Red and yellow and pink and blue

I've been to see how those tadpoles were getting on, and saw that the poppies in amongst the oil seed rape are looking better than ever

The tadpole numbers have diminished quite a lot, but that's not surprising because there's fish, ducks and the odd swan or two sharing the same water

I didn't see any little froglets out of the water yet, but these ones have only a stub of a tail left so I don't think it will be long

Whereas these ones all seem to have longer tails

For years I've been planting foxgloves in our little woodland and they always get eaten by the rabbits, but this year two actually made it into flower.  Woohoo!

I just love this dark blue sky against the bright green field

And this lovely blue of delphiniums in my MIL's garden

Curiosity (nearly) killed the cat

After a very unpromising start, the latter part of yesterday ended up very warm and sunny, so after tea I took myself off for a bike ride.  I went round to where I had seen all those tadpoles, to see how they were getting on.  

But there were a few people fishing down there so I didn't bother stopping.

I passed an oil seed rape field that had a lovely edging of poppies, plus a purple splash of common mallow

  

  

Here are some more videos from my wildlife camera.  A rat gnawed a hole through the side of the hen shed in winter, which I filled up, so it gnawed another.  I filled that up and it gnawed another so I didn't fill that one up because I reckoned there'd be no shed left at that rate!
We set two traps outside the shed, one is a cage which catches it alive (goodness knows what we would have done with it then), and another like a giant mouse trap.  The mouse trap one is very scary - my husband breaks into a sweat just setting it, so we put an upside down hanging basket over the top and fastened it down so that Spaghetti couldn't get to it.  Or so we thought... 

 Yes she's actually put her paw on the trap, I was so shocked when I saw it!

After that I put a lot more barriers round it.

She also had a go at the cage trap

and if you would like to see the rat

So now we know....

We feed our semi feral cat, Spaghetti in an open fronted shed.  When I go to feed her in a morning there is always some food left in her bowl, so when it had been completely emptied for the last few days I suspected someone had been helping themselves to it.  I thought it might have been birds but I have been proved wrong.

My husband got me a wildlife camera for Christmas last year, so I set it up in the shed and discovered the culprit(s)

There were actually two hedgehogs, but I forgot to put the video on of them both together and it's on another computer. 

But not only hedgehogs but also a mouse (keep watching because it comes back again)

Spaghetti was probably off hunting while her food was being stolen!

If you like these videos, I've also got some of a rat that got into the hen shed in winter.

Going full circle

A friend asked me a while ago if I could make him a shopper type bag for his dance shoes.  His favourite colour is red and I didn't have anything suitable as it's not a colour I'd choose myself, hence the delay.  
This is the same friend who gave me the bags of t-shirts and shirts, and low and behold there was a red shirt which was made from thick ribbed fabric which was ideal.

It was fastened with pearlised poppers, so I incorporated some into the front along with the breast pocket.  I also used the detail from the back of the shirt on the other side.

I lined it with a red and yellow check, adding a zipped pocket and a key fob.

So that's one of his shirts he's got back!


When I was shutting the hens up last night I noticed this fox in the field

something else to keep me out of the grass!

Snake in the grass

The easiest way for me to get onto the public footpaths around here, is to go across our fields at the back of the house.  This is great for the most part, but  at this time of year when the grass is getting long like this

and ready to be cut for hay, there are two reasons why I pick another route.
One is that even on a dry day but it has been raining the day before, or there is dew about, walking through the arching wet grass is like going through a car wash.  Then anyone I meet on the dry footpath must wonder why I'm wet through!
The other reason, is that I'm scared there may be some kind of wildlife lurking in the grass.  Up until today I was thinking along the lines of frogs (for jumping out unexpectedly) or treading on something that was alive like an hedgehog or indeed a frog.  Ugh, I shuddered just thinking about it!

But now I've got something else to think about, because today my husband found this shedded snake skin in the field 

I don't know what kind of snake it's from but it's a lovely thing, it even has eyes

I'm definitely not walking through there until the grass has been cut!

Lead me not into temptation....

There are a lot of drainage ditches around the edges of fields in these parts, to stop the land from flooding, and the deep ones are used in summer for irrigation.
Here's a picture of a main one taken last year

The other day I walked down to the water's edge 

that looks like a shadow from a tree at the front, but it's actually thousands of tadpoles.  You'll have to click to enlarge these photos because the reflection on the water is making it hard to see, but all that mass of grey is tadpoles.

I'll have to go back and see how many make it to frogs.


But I digress, back to the title..... a local farmer has laid an extremely long bit of pipework from a large drain on part of his land, along the edges of fields and footpaths to another of his fields where he is growing carrots ready for when they need watering.    

Some of the pipework is in sections that very niftily clip together with these

Just look how easy that looks to unclip?     My fingers are itching to test it and there's so many of them tempting me.  
I have to keep telling myself to keep on walking! 
Would you be the same or am I the only one to get this urge?


Those photos were a bit drab so here's a nice photo of some speedwell flowers

and some hawthorn with a pink tinge to the white blossom

These lovely cows reside at the side of a drain

May 2013 Photo Scavenger Hunt

I'm a bit late with my photos this month because it took me a long time to find inspiration for some of them, but I've finally got them all, so here goes...

Aqua
flower pattern on a dress

4

Something Patriotic
60 years of the Queen's Coronation

Door
I can't have the fairy door now as I've already shown it, so here is an overgrown front door of an empty house

Skyline

A Map
of Normanby Hall

Lines

Washing
Old washing implements at Normanby Hall

A Flag
flag iris - although I'm not really sure if these are technically flag irises but it's all I could find

Broken
The electrical appliance skip at our local tip, full of broken things (including my kettle)

Keys

Construction
something under construction in my sewing machine

You can see other entries for the scavenger hunt over at Made with love