Friday 30th April 2021 - Frustration, Should be Warmer, WI and Night Time Visitor

These past ten days have been filled with frustrations, all generated by my mobile phone provider. I shan’t bore you with the details, suffice to say, if you use Virgin be aware by then end of this year they are moving from EE to Vodaphone. Sounds okay but it isn’t, quite simply because Overstrand is in a pocket where there is no Vodaphone signal. Today we have signed up with a different provider and once our new sim cards are delivered, I should once again be able to receive and make calls on my mobile.

It has been unseasonably cold for April. This is mainly due to winds swinging between the east and north. When we take Barney out in the morning, I still need to wear my winter lined jacket, scarf and gloves. It should be warmer than this. There are still varieties of trees near us, e.g. sycamores, whose leaves are only just breaking open; our walnut is still in bud, so even further behind. The ground on the veg plot is, due to the lack of rainfall, cracking – whatever happened to those April showers? We did have a few during last night, leading me to question Sid, our cat, whether he really wanted to go out when we could both hear the rain was pummelling on our conservatory roof.

Yesterday morning our small WI group met for a planned socially distanced walk along the cliff tops, across the golf course before returning to the village via the church path. With the wind blowing from the north, the walk along the cliff top path would have been less than pleasurable so instead we opted to walk inland. This turned into a very enjoyable amble along tracks and paths before returning to the village for refreshments, in the outside seating area of the Cliff Top Café.

I have seen evidence in the garden that we have a night time visitor; a hedgehog. Tuesday evening, Peter set up the trail camera which captured a hedgehog in the early hours of the morning. Wednesday night, we put out some cat food in a bowl. This was well received and eaten in one sitting, with the hedgehog returning a couple of times to see if the food had been replenished. We decided to put out the same amount of food on Thursday evening, so it would be an attraction for the hedgehog to visit but leaving it look further into our garden for additional sustenance, such as slugs. What a disappointment this morning. The food had gone but the trail camera revealed it was the cat, that has been frequenting local gardens, who ate the contents of the bowl. The only way round this is, to have a purpose built hedgehog feeder which cats cannot access.

Today’s photo is of the blossom on our russet apple tree with its beautiful deep pink outer petals just breaking open.