Torpid Slow Worm

A powerful Stihl strimmer helps me keep on top of the garden, eliminating bracken from the steep hillside to the railway and keeping reeds at bay. A bank of grazing grass, in a sea of gorse and bracken, is very welcome to the farmer’s sheep.

Strimming is noisy, messy and not very wildlife friendly. Where the vegetation is thick, around the edges of the veg patch, it’s hard to see what creatures might be lurking in the undergrowth. That’s why the motto is 'rake first, strim second'; the St Francis approach.

My reward on a dull morning was a slow worm, barely warm enough to move.