Well, we have various different visitors, the main one being two Grey Squirrels. Bimbo & Topsy, the Squirrels are so funny to watch and it becomes a whole family affair. They are so acrobatic and can smell seeds where ever they are hidden. No good keeping them in the shed, they ate through the door! Faith particularly enjoys watching them hang upside down and scuttle along the fence and fly through the branches of the trees. Such characters. Momma was a little perplexed when she found holes in the soil in all of the garden pots and blamed the mice, but it is Topsy & Bimbo burying their wares. They are a sweet couple and quite chatty and full of themselves and OUR Sunflower seeds!
We also have the sweet mouse family, we don't discourage them because they are quite darling and have adorable little whispy tails. They don't cause any trouble and our resident garden cat 'Ipec' keeps a close eye on these and often takes her little prizes home for her human Mum. Much to Ilke's distaste, she once found a field mouse in her work bag during a class at Uni! Eeeek. So really, if Ipek enjoys keeping our mouse population down naturally, then all the better and they tend not to show their sweet little faces around here much.
The Hedgehogs are also back in town, their little gateway is being reused and we are noticing the ever increasing population of slugs finally declining! This is good news for Momma's lettuce and hostats! They are really healthy this year and we have lots of places for them to sleep and hide out during the day. Of course, we can't leave out any food for them anymore, because resident Garden Cat, Ipek, thinks it's for her. So Momma waits for her to go home and leaves it in under a box with a very small hole. Problem solved. Happy hogs going into winter, but an unhappy Ipek who has to walk home for her supper!
We have many more visitors in the form of frogs and newts. the newts are the funniest little creatures and earlier this year Lillibet found her first newt experience quite thrilling. She had found him in the kitchen? Don't ask how they climb the 3ft sneeze barrier in the CatPod? My thoughts are they sneak up through the decking, but Faith INSISTS they climb...doh! Any way, Lillibet found a little baby Newt and squeaked and squeaked until someone came to rescue it. Mr. Zeus would have been proud as it was his job to locate Newts!
Most of these little creatures will go away for Winter and they are stacking and storing all sorts of berries and yummy things to take them through until Spring. But there is one visitor that we are not that happy about and they seem to take over this time of year, are the RATS! EEEK. We love to watch them jump and leap and find cleaver ways to search out food, but because they do it during the day now, the Parentals have had to put their foot down and call in Stan the Ratman. We try and wait until all the others have gone into hibernation, but this year is warm and creatures are still running around and the Rats seem to be very determined to stay. Even Ipek can't scare them off, she is quite scared of them! We do apologise to your and your families little rats, but you are now as big as cats and you will take away the subtle balance in our finely honed garden. Stan is a thoughtful Ratman and takes all our concerns into consideration. Sorry to see you go, but you all need a little reminder to move away, back to the water courses and stay there!
KS =^..^=
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