Sluggish Friday

We were going to go for a bike ride this morning, but it was so wet and miserable we decided to give it a miss. Instead I made about 16 jars of plum jam, and it is certainly very tasty (Nikonabike couldn't wait to try it so spread some on a slice of bread and butter).

We have been inundated with slugs this year. Not just your normal 2 to 3 inch black variety, but monsters up to about 6 inches, and most are a creamy brown colour with an orange frill underneath.

This one was sitting on a dark leaf under a tree, and is smaller than most that we have, but to be honest, I couldn't photograph a whole large slug and get it all in focus they are that large.

We are also getting quite a few toads, which is a good thing as they eat the slugs. The downside (as I blipped about a month ago) is that the dogs like to hunt out the toads at night when they hop out to eat their sluggy dinners. We haven't had any more "dogs frothing at the mouth" incidents as we did when they licked a toad, so maybe the boys have learnt their lesson.

Sea slugs are considered to be a thing of beauty, and indeed some are absolutely gorgeous - just take a look at this link to see what I mean. What a shame their landlubber slug mates aren't quite as pretty. It could be a new category in the Produce Show - "Prettiest slug from my own garden".