Rats!

Oh rats, we've got rats. Our neighbour knocked on the door this morning with the news. We were just admiring another species of British wildlife, a stag beetle, and trying to photograph it, unsuccessfully as it happens, when the alarm came.

Apparently they are living just our side of the fence and had chewed a hole in the base of our shed, although they aren't actually nesting in the shed. They have been eating well on spilt bird feed that our neighbour puts out on his lawn/bird table. So you see it's not entirely our fault by any means, but we did need to clear out the junk from between our shed and the fence.

Luckily it is the first day of two weeks' holiday for Mr HambleCampbell so we were able to deal with the junk and one visit has already been made to the dump this morning. I think the plan is either to let our Jack Russel have a go at rat destruction, or ask some experienced rat-catching terriers that we number amongst our acquaintance, to assist. Our dog has never caught a rat before, and I have heard that they need to learn the technique of killing a rat from a more experienced dog, otherwise they just muck the job up and it can all turn very nasty.

On top of all this Mr HC has got an interview for a job in the industry he got made redundant from two and a half years ago. He's there now, so we shall see what happens. I am not sure what to hope for, so I am not going to even think about it, so there.

Isn't it funny how it has been so hot and sunny for the past few weeks and now our holidays have arrived, it's pouring with rain! Still, it will make transplanting the leeks much easier - a task that is long overdue. I shall go and do that directly.