We were on holiday last week but just over a week before that, we went to Dartmoor with friends and walked up to Haytor then later up to Emsworthy Mire. I took some pretty fantastic (for me) photos, the majority of which Paul deleted because they weren’t up to his standard.

We went to Emsworthy Mire because we wanted to catch a glimpse of some rare species which are supposed to be there. Not long after arriving we heard a Cuckoo’s call and decided to sneak over to get a photo. Annoyingly the bloody bird outsmarted us every step of the way and when we got close, it would sneakily take off. We trekked miles after this bird and even saw someone else get close enough to take pictures of it. I could see it using the camera on full zoom but not with the naked eye. We did manage to get a picture but it wasn’t a very good one.

We’ve been away for a week and had a nice time in Northern Ireland. It’s been a long time coming as I haven’t been in around six years. I grew up in Newcastle, Co Down and moved back to England when I was 13 so my best friend, Holly, is over there and it’s been great seeing her again.

We started our holiday on Monday and flew from Exeter to Belfast and travelled up to Portstewart and stayed there for one night before heading down and spending the rest of our stay in Belfast. We had each day planned out and we got it all done and more which I was pleased with but we still could have done with a couple more days to see it all.

We did have some bad news whilst in Portstewart. On Tuesday morning we got an email from the architect saying that he wouldn’t be able to come to the appointment on Monday because the building company had not provided full instructions for him. Obviously we weren’t impressed at having to deal with this on our holiday, especially after how rubbish the building company had been with us. Paul phoned and emailed the building company asking them to sort it out because we were on holiday and we had both made sure we had Monday off from work for this appointment.

The response came about 30 minutes later. The owner of the company, Dave, emailed and said that they were no longer using the architect and instead offered us a refund.  When we calculated the full amount we’d paid them – roughly £1700 – and got back to Dave to confirm the full refund amount (owing the the fact we’d have to start from scratch with another building company and architect) he suddenly changed his tune and offered to keep up as a client and use another architect instead. We politely declined and said we’d like the refund instead and miraculously have not heard anything since. Fantastic.

When we got home at around 16:30 on Sunday, we did a little bit of gardening because the grass was over a foot high in some places. It was a bit long for a mower but we strimmed the whole thing and pulled out a great many dandelions and seven or eight Sumac (Rhus typhina) saplings that the tree keeps sending out. Stupid tree. We cut off one of its branches when it was in the way and ever since we’ve had a constant stream of new saplings. Originally I wanted to get rid of the tree but I don’t think we will ever be able to.

Whilst pulling out some weeds between the paving slabs I found something that made me happy. At first glimpse I thought he was a funny coloured worm so I pulled him out and then realised what I had actually found.

This little guy is a baby slow worm. I like slow worms, I think they’re rather cute, and I’m hoping he may be the offspring of one of the three slowworms we released into our garden in July. I think slow worms reproduce in the summer and that baby ones are born around August/ September, so this little guy may not even be a year old! He quickly slithered off and hid in amongst the many ants and woodlice (which I suspect he would later eat).

The other slow worms we’ve come across have all got names (Mr Slidey, Nag, Nagaina and Nagini) but I’ve not thought of one of this little dude yet.