Creatures:

My wildlife spotting has been pretty successful this trip…

As we left Calais, a hare ran across the motorway in front of our car – we got a really great view of him.

Sadly, there was a dead shrew lying under David’s chair – but don’t be sad, I’ve got plenty of live ones in the house! If I knew how to post a video, I could prove it!!

I was sitting quietly one evening, and could hear squeaking…

Normally I only get to hear rustling or pitter-pattering of footsteps, so I was looking around for the little chap, and saw movement in a Pyrex jug on the top shelf of our “kitchen unit”…

Needless to say, he/she was turfed-out pretty promptly, but I saw another one (the same one?) the next night.

I can’t bring myself to stamp on them (it was in the middle of the floor nosing round my clog, so I could have done), so I chased him out under the door…

But of course they come back!

Another reason for wanting the building work finished – there’s no point killing them all off if a new batch can just march under the door.

But I would like the place rodent-proofed…

It does feel as though the most popular mouse-gym in the area is the one above our bedroom!

I’ve also seen:
* a hornet (not so much fun – I kept very still),
* a swallowtail butterfly,
* a scarce swallowtail butterfly (similar, but different),
* a silver-washed fritillary
* a cinnabar moth (I think),
* a praying mantis,
* goldfinches eating seeds in the garden,
* redstarts catching the camouflage grasshoppers with the blue wings,
* one of the house spiders dealing with a fly (not so nice),
* the bathroom spider and his pile of corpses (not so nice, either),
* a hedgehog – unfortunately I disturbed his sleeping place under an oil drum I didn’t want dumped under the trees!
* & lots of teeth – does that count? I think M. Thiele might have been a horse dentist in his spare time… ;-)