Down on the compost...

It is CleanSteve's birthday today, of which he has written. I managed to finish making his cake before midnight last night! Today I have been busy with preparing the house for a family who are staying here in our absence; preparing a lesson for some students who never turned up; preparing for the Japanese students tomorrow; generally catching up on matters related to self-employment before going away. And the housework. And the shopping. And the birthday meal.

CleanSteve actually had to help with the veg, because I am not super at multi tasking, so he prepped the sweetheart cabbage.

"Good!I've found a slug!" he said.
"What's good about that?"
"It shows that the cabbage is still alive, and not chemically treated".

Back in blipland, I did take 24 quick shots today, but I am blipping the slug I found later, an hour after this conversation, because I do actually quite enjoy learning about decay, disease, and pests! I had bought some cheap apples yesterday, and they tasted horrible, so I put some of them on the compost. A few minutes later, I went out and saw Bomble sitting in a tree in the half-light. So I went inside to get my camera. Of course, he followed me ! Defeated, I went back to the compost with the cabbage scraps, and found these slugs already in residence. As I was still clutching my camera as well as the cabbage, I snapped them, to test the super macro with LED setting. The slugs did not like the camera as much as I did, and started reversing down the apple.

The central feature that looks as if it might be the slug's mouth parts is really the stalk of the apple in cross-section. What amazes me today is to discover that slugs are beautiful, in their own way. Who knew that that the orange border is, in fact, striated? Look out for blips of super Scottish Black Liquorice Slugs next week!