THE cold snap has really woken up those little chaps in their velvet coats.
There were quite a few fresh molehills in evidence this morning, black little mounds against the green sward.
Relying on worms for their supper (and dinner, tea and constant snacks) the moles have to move their runs up and down according to the seasons. Wherever the worms go, the moles will follow.
Cold snaps like the recent frosty mornings keep the worms from the surface, hence the rash of fresh molehills as Mouldywarp tries to track and trap them.
Worms must be nutritional, too. I remember once trying to beat a mole burrowing at root level across a lawn. He could dig faster than I could aim a spade in front of him, that's for sure!
They are finely engineered animals if you ever get to see one up close. The velvet on their coat is incredible, thick and lush and ideal for keeping dirt away from its skin. It front paws really are powerful digging tools.
Music on the moss: just returned Seamus Ennis' Wandering Minstrel [lovely piping] to the store and replaced it with Something/Anything, the early double album by Todd Rundgren, a real mixture that includes the precursor of the "motorcycle guitar" he played on Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell, which he also produced.

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