Saturday 9 May 2009

3 Legged Toad

Just had a horrible experience up the allotment!! I was cutting the grass with a shear (I think that's what they're called) and I noticed something moving so I stopped and noticed a toad. I went to pick it up to move it and realised it was missing a leg and had it's mouth open!!!! my first thought was I cut it off and it's sceaming, I felt sick, in fact I was almost sick.

I placed the toad on some rocks by the pond and went off to find his missing leg, I wasn't sure what I would do with it if I found it at this point. I couldn't find it, so I went back to the toad and it was dead still so I thought that's it I've killed it, I was devastated. Only then did I realise there was no blood and when I looked at the toad, where there should be a leg there was just a shrivelled end but at this point there was no rational thought all I could think was "TOAD MURDERER!!!" I thought I was supposed to be a vegan :( so off I went to dig a grave, I even made a gravestone from a bit of slate and put a letter T on it.

I went back to bury the toad but noticed the toad was gone!!! and when I inspected further I realised he was crawling away looking quite happy. Then a retraced the instance and started to think rational, there was no blood, there was no leg, the toad was shrivelled where there should be a leg, it would be very difficult to make a clean cut of the leg by a quick movement of a shear. So my conclusion is this I am 90% sure the toad had three legs before I came along but it did make me think that we should always consider nature and check before changing it, even cutting the grass!! If you know me you know how much this experience would of traumatised me hopefully the 3 legged toad will live a good long life and not encounter me again. You can guarantee I will have toad nightmares tonight!!

Friday 8 May 2009

Allotment Catch Up

Ok haven't blogged for ages as I've been busy doing rather than talking about it, so here's a quick catch up and I will try and keep you all updated from now on. So what have I been doing well....

I've made a new bed for my strawberries, haven't got around to putting any squirrel proofing on it yet if there's such thing!!

I've built a border around two beds one for my beans and one for my potatoes. As you can see the new beds are made from bricks. We had a community day up the allotment as one of the walls had fallen over and I rescued the bricks :) I love the look of old bricks, so they now have a new destiny in life to protect my plants from harm.

I've planted out peas, beans, swede, turnip, parsnip, radish, carrot, onion, carrot, lettuce, potatoes..... My windowsills in the house are been abducted by lots of baby seedlings pushing their way through to this life ahhhhh!!