The plan had been to build a natural swimming pool, but we quickly realised that we didn’t have enough space, or the funds to build one, so settled on the idea of a pond that we can sit in.
Luckily, the only available spot for it happened to be the most naturally placed, and easiest to construct on, a mini-cutting running away from the house. This meant that we could get away with building retaining walls for the water, rather than having to dig down into very rocky ground.
We had a few basic requirements when searching for a new home. On my list, towards the top, were (A) the possibility of leaving a decent-sized meadow area to grow wild, and (B) an interesting hedge. I’m fairly low maintenance.
This was originally sent in an email to a friend. I am sure Friend won’t mind me sharing.
A few weeks ago we started to hear, dead on nightfall, a loud sound similar to a very sick duck start up, and continue throughout the night, all night, right outside the bedroom window, stopping dead on sunrise ( when the cockerels take over ). Following several sleepless nights, I managed to convince myself that the neighbours had erected a very clever solar powered (?) random-noise-emitter protection system for their fowl.
We were digging in the garden this afternoon when a very pale creature wriggling in the dirt caught our eye.
Thinking it might be a maggot or similar, I picked it up on the end of the ruler to take a closer look.
Much more interesting than a maggot, it turned out to be a baby cricket. At least, we’re assuming it was a baby, given its size, just a few millimeters in length.
For all the noise that its fully grown comrades make, we have not yet managed to catch site of one, so to find this tiny thing, and for it to give us enough time to run and find the camera and take a number of photos was something else.