I was surprised when I got this close-up photo of fleas, because I had felt quite strongly, seeing one alive walking around on me, it wasn't a flea. But I've never actually knowingly seen live fleas before. I've twice caught fleas while travelling, but I never actually saw them, and those ones, both caught off cats at guesthouses, gave me much nastier bites than the present ones. It just shows how important it is with insects, and indeed birds and other animals, to see them in flesh, going about their business, because it is very difficult for photos in books to communicate the look of that.

We don't have a dog or a cat. I think we do have mice at the moment, as I'm catching them at the rate of about once a month when I put out a trap wherever I see some droppings. Though, actually, it occurs to me as I write this, given that I am regularly seeing droppings on an exterior windowsill, near a couple of gaps in the roof tiles, I wonder if we also have bats...