It's enough to drive you up the wall...

We've had some very wet weather recently...
[213mm between 22nd September and the 22nd of this month]
followed by some unseasonably warm afternoons.
Then damp, foggy evenings and cold misty mornings.

Everything is getting confused...
we've a red Cowslip, from Niall and Antoinette, that has decided to come into bloom....
On Wednesday night, as I was walking  from one building to the other, a car came down the road, lighting  the evening fog...
and in the glow I saw something flitting around....
a bat was out feeding....

We had lizards out sunning themselves on the wall...
and, as I had camera in hand I started to take some pictures.

But the first thing I saw was not a lizard...

                                                                it was a little snake...

                                                                                                  three foot up the wall.

You can see how it is pushing its body into available cracks....

....and threading the tail into crevasses

It was a young Western Whiptail [Heirophis viridiflavus] Couleuvre verte et jaune...
presumably it was light enough to have climbed up there using its scales.
The scales underneath can be 'opened' outward slightly...
like a louvred window...
when you're legless, there is always some way to cling on!

I had to move another one out of the way of the car before leaving for the shops on Wednesday...
it was really lovely close up...
big round doe eyes....
the body about 20cm long, and as I picked it up, it coiled its tail around my fingers and lay along my arm, tongue flicking in and out, scenting the air.
No pictures of that one, though...
I didn't dare nip indoors to grab a camera... although it probably would have stayed put!

But here is a lizard picture...

There were a lot of flies on the wall and spiders in nooks and crannies....
so that was probably their reason for hunting in the vertical.

Oh! What a beautiful morning... Oh! What a beautiful day!

I've got a wonderful feeling everything's coming my way... TIMBERRRRR!

Pauline and I were enjoying a glass if ice-cold Hoegy by the cherry tree this evening when our attention was drawn, by the cats' behaviour... ears pricked and watching intently, to activity on the opposite side of the bief.
We saw two watervoles, one very dark and one paler chasing each other about... up and down the bank, in and out of the water, too and fro from the bridge to right opposite us. Then all went quiet...

As it got cooler we moved inside to refill glasses and listen to the Archers... Baron was still outside and jumped up onto the window sill  as if asking to come in... then he became interested in the bief again.... and on standing up I saw that the voles were at it again.

Collins Field Guide to Mammals of Britain and Europe cite the chasing about as breeding behaviour... will we be hearing the patter of tiny volefeet soon?

Incidentally, there was a very interesting programme on Auntie Beeb [Radio Four] yesterday about "Darren Tansley - Vole Warrior" It is available on Listen Again.

I will now start the day again...
Having made a New Year's Resolution to walk round the field as often as possible this Spring through to Autumn... I decided to start today... we'd heard a cuckoo, seen a swallow fly past the bedroom window... and I wanted to check out the fritillaries... it was a lovely stroll along the biefside, tripping over bramble and tussock but I saw our first cou-cou and while I was taking a picture of it, a cuckoo started up in the woods next to Bezuard... and like Niall & Antoinettes'... it seemed to be staying put!

Our first "cou-cou"... or Cowslip.

I then found a female Oil Beetle [Meloe proscarabaeus or M. violaceus... the first is more common]... as I have also recently photographed a male, I'll blog about these later with some more info.

Female Oil Beetle. Big girl isn't she... and despite the size of her abdomen, she couldn't half move!!

Strolling on the wier looked a site in the sun... and the older willows are looking well... though some are leaning a bit... I'll turn these into metre high pollards for easy harvesting of pole. A job for tomorrow or Friday... but it must be done before March is out!!

The wier [barrage] giving plenty of aeration to the water flowing over the older rocks.

I turned back along the riverside to look for the fritillaries... but no luck! I noticed that the bramble had been very hard hit by the freeze... this will make it easier to cut back this year... there won't be anything nesting in it at this time... it is too open.

Eventually I got to our non-Sloe bush [flowers much earlier than the Blackthorn...] Pauline is pretty certain it is a hybrid plum-blackthorn... it certainly shows hybrid vigor as can be seen from the two pictures below.

Lovely thick blossom.... will there be a frost?

It was alive with bees [mainly honeybees] and other insects all after the early source of nectar... even a dung fly looking for something a bit tastier.

The bees love this early nectar!