Hmm. The chimney was swept today – well, all three chimneys. And I explained about the chicken wire that seemed not to have worked, or else it was blocking the wrong chimney – and indeed, the wire netting has been put in the wrong chimney. Leigh said he got 11 lengths of pole up the chimney and then couldn’t get the 12th and final one up there. It’s stuck pretty firm, he explained.

I’ll tease Tom rotten when I see him again. You’d think he’d have worked out which chimney pot had soot all round it. Leigh couldn’t whoosh it out but I hope to persuade Jonny the farmer to send someone round with the cherry picker to take the netting out and put it in the other chimney. It isn’t urgent, but there will eventually be a buildup of soot and it’ll cause problems.

Tim had the very good idea of buying a garden seat as a moving in present for Wink. When I was on my way to my dental appointment on Saturday. I had a bit of time in hand, so I called in at Notcutts the garden centre to check out what they had available, took a number of pictures on my phone and brought them back. There were a few possibilities and so we called over this afternoon. Wink looked at the benches and individual chairs, but decided on what I think is called a ‘companion’ bench: that is, two chairs joined together by a table, the chairs being slightly angled so that you can conveniently talk to the person you’re sitting with. It was in the sale, nearly half price, though frankly I think the original price was one of those things they put on in an obscure shop so that they’re within the law when they reduce it. Anyway, the assistant went and fetched it in a socking great box, which tested Tim’s and my abilities to shift it into the back of the car. We put down two thirds of the rear seat and managed to slide it in.

Quite enough excitement for today. But I was rooting around for beans and discovered in the overgrown veg bed a few broken eggshells and a few whole eggs. I have a happy feeling that we have a number of hedgehogs pinching eggs from our naughty laying-away chickens, and they are very welcome to do so. I put one of the whole eggs for the hedgehog that visits the coop nightly. A dish of cat food and an egg goes every night, though the shell is rarely left. I like to think of the urchin rolling it away to feed to her babies.