Nature Watch

The weather has been good lately, up to the last few days ( Bank Holidays mean rain, in any country) , so we have been out in the garden a bit more.

My parents were over for a week, and Dad is on a personal mission to turn an acre of French woodland into a suburban English garden, so work on the interior ground to a halt for a week.

We all built up a raised bed for our vegetable patch, but it was hard work filling it in. It looked much easier in "The Great Escape", when all you had to do was get a load of middle aged, middle class Englishmen called Roger to empty the contents of their trouser legs.

It is ready for planting now, although it may look a bit small to some, it is fine be me as I don't eat much veg anyway. We had thought about getting some chickens as well, but I don't think I would be able to slaughter one, unless it was called Harry, or Thatcher.

Henry, our kitten, has had his bits removed, and not before time, as he got chased by something big the week before ( cat/sheep/bear ? ) and he flew in the cat flap, spraying a lovely 'eau de Tom-Cat' as he went.

He seems OK after his op, as you can see above, he is enjoying the benefits of clean laundry.

Things are starting to blossom in the garden. We have a lot of grapes, some cherries and even some olives on Tina's potted tree ( none on me big tree in the garden) . We think that the walnut crop will be bad this year though, as the tree got a bit scorched when we did our latest bonfire.

The bonfire was a bit huge, what with the dead conifers that Tina had chopped down, and dad's hedge work. It was so tall that I thought I saw Edward Woodward on top when it went up.

Our summer visitors, the Hoo-poes are back. They nest every year in the back of the study, but this year some Starlings had got there first. However, they seem to have found somewhere else close by, close enough so they can wake us up every morning with their extra loud 'hoo-poe' bird call.