All Creatures Great and Small

I managed a brief walk this morning. The pond, which is normally brown or clear, was bright green. It didn't really come out in the pic, but it was almost iridescent, I think through algae.

It didn't look very healthy. I didn't walk around the pond as the canada geese were sounding pretty aggressive and it was too early in the day for me to bother with. 

Today has had far more animal life in it than I'm comfortable with. There has been the usual assortment of sparrows, blue tits, jackdaws and pigeons around, and a few crows and magpies on and around the bird table. There has also been rats. Lots and lots of rats. I saw four or five in the garden earlier. It is not a big garden. If I see that many, how many are there that I don't see? There was also a very large, very fluffy black cat that disappears as soon as I open the door, and I may pick up some cat treats to encourage Mr Fluff to keep calling by. 

I'm fairly certain that no rats are coming in to the house. We have those plug in repellants, which have worked well when there were no neighbours. We have the kitchen window almost permanently open (until today) and it's level with the garden ground, a yard or so from the bird table and rat central. As the cereal is only just the packet sealed by a bulldog clip, if rats had been in, they would have had that and a lot of other stuff!

I feel a little uncomfortable. The rats are only coming into the garden for the spilled bird food, and they seemed very polite. They were just trotting around and not making any fuss, and they looked quite young. With the low river levels, the disturbances in the sewer and the cutting back of the bushes, I'm not surprised that there are signs of them. I still don't want them in my garden. 

Apparently rats and mice do not like peppermint oil. I have ordered a peppermint spray and a battery powered repellant to put in the cupboard under the front step. I also wiped over the kitchen window frame with peppermint oil, to the distress of a resident spider.

The resident spider has already had enough to put up with. I had some celery in a celery jug on the windowsill, which is the widest in the house and the main candidate for growing herbs. This is a small window, overlooking the garden, next to the red hot poker plants which I've posted about being eaten alive. I moved the celery jug to wipe the windowsill and noticed that it was crawling with aphids. I could have cried. I just dumped the remains of the (very nice, really fresh) celery out into the garden and scrubbed the jug with a lot of energy and much washing up liquid. Cleaning spray was sprayed everywhere.

You would not believe how much faffing I did to try and hide how cluttered and out of control my house is when I took the picture. 

At least there have been no bats so far. Heaven only knows what tomorrow may bring. 

Hugs and good health to all.