More moles...

I have continued to see mole hills everywhere. Apart from Mole in The Wind in the Willows (which long ago predisposed me to being fond of them) I know nothing about the animals so, curious, I googled them. Sadly just about every site that comes up is to do with mole extermination.

Here, however, is more than you ever wanted to know about moles (personally I am very impressed by the amount of tunnelling they can get through in a day and I love the word mouldywarp)....

Moles can be found almost anywhere in North America, Asia, and Europe, although there are no moles in Ireland.

A mole looks very distinctive, if you can see one. It has a rounded body, velvety, grey-black fur, spade-like front claws, a short, furry tail, tiny eyes and a pink, pointed snout. They can probably tell night from day but otherwise they are blind. Moles are often considered pests by gardeners and farmers. They live underground, tunnelling up to 20m a day and leaving characteristic mounds of earth on the surface – molehills. They also dig out large chambers, which they line with dry grass for resting. Once made, mole tunnels are often used by several generations. Moles eat small invertebrates living underground. They are solitary creatures, except during the breeding season. After mating the female gives birth to a litter of up to five young during the summer.

By the era of Early Modern English, the mole was also known in the British Isles as mouldywarp, a name echoed in other Germanic languages such as German (Maulwürfe), and Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic (muldvarp, mullvad, moldvarpa where the muld/mull/mold part of the word means soil and the varp/vad/varpa part is a descendant of the old-Nordic word for throw), hence "one who throws soil" or "dirt tosser".

Male moles are called boars, females are called sows. A group of moles is called a labour.

So now we know where nail extensions come from!