Bless - thank you. I'm definitely leaving the wheat there - it looks so militantly straight compared to the crooked apple tree. I love the wildflowers and it's great to see them so close.
Eileen - the books are on Kindle Plus, and I found myself racing through them while waiting for bear at the school run. I'm happy that I found them.
Cherie - I love seeing elderblossom and the wild flowers that are around, even in our quite urban street. There's a patch of clover a little way away and lots of what I think is garlic mustard, but I'm not risking tasting it as I'm not sure. I'll take a pic later.
Sharon - thank you. I love the unexpected flowers. Mind you, with my gardening skills, I have to take what I can get. And speaking of wildlife...
Yesterday DH shouted out that he had seen a rat. I thought we had got rid of them when we moved everything around. In fact, that was the point of moving everything around. He said that it didn't seem too bothered and wandered behind some honeysuckle. Apparently it had been eating the seeds knocked down by birds from the feeder like a four footed sparrow.
As bear and I got home this evening, bear was not keen on getting out of the car as a rather large rat was wandering towards the gate. He took a pic.
He wasn't getting any closer to what was a fairly decent sized rat.
I watched in disbelief as the rat completely ignored the car, the car horn, bear and I, and ambled gently into our garden and disappeared behind the yellow bin. It reminded me of those elderly people who have done everything, seen everything and move at their own pace while knowing exactly where to go and what to do when they got there. I didn't see where it went after that, but was completely unintimidated by me.
I've thought about this. Last year, when we had the whole rat thing going on, it started off as youngsters coming in around lunchtime or afternoon, and then they grew older and bigger and finally we moved the garden around to make it less appealing. I've just checked and rats in the wild usually only live a year. This may have been one of the youngsters from last year that were, to be honest, cute and sometimes winsome, but now it was old and perhaps affected by the poison put down by local businesses, and come back to the happy place of its youth.
I'm not going to encourage rats and I will probably go out later with peppermint oil (again), but I'm not sure that my heart will be in it.
In other news, I'm behind with reading blogs. I keep dipping in and getting distracted by stuff. I hope to catch up soon, but I want to say that you are all awesome and I'm looking forward to finding out what has been happening.
Hugs and good health to all.
We've had rats in our garden before so I constantly move things around. Rats hate change and will move onto somewhere new if you keep making changes.
ReplyDeleteI shudder at the rat. Mum hated them. I think there were a few of them where she was growing up. I used to see them at the park when we walked and would always steer her away before she saw them!
ReplyDeleteWe don't have them here in the garden (touch wood). We do have mice that come in when it gets cold and we have to put traps out. Shudder. I don't like the thought of them either!
Oh, my! That is a big rat! I guess it is quite used to humans that it was not bothered by you and bear being there!
ReplyDeleteliving rurally rats are a fact of life , my neighbor is obsessed by them and always says its my fault . and its caused by my compost bins, not that i take any notice
ReplyDeleteMy Kindle has died a death so I'll have to wait to read those books until I sort out another reader.
ReplyDeleteI hope you can get the rat problem sorted out.
I used to walk to work through a path in some reservoirs in north London and often encountered rats I remember one ambling across the path sedately just like your one it had obviously been poisoned and a few days later i found one very similar dead as a dodo and the crows were scavenging one very similar . It wasnt a pretty sight
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