Common Toad ( Bufo bufo )

At last a dry day, so today it was on with the jobs I should have started on Monday.  We are converting the banks at the Lodge from lawn ( a positive swine to mow) to "wildflower meadow".   We sowed some seeds last year but without a lot of success, some came but not many.   This year we are putting in plants, some bought as potted specimens and the majority as plug plants.  I have carefully been growing the plugs on to give them a better chance.

So today the jobs were, to strim the long grass, rake and bag it up, and mow the grass with as short a setting as the mower could cope with on the remains of the strimmed grass.  When all that was done we had 14 black bin bags of grass clippings.  The final job was a trip to the "tip" (recycling centre).

The long grass must be proving excellent for wildlife.  Today's count was two Frogs (male and female going by the sizes) a female toad, half a dozen of so hairy caterpillars (possibly Fox Moth), a gorgeous Red Admiral butterfly, a number of Green Veined White butterflies, Grasshoppers. and an ant's nest

I walked 500 steps less than 3 times my daily target (note for self).