Cycles. Of life both domesticated and wild.

So, one hairy pest has been successfully relocated.
However we are a bit concerned because it seems possible another kind of pest may have moved in.
Yesterday (the morning of the family do) Barney told me a 'something very fast and small' had flown past him in the kitchen. He couldn't see how it had got in since all the windows were closed. Unless it was a bird that the cats brought in and then let go.
Only it seemed to him that it looked like a bat.
Ooh! A bat in residence!
Well, actually, um, a pest in residence!
I have no anxieties about bats and no fears that they will tangle in my hair or anything like that. However, I am not at all happy about a small, flying, multiplying mammal colonising our kitchen!
And later in the morning, the bat confirmed its existence by coming out in full view and flying around before vanishing back - into the very place from which Tosca has recently been ejected!

One problem is that bats aren't very easy to catch. Another is that they are a protected species and you aren't allowed to do anything to disturb them! So I am told by our friends who have an unwelcome colony firmly settled in their roof!
And a third is that we really don't know how long this little interloper has been here or indeed, how many of it there are! It's not like it will sit and introduce itself to you and give you a chance to get to know it! It's a case of 'all bats look the same when they're flying around your kitchen'!

Well, all these questions prompted me to look for an answer or two. And I find that though bats are indeed protected and you can be heavily fined for disturbing their roosts, one that is encountered flying around your house is probably lost and wants to get out! Which is fine by me :)
I'm hoping a night with the window open has encouraged it to leave. We haven't seen it again :)
I'm in the middle of downloading a few pictures from the weekend.

More time has passed. The weekend is over and only Father and Sister -in -law are still with us (and Sister in Law's lovely daughter and cute dog). Our dog, far from being cute, stole a helping of chocolate tart from a passing small child at the weekend and has been throwing up all day.
A window fell out of it's moorings today when a thunderstorm blew past. The weekend itself was all sunshine and hotness and small children splashing about in the paddling pool. And vast quantities of food and drink :) I am a stuffed bunny, almost unable to move for barbecued pork and chocolate tart and subsequent meals, too many and too large to describe (including a quite heavenly fish pie cooked today by Sister in Law).

It's all been good and now I am a trifle exhausted!
Apologies for my absence - I just didn't have anything polite to say. Except phew and oof and mmmm and *sigh*. A bit boring really.
But today what with sudden clouds mounting up and then the sky opening and then the open sky and a strange and wonderful mist rising after the thunderstorm, I took some pics.
Tomorrow I will visit (I daren't tonight as it's long past everyone's bedtimes - even mine :)
It's cool now :) Heaven!

Hope you've all had some lovely weather too.
xxx