Second Helpings

Wild Life

We've had an unusually hot spell and much as I love warm weather, there's always a downside to everything it seems.

Hubby has an aversion to opening windows, but in this heat has condescended to have the patio door open to allow some cool air inside. Of course we all know that's the invitation many small creatures accept to enter the premises. Flies, spiders, moths, daddy long legs and wood lice we're used to and generally attempt to catch them and return them to the outdoors.

Late Saturday night we were about to retire and went into the kitchen for a quick clear up and to check the back door was locked. There in the middle of the floor was an unexpected visitor. A frog. After trying to catch it in a dustpan and avoiding its erratic leaps it disappeared in a gap between the bottom of a cupboard and the floor so we had to concede defeat and go upstairs, making sure all doors were closed. I didn't fancy waking up in the night with a green stranger in the bed even if it was an opportunity to test out the frog to prince theory.

I confess to feeling rather nervous and edgy the following morning, particularly as the frog had disappeared under a cupboard close to the kitchen sink and food preparation area. It's not that I dislike or am scared of frogs honestly. It's just the memory of one landing on my foot some years ago when I'd picked up a plant pot in the garden and it jumped out. The shock of the suddenness of their movements at my age might be enough to make me croak.

Feeling uncomfortable in the kitchen and thankfully not having a meal to prepare as we planned on eating out with son and family later, I thought I'd go out and do some gardening to soothe my jangled nerves. I'd only been out a few minutes when I heard a strange squeaking noise and stopped to see if I could locate what and where it was. As I commented to Eric Wharton a few days ago one good thing about living in England is the absence of large and dangerous creatures. I love my garden birds and feed them daily, occasionally see a squirrel, a small mouse and even a stoat on a rare occasion, but that's about it. We get the odd sparrow hawk taking out a small bird which is upsetting, but all part of nature's rich pattern, but they don't bother humans. I wondered if there was one hovering about which was causing other birds to send out warning sounds.

As I turned round to try and locate the noise, to my horror a ruddy great snake slithered behind a shrub in the border. I've only ever seen a couple of snakes in England and they were further south and quite tiny. I know none of our snakes are particularly dangerous, but this thing was pretty huge by my standards so I shot back indoors. What with amphibians in the kitchen and reptiles outside I'm wondering if I'll be forced to give up cooking and gardening and what we're going to find next in our local wildlife sanctuary.