After weeks of solid rain, the garden has turned into a boggy wilderness. The so-called lawn is now shoulder high, with large docks and massive clumps of cow parsley everywhere. The paving outside the kitchen is shot through with weeds and the concrete beside the front of the farmhouse even has a blackthorn sapling pushing up through the hardcore. One corner of the herbaceous border is waist deep with nettles and the courtyard has been taken over by creeping grass and clover. Marsh reeds are shooting up everywhere in the grass and in the surrounding fields due to the ceaseless damp. The amount of work that will be required to simply get the garden under some sort of control is now beginning to dawn on
me ....
There is a local semi-wild cat that has adopted ‘Green Valley’. It has been sleeping in the barn and can often be seen hiding under the bushes in the courtyard. The builders have been feeding it with scraps and now it is beginning to get quite tame. It is the size of a large kitten and has the most beautiful soft tabby fur with tortoiseshell colouring underneath. When there is some sun, and the stone in the courtyard warms up, it loves to stretch out full length on its back in a totally relaxed and blissful state. My daughter Tasha has named him Cous Cous. It is fantastic to have a cat around as he is a really good hunter and there have been no signs of any mice or rats, even in the barn, for several months now.