I have been spending most of my time in the garden at present, everything is growing so quickly and its hard to keep up with all the jpbs that need doing. I have sprayed the Hosta's and the hosta bank with nematodes or something like that, rather than use slug pellets. It involved about 20 trips with a watering can up from the house to the top pond where most of the hosta's reside. It says on the instructions that it will have to be done every 6 weeks so I will see if the hosta's keep their leaves intact. It is nigh impossible to keep Kiki out of the ponds although her brother Lucca does not seem to have the same love of water that she does. Boudicca the cat is very nearly reaching the point that I would consider finding her a new home. We have been watching a pair of pied wagtails that have returned and that we saw last year - they are so friendly and trusting and we love sitting with a glass of wine in the evening watching them and the swallows and house martins as they zoom around the barns and back and forth to their nests.

Last night I went into the utility and found the female wagtail dead on the floor and Boudicca looking pleased with herself - I could have killed her. I went to bed upset and teary and vowing to get in touch with the rescue centre and get her re-homed - Achilles never kills anything completely the opposite to Boudicca who is almost a killing machine. Not sure if I will repent or not. Yesterday morning we had to construct a wire pen around a duck nest that is by one of the ponds with 8 eggs in it as Boudicca has found it and will kill the ducklings when they hatch if we didn't do something to help protect them. Anybody want a cat?