Henri the Building Inspector

Henri, our French kitten has always had a penchant for hide and seek, mostly hiding, but lately he has been taking this to a new level.

He likes to climb trees, and had found a way to get into the top of the pump house by climbing up on a laburnum, then onto the pump house roof, and finally into the attic through a hole in the roof where some tiles had slipped. This reminded me that I needed to fix the roof, which I duly did, much to Henri's disgust.

That stopped him for a while, but he still kept disappearing. Then one day Tina spotted him, climbing up the tree, then shuffling out on two tiny branches ( two paws on each branch) till he was opposite an open attic window, and finally leaping into the open window. On the way out it is even scarier, as he leaps into space, grabs one of the branches and wraps himself around it like a monkey. It's only 10 foot off the ground, but is still a bit scary.

Luckily, he has now found a safer alternative, and has found a way of climbing up the back wall of the study, and climbing in to the attic space there. He does pop his head out occasionally, only to drop down with a loud thud on the ceiling below.

Niemi is not far behind him in the explorer stakes, but being more lady-like, she waits until our bedroom window is open and then climbs out onto the roof from there.

She has also taken to exploring Thiery's field, again taking the lazy option of squeezing through the mesh on the fence, like it was a cat flap.

Henry has also started to dig around the lawn, but for mole crickets, rather than proper moles. The moles have been quiet for a couple of days now.

My friend John has had a bad reaction in his own garden when he put a couple of smoke bombs down. It seemed to make the moles angry, and dig up everywhere at once. This could explain why they have been quiet in our garden, as Charlie may not yet have the resources to fight on two fronts at once. However it may just be a coincidence, as Johns house is half an hour away, so it may not be the same moles.

On the house front, all of the plasterboard is up in the back room, and I have started jointing up the walls and ceiling, while Tina has started pointing the walls.

The pointing seems to bring out the stonework really well. The colour was a bit strange at first, as it looked a lot darker than we imagined, but it tones down nicely when it eventually dries out.