Ratty & Mole

Do you remember 'Wind in the Willows'? Mole was always my favourite, from that enchanting opening scene of spring cleaning and white wash and escaping up through his tunnel, out into the sunlight and the wonders of a warm spring day. Rather like today in fact. Full of fragrant blossom and the promise of the year to come. Remember how Mole meets Ratty on that first day and they spend it 'messing about on the river'? What has reminded me of all this is reading today about 'vole ladders' being installed on the Grand Union Canal at Hanwell Lock Flight, just down the road from where I live. It turns out that Ratty was actually a water vole and today they are endangered, not by weasels but by an invasive predator, American Mink. Apparently a colony of voles can be wiped out by just one mink, since many have been released or escaped from fur farms. These wooden ladders will give an existing colony of water voles access to newly-constructed floating islands on the canal which have even been planted with just the sort of vegetation that they love to eat and nest on. Oooh - it sounds positively Grahame-esque. I shall wander down there and imagine Ratty in his boat......