After a long, hard day in the studio and running some tiring errands in town, Laura and me dragged ourselves home through a dark, nippy November night. We returned to a kitchen full of gleaming, grinning, excited faces that peeped out through hats, scarves and big woolly coats. That tired feeling was quickly chased away by a wondrous feeling of excitement as Andy announced: "Let's celebrate firework night!"

We all eagerly scampered off to a field out the back of the uni. Whilst Ace, Al and Andy safely set up the fireworks, the rest of us sat huddled under a tree a distance away, taking sips from a huge bottle of warm, mulled grape juice that Andy had made for the evening.

Lisa handed us all sparklers and we drew our names out into the darkness, gazing up at the sky above as it lit up with light and colour. The fireworks popped and crackled and sparkled, and our sparklers fizzed in our gloved paws. We snuggled together under a blanket of stars and I felt a cosy warm feeling wash over me as we watched the transformation of a beautiful sky, with such great company around us...

The Uni Adventures: Musical fusion

One of the things I've loved about this place is the musical side of things. Maybe it's one of the perks of being at art school - but at least one person in every house in the village seems to own an instrument of some sort, 'specially guitars. Often you can hear people playing out on the street in the evening or out on the green when the sun makes an appearance.

Before we moved here Laura had started teaching me guitar, so it turned out pretty handy when we rolled up to Farnham. One night I came up into the kitchen to practice as everybody else seemed to be out. A few minutes later Ace appeared and sat down at the table with his laptop, humming to the chords I was strumming. Within the hour we were singing together and even daring some harmonies. It was brilliant!

A few weeks later, the whole rabble was sat up in the kitchen nattering and I was sat on Laura's lap. She was guiding my paws into shapes, trying to teach me how to play the ukulele. Whilst we twanged out some tunes, Russel started tapping on the table.

"You should get some saucepans out," I laughed, "...Use them as drums."

In a passionate dash, Russel slid down the table leg like a fireman down his pole and scurried over to his cupboard. With a gigantic heave, he pulled out an assortment of pots and pans, placing them upside down on the kitchen floor. Next, he beckoned over Bradders and asked him to fetch him two wooden spoons. The squirrel nimbly hopped onto the counter and dropped the cutlery down to the hedgehog, who was now calling me over.

Laura set me down and I trotted over to Russel, starting to strum out some chords. Russel grabbed the spoons and began clinking out a beat. And y'know what? It sounded pretty good! We got into it a little more and introduced some head bopping and paw tapping, when a beautiful voice sounded over the music. Lui stood beside us, singing along to the beat.

Within a flick of the tail, Ace plodded over and began purring some lower notes in a wonderful harmony to Lui; followed by Lisa, who sang some lovely "Ooooo"s over the top, whilst Brad and Al sampled some of their dazzling dance moves... And Andy shook his head, spectating.

The kitchen was filled with the sounds of singing animals... And it even later encouraged us to try out the student karaoke. With confidence, we sang into the mics and danced awfully, and managed to clear out the entire room. Perhaps we struck a chord with the audience, and they needed to tune us out... But no matter, it inspired many-a jam session throughout the year, including writing and recording some songs too!

Who knows, maybe some day you'll see a fox, panther, tiger, rabbit and hedgehog ripping up the stage on MTV...

The Uni Adventures: Halloween

What a night!

We decided to have a shindig in our house to celebrate Halloween, and to set the ambiance of this spooky holiday Lui, Ace and me trotted down to the town, returning with armfuls of juice and decorations. First, we tumbled into the kitchen and plonked five pumpkins onto the table. Lisa got to work carving an adorable masterpiece whilst Ace completely savaged his, using it as some kind of poor orange pin-cushion. As for me, I've never carved a pumpkin before -- at a Halloween party Laura and I went to yeeeears ago there was a competition for the best carved pumpkin - and we won! We just didn't tell anybody that Laura's mum had done it for us.

After Andy cut the top part off for me, I sat with my spoon and started to cut patterns into it.

"Fox... What are you doing?" Andy said with a sigh and shake of the head.

"Carving!" I replied cheerily, confused as to why orange goo piled out onto my paws every time I cut into the side of the pumpkin.

"You need to hollow it out first, you dummy!" He tutted, demonstrating a 'how-to' at an impressive speed on his own.

After 20 or so minutes of scooping with a very soar paw, to my relief Ace impatiently grabbed my pumpkin and did the rest for me so that I could start carving... And we ended up with THIS!

Once the pumpkins were ready, we all padded downstairs to get into our fancy dress gear. Lui, Lisa and me all backcombed our fur, blobbed on the ketchup and brushed on the black eyeshadow. I know what you're thinking, but let me tell you... There comes a time in every man's life when it calls for a bit of make-up, and I think zombie-ing yourself up is a just-cause. We then grabbed several toilet rolls and proceeded to wrap Ace up mummy style.

Next, decor. We spread fake charcoal coloured cobwebs around the kitchen with glow in the dark spiders dangling from them. After that, we lined the stairs, landing and the cupboards, window sills and table of the kitchen with candles, verrrrrry carefully lighting them before flicking off the lights. We nestled some tea-lights inside our pumpkins and voila! The setting was complete and the house had never looked so eerie or beautiful!

After a few apple juices, a lot of laughs and some card games with everybody, we decided to bring our antics outside for the first of many rounds of night-time hide and seek! 

We branched off in pairs of hiders and seekers: Lui & Russel, Lisa & Ace, Al & Andy and Bradders & me.  Whilst the eagle and hound started counting, we all scampered off to find a hiding place. Bradders and I scuttled off into the night, cutting through the garden and green around the back of the house, and over to a row of hedges that divide the village from some vegetable fields home to a flock of sheep.

We pushed through into the hedges, Bradders nimbly scittering along the tangle of leaves and branches in a perfect squirrelish-way, whilst I ungracefully plunged in head first. We turned around to face the scene in front and watched as Al and Andy began trying to seek the echoes of Lui's delightfully infectious laugh.

Bradders nimbly hopped onto my head and perched between my ears.

"You okay?" I asked, a little bit too shakily.

"Pfff, I'm fine!" He replied unconvincingly.

We exchanged glances and started laughing a little too manically with nerves. We were becoming very aware that we were sat in a mysterious hedge in complete darkness, with a suspicious rustling noise loudening behind us. We crouched for a few more minutes, too pleased with our hiding place to move, when suddenly the rustling subsided and there came a loud:

CRUNCH!

I screamed like some kinda crazy-thing and bolted from the hedge, taking a very startled squirrel with me. Brad clung tight onto my ears as I ran away from a a huge, shadowy monster licking its lips ready for a midnight snack of fox and squirrel.

Or, actually, I mean I'm not 100% sure, but there is a possible possibility that it may have been a sheep that had been munching on some leaves behind where we had been sitting.

The seekers walked over, raising their eyebrows.

"Did you just run away from a sheep?" Andy said, looking at me.

There was a brief silence, before I looked up at Bradders. "I mean, honestly, Brad... It was just a sheep. Pull yourself together."

Brad's eyebrows shot up; the three animals' brows so high up they might have gotten tangled up with their ears.

I gave a nervous laugh, and said - "Sorry, I think I got a little sheepish"

"Oh ewe," Brad said, "You're going a little baa-rmy."

And after that woolly situation, we headed off to seek the rest...

The Uni Adventures: Film nights

To reeeeeeally get to know the characters lurking under the fur and feathers of the tenants of house 87, a few bonding trips were called for. Our first get-to-know-each other venture was a lovely meal at Pizza Express, which was a great success! So successful, in fact, that over the next few months we dashed around the restaurants, takeaways, public houses and cafes of Farnham for more meals and cream teas and juices and cakes. We then decided to get a bit more adventurous and hop on the train to a place called Guildford; a little town-come-city that's surrounded by hills. It is remarkably bigger than Farnham and filled with shops, buskers and even a castle (Although, Farnham has one of those too). And one of its particularly grabbing features is its cinema.

One of the main features of this year for us, as a house, has been films. Be it in or out the house, it's been a sure-fire way to assemble the group to see some laughs, entertainment and embarrassment... and to watch some good flicks too.

The first film we went to see in the cinema as a unit was a time-travelling wander starring Bruce Willis. Now, I won't lie to you... It's a little bit nasty in places. So, when it got to a part in the film where a magical little boy is... um... taking a bad man's life away in a not very nice way... The audience were as silent as ever. (I don't know if you know this but, oddly enough, people don't talk in cinemas.) The scene had no words or music to it - it was a silent montage; and as it got nastier and nastier, the room fell quiet enough to hear a teacup clink against it's saucer. But then, all of a sudden, Lui's voice broke the tension with a loud, horrified call of:

"Eeeuurrgh... That's DISGUSTING!"

...Which had us stifling laughter for the rest of the film. Poor Bruce.

Cinema trips became routine, and many good times came with them. For instance, later in the year as Christmastime approached, Andy, Lisa, Bradders and me dashed excitedly to Guildford to buy our very first house-Christmas tree and decorations! N'awww!

In hindsight, I guess we could have thought it through a bit more... But surprisingly no suspicious questions were asked when we rolled up to the steward at the cinema and handed over our tickets with a huge 6 foot long cardboard box under the arm.


And then comes perhaps my favourite memory of a cinema trip...

One evening, we were walking back from the flicks on a high from the adventures and musical stylings of Madagascar 3. We trotted back through Farnham and started to shiver in the nippy, cold October air. So, eager to get back to a nice, warm cup of tea, Russel made a bolt for it and started to run ahead to warm up. At a surprising pace for a hedgehog, he raced past me... Then Lisa... And then Bradders...

Bradders watched him sprinting on by and took his chance. He jumped up and down, pointed at Russel in his sudden hurry, and started to throw his remaining popcorn up into the air, crying out in a voice a few pitches higher: "My purse! My purse! He's got my purse!"

 I think that was one of the first (of many) times I laughed until the tears rolled.

*

And lastly, there are the times indoors. For the first few months, we sat huddled up in the kitchen watching films on Ace's laptop and getting distracted every now and then by food or playing with the water in the ceiling leaks. But as time chugged on, we decided to move our film-watching antics onto the landing on the second floor, where there is a lot more room. (I can't tell you how excited we are to be able to have a lounge and a sofa in our new house for next year!) We huddled up in our duvets with tea and snacks, laughing or snuffling or screaming along with the films. And, y'know, these are some of my favourite moments of the year. You can't beat a good night in with a strange group of animal friends.

The Uni Adventures: Meeting the housemates

Okay, so the scariest bit about moving to a whole new place? Meeting the housemates. On the way to Farnham, I was sat curled up on the back seat of the car, finding myself thinking: 'What will they be like? 'Will we get on? What if we don't? What if they attack me with a hoover?' (I really don't like hoovers.) And then I sat bolt upright in horror: 'What if they don't like tea?!'

But luckily I ended up in house 87!

The first I met was Lui the panther. After a prod and a push from Laura, I shakily padded upstairs and into the kitchen to ask if she'd like a cup of tea. She turned around and gave me a dazzling smile and a 'Yes please!', and from that point on we became great friends! The next day, after giving me a tour of the town, we returned to the house to see a tuft of orange fur carrying a box: Ace the tiger.

That night, the three of us readied ourselves for the first freshers night - where all the new students have a little tea-party to get to know each other. And this one was also fancy dress. Maybe after a few too many apple juices, we thought it would be a wondrous idea to make face paint from food colouring and flour... After a few minutes of unsure stirring, we pasted a thick, lumpy, grey goo onto Ace's face that kept glooping off his chin and onto his juice box.

"How does it look?" He asked, grinning through beard and slime.

"Beautiful!" We chortled, quickly guiding him away from the mirror.

Over the weekend, the three of us sat in the kitchen and watched out the window eagerly for the rest of the housemates to arrive, squealing excitedly whenever the front door creaked open. Soon enough, the house started filling up... Andy the dog trotted up the path donning a bowler hat; we bumped into Lisa the bunny-rabbit hopping up the stairs; Al the Eagle fluttering to his room; Bradders the squirrel on the landing; and finally, Russel the hedgehog, who was trying to climb up the kitchen cupboard to reach the kettle.

On the Sunday night, with everyone in the house, we decided to gather the troops to make our introductions. We bounded 'round knocking on doors, and soon enough we were all up in the kitchen, chatting and chuckling, eating sticks of cucumber and building card towers.

'I think...' I thought thoughtfully, as the kettle was boiled and the chortles chortled, '...I think I'm going to like it here...'

The fortnight frenzy!

Hello friends!

So I was sat in the kitchen the other day, sipping my cup of tea and assisting Bradders the squirrel with his crossword, and a thought came across me. I realised that I haven't really told you much about our adventures at University.

As we're heading back home to St Ives in two weeks for the summer holiday (until we move into our new Farnham house in September), I thought I'd write a mini series of University stories over the next fortnight, to commemorate our time in the Student Village.

And and and!! At the end of the University Adventures mini series it will be...

Wait for it...

Wait for iiiiiit...

My first Blogiversary!!

Yayyyyyy! A whole year of bloggyness! Phwoar.

So, as well as giving you a ton of new stories, we'll be doing something super super special and exciting then too! Mark the 26th May in your diaries!

Ps. A big thank you for helping me to reach over 100 likes at the start of the year too! Check out my facebook page for updates: www.facebook.com/thewondrousfox

So, without further ado, here we go!
Happy Sunday!

All my love,
Fox

Fox prints

Today we made some prints of Fox!

Lotsa love,
Laura and Fox

Animated Fox!

A note from Laura:

Looky here, Looky here!!

See it bigger here: https://vimeo.com/59488005

Its Fox! And he's MOVING!

This is our very first attempt at animating, so we apologise for the roughness! Although, y'know, the way his nose gets shorter and his tail gets longer isn't actually a mistake... Fox is just very magical.

Hopefully more and longer clips like these will be along in the future!
Have an absolutely wondrous day!

Lotsa love from
Laura and Fox