Drizzle.

I woke this morning to the sound of rain pattering on the conservatory roof. It didn't last long and was more of a gentle drizzle that gave the big stones in the raised bed a good shine. A perfect day for sitting in the conservatory and working on my journal. First I had the usual check for small bodies brought in by my hunting cats. Sadly there was a very sweet baby rabbit and one small bird to be disposed off. The hunting nature of cats is the one drawback to having them as pets but the exact same thing ensures that mice etc. stay out of the house and the rats are kept under control. It's a bit unnerving but not so sad when I find a dead rat in the conservatory. I also believe that when we had our chickens the presence of the cats kept foxes away. Cats may be a lot smaller but foxes cannot afford to have cat inflicted injuries and are known to avoid cats. For most of the many years we had chickens they were not shut in the hen house at night and I did not lose any to the foxes that occasionally could be seen in the valley.

Having had a good journal session today I have only got the first 3 months of this year to do and it will completely up to date.

The first leaves are out on the lower branches of one of the garden beech trees and flower buds are forming on the azaleas.

The afternoon ended on a dry note so I did a little pottering around the small pond. With the recent dry weather the water level has dropped a bit but I could still see the tadpoles and water snails going about their business in the water.