Flora and Fauna

Apologies in advance for typos, I'm on the laptop and the keyboard is smaller than my usual.

So, flora and fauna, fauna and flora? Plants and animals.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned, we have mice. We had two when we moved in, and now have goodness knows how many. What we do know is that atleast one of them is rather smart. You see, we have a humane trap that features a little seesaw that, once they get off, flips back up and "locks" them in. We caught one in it, I took that one down to the beach and it pegged it straight out to open beach, rather than back to grassy hills...



But the other one in the house is proving...intelligent. It seems to know exactly what happens when it drops off the seesaw, so it doesn't. I baited the trap with oats, it moved the trap and persuaded the oats out of the air slots. Chocolate was stolen from the ramp, but left inside. Now it is Mars bar, I check the trap daily and noticed the little blighter tried to drag the chunk of Mars out of the trap and has now jammed the seesaw. Crafty beggar.

These cows were on the way back...


Speaking of cows...

(a pebble display infront of the Rural Centre)

These girlies were near us and have calved.





The cows on the island are kept for their meat rather than their milk, so the calves get to stay with Mum and suckle all they want. This leads to amusing sights. Jo saw a cow lying down and baby wanted a drink, but Mum refused to move to allow it, no matter how hard babby dug. When I was taking those photos, the black Mum would hold still just long enough for baby to locate the udder, then start walking again. Poor babba.

Also resident on the island are hares. We have atleast one that visits our back garden quite often, I was in the kitchen and saw it and it obliged me for a couple of shots.




It actually stayed in the area for quite a few hours before heading off, presumably home.

Last Sunday I took the ferrets for a ride. Jo wasn't going out until later so I packed the furballs in their carrier and we cycled down to the beach.


There were mixed opinions around. David had a bit of a sniff, but decided that it was too early for his old bones to be up and about, so he got cuddled. Fred just wanted out of his harness and wasn't really fussed about it. Nushu and Rumble though, were overjoyed! Rumble ran off bouncing before I could get his leash attached and Nushu ran the other.



As for flora, there are lots of daffodils on the isle.


This patch were at the gate to Skinners.

I also heard we get orchids and other lovely flowers, but I fear it's a bit early in the year yet.