No, it can't be spring yet, but the signs are all there. Masses of snowdrops are appearing in the garden and along the hedgerows, the pheasants are chasing about all over the garden, the blackbird and the tits have joined the robin in singing for mates and territories and the village green is covered in crocuses! Now, where have the badgers gone? We've hardly seen them this winter as I think they go into a more sleepy mode (they don't hibernate, however).The peanuts are still disappearing so we set up a time-lapse camera to see who was taking them as we'd seen a mouse earlier in the winter. Well, the badger did show up, but he only ate a few nuts (very different from the summer when he scarfed the whole lot!) and the rest were cleaned up by the pheasants at first light.
We did see a badger the other night for a brief spell, but he didn't stay long and he didn't eat much. However, soon after he left, a fox came onto the patio for a few nuts. The cheeky thing walked right up to the living room doors, he must have seen us, but he didn't seem very nervous at all. That's the first fox we've seen for about a year, so maybe we have a new one to replace the one that disappeared.
Today the sun has been shining all day and it's been quite mild, but it's going to freeze up tonight under the clear skies. It should all look lovely in the moonlight. We're planning to take advantage of the good weather and cook out on the barbeque this weekend. I've got pork for kebabs and I'm marinating a butterflied leg of lamb - yum, yum. Have to try hard not to eat too much as I've done well over the past couple of weeks and have begun to really loose weight.
We have the first of a stream of visitors arriving today. They're staying for the weekend and then another lot are arriving mid-week! So we've been scurrying around to do shopping and cleaning so we can enjoy our friends and not do too much when they're here. To add to our housework, we had a couple of very successful trips to Ikea this week and then spent a lot of time putting together some furniture for the bedroom and a new oak filing cabinet for John's library.
Here's a picture of the bedroom furniture. We bought the bed at the end of 2005 and we've been very pleased with it. Not only does it look nice, it's wonderfully comfortable to sleep in and it's one of those adjustable beds, so we can sit up and read in comfort. This week we bought the bedside tables and chests of drawers to match.It's lovely to get rid of the horrible plastic stacking baskets that we'd been using since we moved into the flat in Columbus. Everytime I looked at them I remembered lying in bed in the flat after my lumpectomy and during the bad parts of chemo. So it's good to have all that behind me.
Amd there's more good news - I had my yearly checkup with the surgeon this week and have been given the all-clear again. Hurray!
So on that pleasant note, I'll leave you ...... keep those e-mails coming, please!
