I have killed my first rat. I suspect the creature must have found its way into our area via a missing drain cover, smashed by my eldest son in the cause of science, when he was dropping old computers from our balcony to see what would happen.
Like Rasputin, its metabolism was too strong for the poison I put out for him (unless, as I rather suspect, there was more than one, and rat or rats unknown perished in the sewer). So, at the weekend, I was forced to clear out a shed, built for bicycles but piled high with old notes for books and dried-up paint pots. A thorough training in English literature helps on occasions such as this.
I took a spade. (A policy confirmed by that good old book Rat-catching for the Use of Schools. Those were the days.) When I say that the handle broke, you will realise the intensity of the duel, but I came out victor.
Only today, when talking rats to a neighbour, did I start to feel queasy. Rats, he said, will jump at you when cornered. There is supposed to be an ever-growing number of rats in the world. In London alone, it’s said that you’re never more than a few feet from one. And some of them have four legs.
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If heaven is on earth, it might be in this home with a converted chapel that is now a swimming pool5 Wood Barton Town House is part of an exclusive 80-acre development in Devon that also comes with fishing rights on the River Avon and four bedrooms.
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An Italian-inspired recipe for lemon-butter pasta shells with spring greens, ricotta and pangrattatoSpring greens are just about to come into their own, so our Kitchen Garden columnist reveals exactly what to do with them.
