Moles are the bane of my life! I spend an inordinate amount of time clearing the earth away, finding the tunnels and putting down smoke bombs to kill them (sorry all you animal lovers!). I wasn't convinced that the smoke bombs actually work but after 12 days holiday recently, I came back to about 40 molehills and there wouldn't normally be that many in 12 days, so I'll just have to persevere.
We also have a lot of mulots, a sort of field mouse. They're actually quite cute to look at, with reddish brown fur, white bib on the chest, big round ears and shiny black eyes. However, as well as scurrying around in mouse-like fashion they can jump up to 2 feet vertically, which is most disconcerting. I've even heard Gerry shriek like a girl when one has jumped up in front of him! They burrow down into the ground and leave a perfect round hole about an inch in diameter. There's hardly a square metre of our garden that doesn't have at least one mulot hole in it.
Then there are the toads, which I find quite repulsive. They too burrow down into the ground and they quite often burrow into the molehills, so when I clear the earth I often find them - that's when I shriek!
With all this burrowing going on (and don't forget the rabbits!), I'm quite convinced I'll walk out there one day and just disappear into a big hole in the ground! Looks quite peaceful in the photo, doesn't it? You wouldn't think there was so much hidden activity going on.
On the plus side, we have a stunning array of beautiful butterflies all summer, the herbs and lavender are full of honey bees and ladybirds, there are amazing irridescent blue beetles flying around and of course we have a barn full of swallows from April to September.
What a lively picture you paint...who would have guessed it from the picture. Frogs, toads and squirrels for me in my little terraced garden and that is enough excitement for me!
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