Warty Beauty!

Well look what I found on my allotment!  Bufo bufo the common toad!It was hiding under the carpet covering the path on what was my fellow plot sharers, now my, plot! Serial monogamist, very charming, very unreliable, had asked for carpeting to cover the weeds on his new plot, and was given loads by the village! So he had spare which he helped cut and lay for her.  At the time wondered why she hadn't asked me if I wanted the same! But now it's mine anyway! 
I was pulling out the grass and weeds that were growing out the edges, and pulling back the carpet there it was! I covered it again, grabbed my camera, raced back, pulled back the carpet - gone! After much searching discovered it half buried in the dying grass! But in clearing the grass around it to show it more clearly  it  started to  scramble away, pretty fast I might add! Eventually I gave up on a natural shot and just picked it up, whereupon it became very docile, only moving to pose and show me its front and side profile! The photo session was stopped by fellow allotmentor arriving and wanting me to move my car! In future I will be walking very carefully on the carpet! 
I hadn't planned on going to the allotment, but as I was up and it wasn't raining I grabbed a george Clooney, gathered my stuff and raced up there! Now all my squash and rainbow Chard is in, protected by a triple defence of plastic cloches (would prefer glass but way too expensive, but the glass domes over each squash still look rather good! ) slug pellets and Rabbit Off! As last year the blasted rabbit will insist on eating the slug pellets!! So I found a spray which repels it, enabling the pellets to work on the slugs! We sure breed rabbits with peculiar tastes and iron constitutions down here! 
I had a fine old time weeding the beds, the baby dandelions and other weeds came out easy, the grass on the paths needed some spade work, and the dock and brambles down the end some serious hacking with shears! After this  I went to see the girls and discovered a well funky smell meaning old broken eggs going nasty in the nesting boxes, so 3 boxes emptied of shavings, chipped away at, sprayed and refilled, the whole time being clucked at by three girls who just wanted to sit down and lay! There were already 3 eggs in the boxes and since I was so pissed off that the other coop members had not dealt with this, I broke them and gave them to the girls!! Oh you have never seen happier chickens than when they are gobbling down eggs! 
I also inspected my newly acquired shed from the plot I now own, the committee chairman had broken the padlock off and it was now officially mine! Ooh what a shed! Shelves, hooks, all panels in place so dry, no mice or rat droppings  and a nicely felted roof! Next dry day my belongings from my old, falling apart shed will be moved in!  I also found a damn fine saw which I promptly used to cut a plank of wood to secure the chicken coops hatch from dropping too low and leaving a gap. A previous year the rats had nibbled a hole in it, and then the wood that ran along the edge fell off, the Useless but  Nice Chap in our coop had said he would fix it, but of course never did, and I had been doing a Heath Robinson job on it for many months!!
After all this I gathered the last of the strawberries and redcurrants, the first of the raspberries, gave the nibbled ones to the girls, gathered my stuff and set off for home. For most of my time up there the mizzle had been falling, a fine mist that non the less had managed to plaster my hair to my head and soaked up my trousers to my thighs! Plus I had mud up to there too! I do not understand how I end up looking so mucky, as if I have been making mud pies, and others working on their plots so clean! But I really didn't and don't care! I felt so happy that my crops were in, my beds weed free and my paths cleared, and warty in residence to eat the slugs! Oh heck, hope he doesn't eat the slug pelleted ones! But the pellets are ok for bird life so i'm guessing toads too, they certainly don't harm the rabbit!
On arriving home I stripped off, put dry clothes on, grabbed a George Clooney and then Portly Lucy! Another walk in the mizzle! The rest of the day, after eating and processing warty, I slept! Well,  over 4 hours making mud pies is tiring!!!

I have tagged this Tiny Tuesday as since it was way smaller than my hand, and let me assure you my hands and the rest of me are pretty tiny at 5ft,  7 ish stone, it was pretty tiny!!!