Possums and Owlies and long legged beasties and things that go 'clink' in the night!

 You could say we had already had our ’trick or treaters’ calling before we arrived here at Frogknot. We didn’t like their trick! Strangely no one made the 1 km journey up our drive to knock on our door last night.Answering a call of nature before bed I crept out into the darkness with my trusty head torch (Thanks be to B.B. x). I noticed its beam reflected back at me from a small clump of grass by the corner of the house. It was the eyes of something. Imagining it to be one of the many frogs calling in the night I crept closer to investigate. It was not what I expected. It was a spider! The spiders here have eyes that glow like those of cats?! Although I was a little freaked by this revelation I also took comfort from the fact that I will now be able to see where they are lurking in the night, as I inevitably make more frequent nocturnal forays as my aging bladder weakens.I slept much better than the previous night although before I dropped off I was aware that the rodent repeller, which we left on last night, was not doing its job. Something was definitely rattling and clinking things in the kitchen area. I felt safe under the net though...it is my impenetrable force field.I dreamt I could hear a cuckoo and in the dream I looked out of a window and my garden and the neighbours garden were filled with lots of cats and their kittens all playing. I don’t know why I woke up but I could still hear the cuckoo.‘What’s that?’ I whispered to Will who I could sense was also awake.‘It’s a Mopoke,’ he said.The Mopoke is actually the Southern Boobook Owl and gets its name from the sound it makes ‘mopoke’ or ‘more pork’. It sounds very much like a cuckoo to me.Sometime later I was awake again and heard what sounded like heavy breathing. I thought it was Will having a bad dream so reached out a comforting hand to his shoulder.‘It’s a possum in the tree outside,’ he said in the darkness.Heck! A possum?! Yes, that cute thing at the top of this page sounds like an evil phone pervert or aging pensioner resting at the top of a flight of stairs.Even the cute creatures have a sinister twist up their pouches!