westernind | Unexpected scream brings husband running

I've been gardening this morning, planting out the cucumbers, and rigging a net of jute string between the eucalyptus and old house bricks, for the young plants to start climbing. Jute is so much nicer than the nasty green polypropylene stuff, and actually better, due to its innate non-slip nature. I also used it to lash together a tent of bamboo poles for the runner beans.

Then I disentangled a nest of old hanging baskets, including one that was self-watering. It has a cone-shaped reservoir underneath, and a wick that runs between the reservoir and the main basket. Aha, thought I, this must be the wick. But no, it wasn't. It was the scaly tail of a desiccated, mummified, flattened dead rat.