Monday 28 November 2011

A tale of two villages ...

Well, it's more about the squirrels in each village!

In our garden in Staffordshire we have a family of grey squirrels living in the large oak tree. We regularly see them and this afternoon Tim, who works largely from home, took some pics whilst making his afternoon cup of tea.















By contrast the squirrels that have the run of our garden in France, are red and much more petite. They do, after all, live at La Petite-Presse!!


19 comments:

  1. Great squirrel action shots!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely pictures, Gaynor! We have grey squirrels in the garden in England and to stop them eating all the food put out for the birds, we bought a squirrel-proof feeder. The squirrel obviously couldn't read: it took the complete feeder away with it!

    ps. word verification = dadbraxi

    ReplyDelete
  3. Petite and MUCH more shy!
    And in many respects... much more colourful!! Dark Mahogany through to Rich Russet...
    BUT despite the problems with the grey "tree-rats", both species are very entertaining.
    I'll let Pollygarter herself tell the tale of the washing line and the peanuts.
    Tim [having just noticed that he's become a cat again!]

    WV is "dises"... alternative routes on Departmental roads.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Susan - Thank you on Tim's behalf!

    Colin and Elizabeth - Squirrels are quite clever, or at least are quick learners. I wonder where that feeder is now?

    Tim and Pauline - I look forward to hearing/reading about the tale of the washing line and the peanuts ...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Squirrels are quite amazing creatures. When my parents had their own home they had a large picture window in the kitchen with three bird feeders hanging just outside it. They, too, bought a 'squirrel proof' feeder. Many times they would fall off to the ground and it was great fun watching them stare at it and you could almost hear their little minds reasoning out their next plan of attack. My mother would chase them off when she heard them climbing the window screen to their target. It got so they would climb up to the window and have a look around the kitchen to see if she was there before continuing their assent! Love the pictures!

    ReplyDelete
  6. To squirral proof your garden obtain a barmy big German Shepherd and just open the back door at regular intervals.... That stops'em!!
    Hope your washing is sorted and you haven't had to go and find a laundrette!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Broad,

    What a lovely story!

    Mandy,

    I keep thinking about the dog. I often dog sit for my daughter's two dogs. In fact the squirrels need to look out Maisie and Lucy are booked in for the weekend ....

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love squirrel watching Gaynor, a smashing post,

    SP

    ReplyDelete
  9. SP,
    Thanks!
    Tim has much more patience than I have when it comes to waiting for the right shot. Perhaps it comes from working from home and having more time .....

    ReplyDelete
  10. Lovely pictures of squirrels but I'm afraid that we now shoot them. They were nesting in our loft a few years ago and caused enormous havoc and huge expense to get rid of them. Nick bought an air rifle and the total shot so far is about 40 so we're doing our best to keep the local squirrel population down.
    They also dug up my newly planted crocuses and ransack our birdfeeders. We also suspect them of stealing birds eggs so we are definitely no fan of squirrels.

    Apologies for any offence caused to animal lovers but as one person described them they are just rats with fluffy tails.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Squirrel action!! :-) They need little capes...

    Pearl

    ReplyDelete
  12. The picture are very good. But I just told my husband we must rid our yard of these tree rats. We have a great pecan tree in our backyard, but never get any pecans because the squirrels get them. The price of pecans has made a dramatic increase here because of the drought; so I don't like sharing (actually they don't share)the ones I could get for free.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Gode billeder.
    Hvor er den lille Egern dog sød.
    Tak for kigget.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Pearl,
    Welcome to La Petite-Presse! Great to meet you. I've taken a look at your interesting blog - and I'll be back ...

    ReplyDelete
  15. Jean,

    I do appreciate exactly what you mean! I think we would probably feel the same if they were in the house and damaging property.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Charlotte,

    Again I understand your pain! We love all kinds of nuts and would hateit if the squirrels took more than their fair share.

    Great blog BTW. I will be visiting again to read more of your back story.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi Landbohaven,

    Thanks for the comment. I don't know any Danish and the Babylon translation was a bit strange but I think it started with 'good pictures'.

    Takket vaere meget ;o)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Glad you worked out it was a Danish comment, Gaynor - I had no idea.

    Anyway, great camera work by Tim here

    ReplyDelete
  19. FrenchFancy,

    Thank you and welcome.

    I'll pass on your congratulations to Tim!

    ReplyDelete