Back in England's garden

Kent and John are irresistible, so I paid another visit - joining up with Mick and Neil. Last time I was in Stodmarsh, earlier in the year, it was covered in snow. Now Spring is well under way.

The air was full of the songs of Sedge Warblers (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus).

 Also making a racket, Marsh Frogs (Rana ridibunda).

Reed Buntings (Emberiza schoeniclus) were perching up on the scattered trees to sing.

Overhead a hawk flew. I like to believe it is the uncommon Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) - rather than the common Sparrowhawk.

Next to Stodmarsh is the village of Wickhambreaux. I drew the 13th century Church of St Andrew. The east window's Art Nouveau stained glass dates from 1896, and was designed by the Danish nobleman and artist Arild Rosenkrantz - who also worked on the Goetheanum outside of Basel.

On the sea front in Margate one morning, over an egg on toast breakfast in the Bus Cafe, I made a sketch of the Nyland Rock Hotel - which is opposite John's house.

Bat out of heaven

On Friday evening a neighbour told me that she has bats roosting in her window shutters. Then, yesterday evening, some of the neighbour's children brought me a bat they had found in a garden. It was having trouble flying, and they were worried a cat would eat it.

There are 30 species of bats in Switzerland. I think this is a little Pipistrelle bat, of which there are four species. To find out which species it is, one needs to hear the sound they produce for echolocation. A special device is needed for this, as the sound is at around 50 kHz - about the upper limit for us to hear. April is the time they come out from hibernation and look for nesting sites, thus the sudden bat invasion. Another neighbour and I are organizing for bat boxes to be placed on tops of the houses - for safe nesting. I look forward to watching them fly in the evenings. Each night a Pipistrelle needs to catch and eat around 2,000 insects, and may fly more than 5 kms to find them!

I put the bat in a box with water, for a safe night.

This morning we went to Lange Erlen Animal Park, which is next to our houses, and gave the bat to one of the keepers for safe keeping.

Bees making bees

Things are warming up - literally and metaphorically. The Red Mason Bees are mating on my bee nest. Note the male with the white face on top, and the larger female, without a white face, underneath.

Property development

One day I will build a megapolis, in which the buildings will reach to the sky and people will travel around in solar-powered airships. As a first step, I have constructed two colossal bee houses, for my own houses in Basel and Aeschlen. I gave my plan to my neighbour, friend and carpenter Res Loosli - and he cut the solid oak pieces that would make the frames.

All I had to do was put them all together.

Res also cut me some 15 cm long pieces of beech. I drilled into these holes ranging from 3-10 mm in diameter, and up to 10 cm deep. Then I cut bamboo of different diameters into 15 cm long pieces, and hollowed them out where necessary. The final results are, to my mind, works of art.

And now they stand in Basel and Aeschlen, new age high rise housing dwarfing the more quaint and intimate housing they will replace. We call it progress.