Life and Death

Not only have sheep collected me but in a way piggybanks have also. They happened to sit near the Christmas center piece while I was getting all housewifely like and cleaning up a few things before Christmas. They looked so cute so I photographed them. The big brown pig actually belongs to Brian but the other three are mine, the other little ceramic creature is a mouse....and speaking of mice I have caught 9 mice in quick succession on the kitchen bench before Christmas and another two over this weekend. The last one was so little it fitted inside the trap so I had to drop it in a bucket and then cover it with a pot to drown it quickly, otherwise the poor little things swim for ages before they tire and drown.

Over the weekend I cut a lot of grapes off the patio vine as they were very mildewed and the blackbirds help them selves to them but drop an awful lot on the bricks and everyone treads on them and make a mess. So I cut down the beautiful nest the Greenies wove for their eggs and raised two chicks out of them. The nest is a marvel of woven grasses,twigs and fibres and beautifully attached to the vine branches.
I don't think they use it again, certainly the Willy wagtails never use their same nests.

The rather gruesome sight on the left is a chick which fell out of the nest a few days ago. I have no idea what it is as I could not see the nest it fell out of. The undertakers were busy stripping it and as I watched it over a few days the skeleton became quite clear and I could not get over the delicate little bones, how teensy they are and again, so intricately constructed.

It reminded me of another skeleton I have saved which was a goldfish. It had somehow jumped out of the outside container I sometimes keep some in, to give to friends and the ants had cleaned it up to perfection. Our pond at present has about forty goldfish and I noticed some more teensy ones yesterday. The skull is from a blackbird which I found eaten clean last year.
When you think of all the bones which must be covering the earth and also buried in the earth, the mind boggles.....all the millions of people who have died in just the last century of wars, millions and millions......

The two big goldfish are the breeding pair but I strongly suspect the slightly smaller ones are breeding too now. I don't mind if the heron has a few now and then
The cool weather has been unsettling I find, you steel yourself for the hot summer and it has only been very hot for a few days, which was enough to kill some of the plants mind you....we had ten ml of rain over the weekend.....so didn't have to water quite so much. The tomatoes are starting to look good too but the dwarf beans were a disaster, the zuchinis too are pretty slow this season and the plums are drying on the tree!!