Friday 17th June 2022 - Phew, Shemozzle, Rich in Vitamin K and Butterflies

Phew, it’s pretty warm out there today. Temperatures are set to reach in the region of 30°C so we won’t be doing anything strenuous outside today, unlike yesterday when I got out the long handled electric hedge clippers to do some trimming. Peter does the main cuts; I was just topping some tall shrubs – safer to cut from the ground than use hand shears on a ladder. It wasn’t the clipping that was strenuous but the raking up, which on a warm afternoon, made me start to overheat. Peter was also outside in the garden where amongst other things he planted some sweetcorn seeds. A bit late you may think and indeed it may prove to be so.

During the previous night, I heard cats fighting in the early hours of the morning and looking out of the window I could only see part feral Lunar sitting on the corner of the conservatory roof. Further investigation out in the garden with a torch revealed nothing, so I re-joined Peter in bed, who had slept through the whole shemozzle. However, in the light of morning, Peter found three sweetcorn plants had been broken off at the base, hence sowing more seed. In addition, gooseberries where strewn on the ground a couple of flowering plants had lost leaves and shoots and there were clumps of cat hair on the grass. There is a particular cat in the area that none of the other cats like and who can be hostile, so I wouldn’t mind betting he was behind the fight in the night; but then I could be completely wrong.

Barney wouldn’t have enjoyed today’s heat. He never was one for high temperatures and I can imagine him now; he would be moving from place to place trying to find the coolest area to lay down in. Barney far preferred cool days and in particular loved the snow. Not many snowfalls in his lifetime but the next time we get a layer of white we will remember Barney and his dog friend Archie running and rolling on the car park with Barney returning home with mini snow balls stuck to his fur. Not related to heat or snow but when we first had Barney he was terribly sick when we took him out in the car. One of his first trips was for a walk in the grounds of Felbrigg Hall. Kept on the lead he still managed to scoff rabbit droppings, which by the way are supposed to be rich in Vitamin K, and on our way home was sick about three times whilst sat on my lap. Fortunately, I had a towel on my lap. We tried all sorts of things to get him to travel well, not just in the car but on the bus too, but all failed. That was until we took him with us to the butchers in Mundesley where they gave him treats of minced beef. It seemed that from then on Barney associated car rides with food and apart from the occasional nauseous episodes, he travelled on the back seat of our car, in the bus as well as the train, with no problems.

There have been good numbers of butterflies visiting our garden this year. Off the top of my head, I can remember seeing brimstones, peacocks, red admirals, orange tips, speckled wood, small whites, holly blues, small tortoiseshells, commas, painted ladies and it won’t be long before meadow browns, gatekeepers and ringlets are about, the latter three if not in our garden we will almost certainly see them on our walks. Today’s photo is of a painted lady on one of our pyracanthas.