Nature's recyclers

Following a frosty start it turned into a perfect spring day and once more I took the dogs along the tow path beside the Thames. The cold morning made the reflections really sharp and the numerous geese, swans and ducks seemed happy to put on a show with a few groups honking loudly, skimming the water in awesome flight. One particular group amounted to at least a dozen swans and I had my camera trained on them for a perfect shot - except in my excitement I had the wrong setting!!

We decided to take a lunchtime picnic down to a local play park where the boys had a great time and plenty of exercise for a good couple of hours. Then while the youngest one caught up on some sleep the other two helped me to check out the wormery I bought them in the summer. They have obviously been feeding it well as the worms were numerous and in very healthy form and included many young ones. B asked if the mothers and fathers still worked after they had had their babies! ..... A sign of the times! Both boys were intrigued that the dark black compost in the bottom tray was the result of the worms having worked their way through all their fruit and vegetable peelings and egg shells and to prove it we found a couple of egg shells still recognizable and absolutely full of worms. J also found the remains of a small corn in the cob husk and when he broke it to make it smaller and easier for the worms he found four worms nestled inside, working away! These are J's hands in his new gardening gloves - he loved picking up the worms so that was really useful as we needed to put them back in the next tray of the wormery.

My daughter and I finished off a busy day by going to see Les Miserables while one of her gallant friends babysat the three boys and two dogs.