I became exhausted by 8 o’clock yesterday evening and went to bed.  Sadly, I woke at 2.15 and didn’t sleep again.  I woke briefly around midnight and Jasper was on the bed.  When he realised I was awake, he came up to the pillow and cuddled me for a few minutes, which was so sweet.  Later, around 4, I went and fetched my breakfast.  He was very energetic, dashing around and I remembered that Ronan had said that was a sign of hunger, so I fed him.  Today, he’s been much hungrier than the past few days, so has evidently settled in.

i may have mentioned a feral or semi-feral female cat that lives in the garden and had kittens last winter in the big barn.  She has had another litter of three, outside in a wood pile this time.  This afternoon, I put the chickens away and three were missing,  one has been away for a few days and is either dead or (I think more likely, but then I’m an optimist) is sitting on eggs and will appear in a couple more weeks, family in tow.  Anyway, I went in search of the other two.  I found one of them by the compost heap and chivvied her back. On the way, I spotted the feral cat with a mouse in her jaws.  Then I went to look for the last one and found her because she was being noisy. As I shepherded her back, I heard a loud rustling from the shed near the greenhouse, where Al keeps his beekeeping equipment.  As I looked, the cat appeared looking wide-eyed.  I put the hen away and turned again, just in time to see her hauling a snake out from behind the hedge.  She started to crunch it, though the tail hadn’t finished moving.  I peered more closely, to be sure it was a grass snake and not an adder, and it was, about 2 feet long.  I was very sorry for it, but it was beyond help and I left the cat to it.

id been pleased, earlier, to find a lizard in the greenhouse.  I have newts in the pond too, this gives me satisfaction.

at about 5 o’clock, I had a text from Hannah, inviting me on the river this evening.  She and Sam fancied a trip out.  I scuttled about getting ready and got to Oulton Broad by 7.  It was a lovely evening to be out in a boat and I enjoyed it very much – though disaster struck as Hannah climbed on the boat and her phone fell out of her pocket.  It was in not much more than a foot of muddy water but we couldn’t tell where and there was no hope of finding it.  If you don’t have a smartphone, then you don’t want one and won’t understand.  The rest of us do.

i showed the, the house where I grew up – or rather, there are now six houses, four built in the garden and the original house divided in two and added to.  One of them is for sale.  Of course, I won’t even try to resist looking it up.