Lizards, bats and hens

The variety of wildlife was greatly entertaining. On our first afternoon as we were unpacking the car Christopher announced that he had "seen an animal with legs and a tail" (so eloquently descriptive) This "animal" turned out to be a lizard and I wasn't too impressed when it ran off into the sitting room and scuttled under the skirting board, I was looking for that blessed reptile for days, shaking my shoes before putting them on and lifting everything off the floor obsessively. The owners of the cottage lived next door and their garden ran behind ours with a little gate in the middle of the hedge where we used to stand and watch the chickens and ducks. The chickens came running up expectantly whenever they saw us - I guess previous visitors have been feeding them. The children saw a stag and a hind crossing the field in front of the house one evening and went off to try to get a photo of them - we didn't bother pointing out that they didn't have a hope of getting near. By far the most entertaining animals were the bats. Every evening as dusk fell there would be a faint noise which gradually got louder and then the acrobatics began as they swooped and whirled through the trees in the garden and around the house. I swear they knew we were watching them and put on a performance for us for about 20 minutes each evening, gradually the activity lessened and the noise increased as they hung high up in the trees and squeaked for want of a better description. Prior to being at La Linetiere I would have been decidedly underwhelmed at the idea of sitting watching bats in the twilight but it proved to be an absorbing pastime.