Tortoiseville

 We've had a very busy first week of the Easter hols. My husband had the week off work so we had plenty planned - first up was building the tortoise enclosure. This is what it looked like at the beginning of the week. I had turned over the soil, planted some weeds and supervised positioning of a few rocks (remember, they were very heavy and I'm a tin pot weakling).

 Enclosure under construction - decking boards screwed to four posts which are then hammered into the ground so the tortoises cannot dig their way out. You can see the tortoises' original home to the left of this photo.

 Here is the finished enclosure - looking good, but just needed some net to go over the top - quick trip to the garden centre needed.

 We decided on a moveable piece of wood to support the mesh in the centre - we cut to fit, then used duct tape to strengthen the edges - the mesh is hooked onto screws to keep in position.

 We also purchased this coldframe to house the tortoises at night time. A little doorway was chopped out of one of the wooden sides - we were quite lucky to find a coldframe with wooden sides at Homebase which helped keep the costs down. Obviously, it is still too cold for the tortoises to be out at night so they have just been trying out their new home during the day and I am bringing them in early evening for bed time in the warm.

Here is a photo of the three of them enjoying the sunshine. They really do love their new home and have had a great time exploring in amongst the rocks and plants. I weighed them all this morning and they have put on at least 8 grammes each over the past 2 months. Not bad considering they are still so tiny.

Sorry to bore you if you are not in the slightest bit interested in tortoises. We also went to Ikea, had a day trip to London, spent loads of time in the garden (gardening and relaxing) and enjoyed each others company. More blog posts to follow. Hope you are enjoying the Easter Hols. Take care. x