Lesser-spotted blipper in Cumbria

I stayed up past midnight last night, tending the garden bonfire in my pyjamas, listening to badgers thrashing around at the bottom of the garden. They sounded more like baby elephants. When I first popped out in pitch darkness, I had my phone torch on. I heard a rustling in the vinca bed. Then the noise-making creature bolted to the side of the cabin. I stayed still. A few moments later, a striped face poked out to see if the coast was clear. Seeing me standing there, the badger took fright and galumphed down the garden at top speed. I wish I could have photographed that little face. My mother once slept in a room at the side of the house, when we first moved, 18 years ago, and mistook the sound of badgers cavorting at night for Stroud's most incompetent burglars (you know the sort that drop their tools and swear too loudly).

Meanwhile, as of this evening, we've made it half-way to the west Highlands. Managed to pack and leave on time, almost, then found we couldn't leave Stroud, because of the sheer weight of traffic! Rain seemed to stick with us most of the way. Another major blockage on the M5 held us up. We had a couple of stops at service stations*, and got off the motorway at Tebay to take the country road to Appleby, then from there to the village of Culgaith, where we are staying in a pub with rooms.

Fortunately there is also a restaurant, and we arrived not long before last orders for food. The sea bass in caper sauce was a rare treat. Now we're lying down watching TV, Gogglebox, and CleanSteve, who's just driven 200 miles on his birthday, is asleep already.

The scenic snap was taken on the road from Tebay to Appleby-in-Westmorland. Of you look closely you'll see CleanSteve wearing his new birthday shorts. Prettier, and warmer, than birthday suits.

* The photo in extra is of a vending machine in the women's toilets at Stafford Motorway Services. My, how times change! I must get out more.