Madhouse diaries : Close encounters of the furred kind !

Yesterday, we (well, I !) decided to head off to a local park to find a new geocache. There was only one cache and it's a pretty boring park to be honest - there's a lovely walk around a huge duck pond but that's it - so I didn't expect much enthusiasm !

First we had a good giggle at the ducks waving their bums in the air. Bottoms up !

Then we oohed and aahed at the grown up ducklings.

And we found a lovely pale blue duck egg. The kids were very impressed to see beak marks where the little duckling had pecked its way out.

As we headed over to the geocache area, I screamed.

Not because I was scared but because I very nearly stepped on this little fella !

I'm not sure what he is - a vole or a water rat? - but he was totally unfazed by human presence and just sat there, rooting around and nibbling on the grass.

 He was still sitting there when we left so I hope he scurried away eventually before geting eaten by a fox.

Just a few yards away was the geocache site.

It was easy to find and we swapped a "magic crystal" for a rabbit-shaped Sillyband.

I had a giggle at the log - some people are getting a bit ahead of themselves !

Now this looks like the perfect place for a geocache, but I'm glad it wasn't in there because it was full of spiders webs (and probably spiders).

Our exciting encounter with the water rat or whatever it was reminded us of another adventure when we came across a very friendly hedgehog in another park, so click through if you want to see some pictures of a rather spikier chum.