The Mole's Revenge.

Bright and sunny today with a good drying wind too. I got the last of the dust sheets out on the line, again some only needed airing while others needed washing. 

It was a good day to cycle to the zoo, apart from the wind which I had to battle against. I think all those squats might have made cycling easier though as it is the first time I've been on the bike this year it was hard to tell. And I forgot to put on the memory foam seat cover I bought in Lidl last week. 

Once at the zoo I went to the large play area to carry on weeding. Last week I'd flattened down 20 mole hills and tidied the soil that had gone over the grass as well. This week there were a few mole hills in one corner so I dealt with those first before weeding most of the wood chip. It always gets me that a couple of tiny green leaves hide several inches of roots. I was pleased with my progress and was having a chat with a fellow volunteer whilst easing my back when !!!! there was a brand new mole hill on the spot I had cleaned up earlier. I'm afraid I made sure to push some of that soil back into the mole's tunnel as part of my clearing up. Mr Mole can go and make his hills elsewhere thank you very much.

But that wasn't the only 'event' of my weeding session. While I was working a chap and his daughter came over to me to tell me there was a dead mouse or baby rat in the rabbits' enclosure. Over I went to look and sure enough there was a brown furry creature lying on the ground. The chap said that it had been running round and round trying to find a way out but had been defeated by the concrete walls of what used to be the meercat enclosure. I hopped over the wall (long legs are useful) and as I went to scoop up what definitely wasn't a baby rat I noticed that it was still breathing. It was too big to be a mouse and it had a long tail for a vole. (I have since looked it up and bank voles have much longer tails that water voles.) I carefully took the vole over to a sunny spot in some rough ground beside the pony paddock and soon after the vole scurried off. Much to all our relief.

After cycling home (I did get off and push the bike up the two steepest slopes by the house.) I had a lovely relaxing time with a mug of tea out on the terrace. From there I can check on the progress of the latest flowers and see which garden jobs need doing next.

Not to mention watch the waves. With a strong wind blowing the spray once in a while the water droplets would created a prism effect as the sun shone through them.

I didn't do anything else apart from my exercises and preparing my supper. Shortly I'll be off to the hall for Pilates with my new mat and groan - my kettlebell. I'd been meaning to buy a new mat for some time as my old one is all crinkly on the edges and is hard to flatten out after 7 years of use.