Wednesday 29th April 2020 - Fishing Line, Sunniest April and Rainfall

Peter successfully caught the other feral cat, Lunar. A cunning little cat, she had been managing to eat the food at the back of the trap without placing a paw on the metal plate which sets the trap off. But what she hadn’t bargained for was Peter’s inventiveness. He tied fishing line to the trap’s mechanism, fed the line down the garden and through the conservatory window. So, when Lunar appeared late Sunday afternoon, Peter was sat in the conservatory, ready. Making sure she was right inside the trap, where there was roast pork and crab for her to eat, he tugged the fishing line and down came the door. Lunar was quite irate but once moved to the workshop, she soon quietened and using his ingenuity, Peter was able to replace the food with a dish of water, without opening the trap. Monday morning she went to the vets for spaying and we were able to pick her up in the afternoon. A larger operation than neutering a male, Lunar is now spending a minimum of three days convalescing with our neighbour before she can be released to re-join her feline friends. It is good to know these two ferals will not be able to produce kittens, which in turn would be feral and produce even more kittens. Meowmeow and Lunar can now enjoy a better and probably longer life where they will continue to be fed.

We are not quite at the end of the month, but the Met Office have quite confidently announced that April has been the sunniest on record with so far 215.80 hours of sunshine, beating the previous record in 2015 of 211.9 hours. Despite rain across the country yesterday, it also looks set to be the driest month too. So much for the proverb written in 1886, ‘March winds and April showers, bring forth May flowers, although I do hope we see plenty of May flowers. There are already a good number of wild flowers in bloom. On our walks, I may have missed a few from the list, we have seen violets, wood anemones, green alkanet, wild mustard, bluebells, daisies, dandelions, red campion, gorse, alexander, primroses, forget me nots, celandine, honesty and spurge. Today’s photo is of a particularly stunning display of honesty and spurge.

Having been so dry, we were looking forward to yesterday’s forecast rain, but there was little here, hardly enough to dampen the patio. However, when I heard Sid meowing about half five this morning, wanting to come inside from the conservatory, I could hear gentle rainfall and looking out, the ground was wet with puddles on the drive. Hopefully it has penetrated sufficiently to make watering the vegetables unnecessary for the next couple of days.