That certainly resonates with me – all the joy and delight without the responsibility and work. Today one of the jewels in that crown celebrates her seventh birthday.

Sometimes I need a reason to get me up and out of the house.

I took them to the gate at a friend’s house and left them for her to pick up as I walked away.

Let’s hope that these old days will soon be history.

Molehill! I love those little piles of earth that appear, randomly in the field

On a dry day I fill a wheelbarrow and then shovel the mole-sifted earth into storage bags

The solitary moles live (in their millions) beneath ground digging up to 20 metres of tunnels each day. Their digging helps to aerate the soil although their molehills can annoy gardeners and even farmers. They feed on earthworms and only look for a mate during the months of February through to May. The gestation period is six weeks and the pups leave the underground nest about 6 weeks after birth. It’s a solitary, underground existence with average life expectancy of 3 years. Occasionally we spot moles above ground but then they become prey for the cats or buzzards. They are safer staying below with Nigel and Mabel on the prowl!

Testing video again – click below

The “happiness engineers” at WordPress have given advice about the problem of those without iPhones or iPads being able to watch the videos that I occasionally post. Well if you can understand the advice you’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!

Norman (Automattic) 

Jan 15, 2021, 11:06 UTC 

Another friend said she can watch the videos in edge but not chrome.
Lots saying they used to be able to see them but not for some months

Hi,

I saw that your movies are originally uploaded as MOV. I suggest converting them to .mp4 format using tools like https://handbrake.fr . MOV is an Apple Proprietary format and hence can play tricky at times. I have read reports about later versions of iPhones using some proprietary ways to compress and save videos. Those may not work reliably on non-apple devices.

You may want to ask your friends to update to latest version of Edge, since the older ones were terribly buggy. Microsoft recently changed the base of the Edge browser to Chromium (same as Chrome’s ) . So hopefully it should work well if they all update to the latest version.

Regards,

Norman – Happiness Engineer | Automattic Inc. |

Well I downloaded Edge to my laptop but I still couldn’t see the videos ! And I’m not clever enough to convert the videos (plus I would lose the spontaneity of the blog. So it ain’t happening – sorry!)

If anyone is that keen to see the short videos then send me a comment with your mobile number and I will WhatsApp them to you).

Our agapanthus plants )that we brought here from London) have done well and been divided and replanted regularly. This year I gathered quite a few black seeds at the end of the flowering and dropped them into pots of mole earth. I brought to an indoor, upstairs windowsill

Continuing with testing the videos I am uploading two more that some might not have seen. If you have an iPhone or iPad they seem to work. Especially if you click on the HEADING at the top of the blog – the blog will enlarge snd a play button will appear. This doesn’t work on my laptop or Samsung or other phones. The “happiness” engineers are working on this.