Saturday 14 June 2008

Lazy Saturday

Despite my original intention of not leaving the house today we ended up popping down the shops. The pond was in bad need of another treatment for blanket weed which has re-appeared with a vengeance in the far corner.

Whilst we were out and walking through the car park we saw a baby starling hopping about looking for food. Living and foraging in a car park has made him completely unafraid of humans. We were worried he'd been hurt and we got within about six inches of him before he obligingly demonstrated he wasn't hurt by hopping off to look for something to eat.

I've discovered the reason behind the occasional amphibian visitors to our kitchen. Some of the patio decking has begun to disintegrate. Rather than replace the tiles which are broken (which then wouldn't match the other tiles as they wouldn't be weathered) I decided to move around the tiles and have the broken ones placed out of the path from the door across the patio. As I took up the decking I found nearly half a dozen toads sitting underneath. Clearly the get in at the gap by the back door, and on occasion turn right instead of left and end up on the kitchen carpet! This also explains why they are quite often found on the drain cover, as that is the other possible egress point.