Ninja Mice

Before I get on to how the vegetable plot is getting on . . . let's turn our attention to the subject of mice.

At this time of year as the local amphibians start to go into hibernation, the tiny mammals start to think about where they're going to live during the long, dark and damp winter months.  Some of these rodents think that it would be a jolly good idea to live in our house.  The holes in the house that allow water and sewage in and out of our house make a nice way in and out for small rodents as well. 

We normally find mice under our sink.  This has historically been a good spot for them.  They are protected from what ever cat or cats we have living in the house as there are tight fitting cabinet doors that protect the under-the-sink area.  There is a way in via the plumbing I mentioned before.  To add to that the fact that the internationally recognised place for the kitchen rubbish is under the sink.  This provides the food that mice will need to live and indeed breed over the long winter months.  I keep mousetraps set under the sink all year long but it is in the autumn that they trap has to be emptied most frequently.  I'm not squeamish about these things.  The trap just gets new bait and re-set.   I keep meaning to block these holes with steel wool, but I never remember to buy some when I am in a hardware store or a D.I.Y. hypermarket.

Earlier in the autumn, our mousetrap broke.  It was banged against the side of the wheelie bin a bit too vigorously and it broke.  I stopped by a local shop on my lunch break and got another mousetrap (they may have sold steel wool but I seem to have a thing about not remembering it).  It was the same model mousetrap as the broken one and the same sort of mousetrap I have been used to using for decades.

Fairly reliable mousetrap

I baited and set the new mousetrap next to the mouse entry point under the sink and thought no more about it.   Until . . . I noticed that the trap needed to be re-baited. It hadn't sprung but the bait was gone.  (By the way - peanut butter is the best bait for mousetraps)   Hmmm

I re-baited and re-set the mousetrap.  Then again the next day the trap needed to be re-baited.  I put new peanut butter on the mousetrap each day for a week while thinking that this new mousetrap was not very good. 

Empty but unsprung mousetraps!!

I then went out to the greenhouse and dug out the nasty all metal mousetrap (see above photo) that I use in the greenhouse when I wish to keep my springtime seed trays from being robbed by sneaky greenhouse mice.  I set both mousetraps under the sink.  That'll get them!

Well, it got ONE mouse. If my years on the planet have taught me one thing, it's this.  You never have just one mouse.  I baited and re-set both traps and put them back under the sink.  

Ninja mice have been here!

I am now re-baiting two mousetraps each day.    This morning when I was taking The Man of the Place to work I stopped off at the local shop.  It turns out that they sell mousetraps.  I bought a third mousetrap.

Do you think that these mice have a chance?  I'll let you know later on.

Autumn Love

Firstly, let me say that I am very sorry to have neglected the blog for so long.  I had a cruddy summer job that sucked all my time and creativity - for very little pay.  I don't work there any longer so, I'm back now.

I have been enjoying evening walks with the dog.  As the days grow shorter, the walks are getting darker.  I'm going to have to dig out the hi-viz vest.

George includes his hand so we have a sense of scale

The mushrooms this year are bigger than I have ever seen them.    These seem to be the size of  . . . oversized mushrooms.

Fly agaric

This one looks as though it should have an elf sitting under it.

I've been on numerous evening walks with Polly up to the woods. 

Since August, our cat Julio has decided that he needs to come with us.  So now there is this strange American just outside the village who walks both her dog and her cat.  Julio is one odd cat.

The mushrooms are as numerous as they are plentiful as well.  They are under every single large beech tree. 

Mushroom with purple gills

-unknown red capped mushroom -

We had taken delivery of a load of logs the other day and the new logs need to be stacked on the big green plastic tarp.  This morning,  The Man of the Place was re-arranging the firewood and discovered some beasties that have already begun their hibernation.  Frogs, toads and two newts were sleeping in last year's logs and old bits of bark.  We didn't want to disturb them my desire for organisation overrides.  I demand that all logs be put neatly on the tarp and the tarp folded over the logs to keep the rain off..  It is so nice to have dry logs when we need to light a fire.

The frogs were still jumpy but the newts barely moved at all.  We have relocated the critters to a spot the poly tunnel under some black plastic that won't get stepped on.

hibernating newt

 My newt was quite plain.  The other newt had a few dark spots and a very red belly!

This frog was very handsome.  I hope the hibernation is successful for these small and delicate creatures.  When moving the logs, we found earthworms and wood lice.  When relocating the frogs to the new hibernation spot, I put a fat worm next to each frog.  They might want a snack later on.  :-)

I'll report on the state of the garden next time. . . . .

Corkscrew Hazel Has Nuts!

I have had this corkscrew hazel corylus contorta for a number of years.Here it is in February, 2007 with the catkins dangling off it. The catkins remind me of a geisha's hair ornament. It is beautiful. Through the long winter it provides us with something lovely to look at in the front garden.It wants to send up shoots below the graft which are not twisted. Those straight shoots get nipped out as soon as they are spotted.

Though some of the ends of the shrub were killed by our hard winter, the plant seems to be quite hardy. It surprised me yesterday by revealing that it isn't just a living ornament in the garden, it has fruited! Looking closely at it I was delighted to see that there are about 8 hazelnuts on this tree. I wasn't expecting this! I had assumed that an ornamental shrub was sterile and would not fruit. I am so pleased that I was mistaken!

No Time

Sorry folks - I started a new job.

Please don't send congratulations as it really is only slightly better than being unemployed. A plus side is that I am busy and my employer is grateful. Big down side is that I am so very very busy that everything else has been put on hold. I have long hours. I put in a twelve hour day yesterday.

I can just about find the time to read the blogs I like, but very little time to contruct a thought and write in mine.

Please forgive the slow output for a while. I will either get the new job managed so that I have time to do stuff OR I'll find a better job that allows for things like a life.

I am hoping to get into the water for a dive this weekend. I'll write about that if I manage to get wet.

Loch Long

It was a very memorable 4th of July for me this year.View Larger Map

I went diving with members of the Dumfries dive club up to Loch Long along the Clyde.

The new weight harness (Christmas present from The Man of the Place) and the LED dive torch (the other Christmas present) were getting used in anger for the first time.

Independence Day found me bobbing in the Clyde, protecting my face from stinging hail while waiting for the other divers. I wasn't upset by the wait as the reason the others were delayed was that they had been helping me to get ready. I was using a new weight harness and it needed a thousand little adjustments to get it to sit right.

The weather wasn't great on the way up to Loch Long with wind and rain on the increase. One of the motorway signs warned of heavy rains and a chance of flooding - drive carefully. So what's a little bad weather? The purpose of diving is to get wet!

Weather always improves once the dive has begun. Once a diver is one meter down the fact that there is howling wind and rain mixed with hail no longer matters. The two dives we made yesterday were spectacular!

I haven't taken my camera into the water here in the north. I won't take my camera in until I am as confident diving in a dry suit as I am comfortable and confident diving in a wet suit. I'll just have to use other people's photographs and tell you about it.

Here are a few of the things we saw on our dive.Dead man's fingers - a soft coral. I always think this stuff looks out of focus.One of the walls of the loch is covered in both white and yellow plumose anemone. Many clumps of delicate little Light bulb sea squirts were stuck on rocks between the kelp.

It seemed there were all the crab varieties in the whole world ever on these dives. Loads of velvet swimming crabs with their red eyes, a large hermit crab and on the second dive we all saw the biggest daddy edible crab! So delicious and just out of reach!

We didn't see any common lobsters but the smaller cousin, the squat lobster was seen. In fact, it seemed that every rock crevasse had either a squat lobster or a beautiful blue blenny swimming in it.

This was the first dive this year and I was SO glad to be in the water again. The water temperature was at about 13 C. The visibility was near enough to 10 meters. We could see fairly well and the water wasn't freezing. The wind and rain had scared off any other divers so we had the place to ourselves! Except for a few human errors (not serious) and an outboard motor that threatened to be temperamental we had a really great day out.

Pick the Fights You Know You Can Win

I have a new battle. Duckweed!I didn't feel I could win this war in the past. Duckweed had taken a firm hold on the pond, to the point that we had to skim holes in the solid blanket of green to peek into the water. It was our own fault. A little bit of duckweed had come in with some purchased pond plants and the pond was infected. I didn't scoop each and every little bit out when I had the chance, not realising how invasive this stuff is. It got a solid footing in our pond. It wasn't until The Man of the Place changed the pond liner earlier in the spring that I thought I had even a small hope of keeping this stuff out of our pond.

When reintroducing things back to the pond after the new liner was put in place, we wiped away all visible signs of duckweed. It still appeared. Tenacious stuff, duckweed! As I have plenty of time to keep an eye on developments in the pond, I am removing each and every little bit I see. This used to be a good kitchen sieve. I found it, crushed on the ground near the pond near the time of the big liner replacement. Being downgraded from kitchen utensil to pond sieve, it now lives on a rock at the edge of our pond. I use it to scoop floating duckweed out of the water. Every day and sometimes more than once a day, the pond is scanned for signs of duckweed. I swoop down and remove the evil green floaters as soon as they are spotted. It rained yesterday for the first time in a while. I knew that this meant there was a strong possibility that some new duckweed would be visible. Duckweed will grow between rocks and float free once the water levels rise. I scooped out about 15 little bits while still in my pajamas. I figure that by the end of the summer, I will have removed all threat of duckweed. Constant vigilance!!!In the future, any items coming from an outside source will have to be quarantined in a bucket for a number of days ensuring my duckweed free pond is not reinfected.

---------------A rosebush on the front of our house comes from my husband's childhood home. A cutting was taken from that house when they moved to a new place back in the early 70's. Decades later when The Man of the Place and I moved to Whitelees, my mother-in-law layered a portion of the same rosebush for us. We now have this vigorous climber by the door with a beautiful show of delicate pink roses at the end of June. It always is in bloom on his sister's birthday so in our family this rose is named Victoria's Rose. This year is no exception.

Summer Days

I have claimed there is a Roman road in the field next to our place. Sometimes you can see it, sometimes you can't.
The buttercups help to show where the road used to run. Romans were oh so fond of having their roads go in a straight line. This ones links the Roman camp on a nearby hill straight to Carlisle across the border in England. Carlisle used to be Luguvalium. The town name morphed through the years to it's modern day name. Very few places still retain their Roman names. London is the only place I can think of off the top of my head where the Roman name (Londinium) is still pretty close to the modern name.With the lovely long summer days, we like to have the windows open as much as possible. The windows have been closed enough over the years because of almost constant rain. With the open windows and our rural location, we get visitors. Moths and other flying insects. I have become a big fan of big summer moths. A number of them are really beautiful! Here's a beauty (female Ghost Moth) I found in the sink this morning. Without my glasses on, it could have easily been mistaken for a bit of pasta!
Sometimes we leave the outside back light on too see what will be sticking to the wall in the morning. This White Ermine was by the back door.

Where to Stop?

We haven't had any rain in ages! I refuse to complain. It seems as though we have had four years of nothing but rain. So to start complaining now might make me come across as a hard to please person. Having said that, no rain means that some things are drying out. I am having to water the vegetable patch in the evening. That's not a big problem. However, the grass in the back of the house is taking a particularly hard hit. It is also dying in very distinct areas. You can see the lines!I was clearing some dried grass near the water butt (rain barrel) on the end of the greenhouse and was delighted to discover that all the dry grass, and conjoined weeds are peeling away in neat little sheets. Between the felt of dried roots and crumbling concrete are fat, wiggly larvae. I am throwing the turfs, bugs and all into the chicken run. The hens are going nuts pecking out the grubs from the grass and weeds. I started peeling back more of the grass and weeds. It turns out that our lawn in the back is a big lie! It isn't a lawn at all, it is grass that has grown over old and crumbled concrete. The grass comes up like an old dried carpet. It will be very tidy once I finish, but here is the big question; Where do I stop? Peeling the dried faux lawn is very satisfying and sort of fun.If I go by the lines of dead and dry areas of the back yard, I could be peeling for a while. Do I stop now and leave the rest? I'll have less to mow in the future. Is the crumbling concrete better looking than dried grass?Polly wants me to leave that bit alone as it is very comfortable.

Graduate

My middle son Sean was graduated from Heriot Watt University this morning. He is now the proud owner of a degree (Hons) in Computer Science.
I have been full of maternal pride for most of the week and I was positively bursting today!

Well done Sean! We love you and are very proud of you! I love that you still have a wonderful sense of fun.

XX

Mum

Not a Weed In Sight

I've had time this year to keep on top of garden tasks. There isn't a weed to be seen this year.
Today I found myself weeding with my thumb and index finger, pinching the little tiny weeds that only have their first set of true leaves. In the past weeding involved grabbing fists full of stubborn and well rooted weeds. I'm not giving weeds a chance this year.Here are my neat little rows.I was given spring cabbage plants by my neighbour, Charlie. I liked the little sign he made so much that I transferred it to my garden once the plants were put out. Cabage - much nicer than cabbage!The strawberry patch has been relocated to a sunnier spot. No not Cornwall, just out of the shade of the oil tank. I replaced some of the more tired strawberry plants and I've pinched off all the strawberry flowers after the move. The plants should just focus on being plants and build up their plant energy. I'm delaying my strawberry gratification until next year when I expect a full and bumper crop!
In the greenhouse we've got enough basil (on the right) to start making pesto. The coriander (cilantro) on the left is almost ready for a first cut as well!
See the little cucumber (yellow flower on the end of it)? It should be pornstar sized in no time if we keep having these lovely sunny days!

Julio - Apex Predator (in his weight class)

It doesn't look like it from this photo, but there has been a lot going on in Julio's life in the past week.The pace in Julio's life picked up last Monday when he presented us with the lifeless body of a mole.I have been documenting my war on moles in the front garden for a couple of years. I do like moles, but I don't understand why they need to make up to 85 mole hills in my front lawn when there is a perfectly good (unmolested and mole free) field just on the other side of the hedge. I had Gamekeeper Mike in last year and he got four moles in one go.Julio was rewarded with Sheba - gourmet cat food. Expensive and gravy laden we wanted to ensure that Julio understood that killing moles was something we approved of. Julio has always had a fondness for gravy and this little treat was a break from the Iams dry stuff that I give him. He likes Iams cat food and I wanted to keep him on dry cat food to keep his teeth nice and white. It's always a shame when a cat gets to the geriatric stage and his or her teeth are falling out due to a diet of tinned cat food.

The next night, Julio was howling in pain. We first thought perhaps the treat he had was upsetting his guts, but as the hours ticked by, it was clear this cat was in real distress. Accompanied by Pam (house guest featured in the previous entry) I had a nighttime dash to the vet. It turned out that our poor puss had a blocked urethra. His bladder was hard and distended. Unable to pee, Julio was in agony.

It turns out this problem is common in neutered male cats - poor guy! His bladder was drained and he was given antibiotics, muscle relaxers and was kept in overnight for observation. The next morning, he was peeing on his own again. Whew! No need for surgery.

We had to switch his diet away from the dry cat food (which can be a factor in some cats) back to tinned cat food. He's just going to have to keep his teeth clean by catching and killing small rodents and mustelids in the area.It seems we have been forgiven for the trip to the vet and the twice daily pills (antibiotics) that we poke down his throat because today we have been presented with the body of another mole! (I will not post photos of the dead moles. It may be too upsetting as moles really are great little animals.)

I really love this cat!

A Hedgehog Has a Closer Look at Pam

One fabulous thing about living in the UK are the hedgehogs. They're so fun! They also eat slugs and snails which are the bane of all gardeners. Sadly hedgehogs do not have a lot of road sense and are very often seen squished at the side of the road. We love hedgehogs here at Whitelees Cottage. Before I had a dog, we used to feed the cats outside. Hedgehogs would visit the cat food bowls in the summer on a fairly regular basis.

Our dear friends Kevin and Pam are up from Cirencester to visit us for a few days. As we try our hardest to pull out all the stops for guests it was only fitting that a hedgehog should waddle under their car tonight. I saw it go under the car and squealed the information to Pam. We both rushed out (me with a camera) to get a better look.

This turned out well. That is one fearless hedgehog!
It went into the tool shed where he or she is well hidden now. Please note the wonderful weed-free status of the gravel in our drive. I am working hard to keep it this way.

I Was Hacked!

While I was away in Yorkshire on Thursday some nasty person started interfering in my life.

At about 4 pm I got a call on my mobile (cell) phone from a friend in Belgium stating she had recieved a disturbing e-mail from me. In fact, both her e-mail addresses and her husband's e-mail address had all recieved this e-mail. The text of the e-mail stated that I had been robbed at gunpoint in London, all our passports had been taken . . . etc. I believe that the e-mail asked for money. HA! Not only am I poor, none of my friends have money either.

My friend knew that the e-mail wasn't from me as there was terrible punctuation and bad grammar.

Well the end result was that by the time I got home on Thursday night, my husband and I had fielded a number of calls from many countries from frightened friends who were worried about me. A pal in London was going to come and collect me. It would have been nice to see that friend, but there was no need. The same goes for the friend who lives here in Scotland who offered to put an extra helmet on the back of a very cool motorcycle and venture down south.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everybody for their kind concern. I'm fine and you were all darlings to be worried!

Logging on to my profile on the computer, I discovered that I could not access my e-mail acount, I could not access my Facebook account and my dear blog had been taken off line!

I've managed to claw my Google account and my Blogger account back to my own control. I must say getting the language on the e-mail account switched from Korean back to English was a challenge! Did this happen in Korea? When I went into settings, I had to switch the country from Nigeria back to the UK. Did this happen in Nigeria? Though the account was returned to me, I discovered in the settings that all incoming e-mail were still being forwarded. I disabled that! I'll be sending the forwarding e-mail address along to the police.

My Facebook account is still off-line. I am hopeful that I will have it back today sometime.

It was a particularly MEAN scam. Anybody I ever sent an e-mail to during my job search and all my family and friends were told I had been robbed.

Getting the account re-set, I have lost all my old e-mails. The carefully undeleted ones. Recently a photo of my great grandmother had been sent to me and I failed to save the photo somewhere else. I had never seen her face before and now I'll have to have it re-sent.

All the passwords have been changed. This is SUCH a pain in the neck but as I know now, quite necessary. The new ones are quite strong and will be changed from time to time.

I hate having to change passwords and when I am not forced to do it, will let the password stay the same. . . . until now. Why oh why do I always have to learn the hard way?

More Life

Yesterday another creature returned to our pond.

Two newts!! Common newt - not my photograph


I think newts are so interesting! I hope there is enough for them to eat in the pond. It's still pretty barren in there despite the return of the diving beetles and the pond skaters.

-------------

After a look in the pond after dinner - there seems to be a water boatman in there as well!