Saturday 15th April 2023 - Dormant and Burying Food

The shed has had its annual clean, which involves removing spiders’ webs and their eggs, brushing off shelves and sweeping the floor. This year, to my surprise, I found four peacock butterflies. One was caught in a spider’s web and definitely dead, another looked pretty lifeless but I have given it the benefit of the doubt and placed it on a shelf. The other two were tucked away behind a shovel and the scarifier and still dormant. I took care not to disturb them from their slumbers and since then we have left the shed door open during the day so that when they are ready, they can make their escape and hopefully breed the next generation of peacocks. Since then, I have retrieved the cushions for our garden bench from indoors and put these in the shed ready to bring out on warm days. I could leave the cushions over winter in the shed but prefer to bring them in, just in case a mouse decides to chew a hole in one of them and make itself a cosy winter home!

All the cats we have had over the years have had distinctly different characters. Sid is no exception and has a trait we have never seen before – he tries to bury his food. When he has finished eating, he paws the floor and the walls, in an attempt to bury what is left. He comes in to eat a couple of times during the night, first pawing the door and meowing to be let in. Once I have let him in, I return to bed and when I hear him padding the floor, indicating he has finished eating, that is my cue to get up again and let him out. (Sometimes he comes up and has a nap on our bed before he goes out.) The other day, I noticed muddy paw marks up the frame as well as a window in the conservatory, where I put our part feral, Lunar’s food. Yesterday evening, when we were sat in the conservatory, Sid tried to bury the food she had left. So, it was Sid who was behind the muddy paw marks. Intrigued by this, I Googled this practice and found, on the Discerning Cat website, this is not as strange as I thought. Yes, cats do have tendencies, for various reasons, to bury excess food. In Sid’s case, with solid flooring where he and Lunar are fed, this is not possible but that doesn’t stop him trying!

It's the season for blossom with trees and hedgerows bursting into flower. Our peach and apricot trees have pretty well dropped all their petals but the greengage is now in full bloom, with the pear and apple to follow. Today’s photo features a stunning display of blackthorn blossom, in a hedge we often pass on our walks.