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I don’t quite understand why the Europeans think the Brits talk too much about the weather. It does so much, and makes so much difference to everything else. And it certainly isn’t being very ‘normal’ this year. Generally I approve, the still cold dry is much more preferrable to the wet and windy option, even if scraping the car windscreen becomes something I have to re-learn.

Back in the lean-to greenhouse the rocket damped off. The compost was old and using rainwater is always going to encourage disease. I sowed some more in the soil and they are doing okay. I have potted some tomato seedlings on, but it is a very draughty lean-to, the roof sheets are recycled with nail holes that couldn’t be re-used and it is pretty chilly except when the sun is out, so growth is rather slow. I have two heated plates to germinate seedlings so they are fine until they get too tall for the plastic covers. The hot plates worked better in the house, but the cat discovered sitting on them, and pushed all the seed trays onto the floor, so I have had to admit defeat there. I had so many barriers and fences to keep him away it got impossible to water the plants.

The only things cleverer than the cat are the hens. Once upon a time we had a catflap, and a puppy. Puppies are good with catflaps, the problem happens when they become grownup and dogsize and break it when they can’t fit through it. After about seven catflaps we stopped replacing it and accepted a ventilated back door into the porch/conservatory/untidy-place-used-as-a-shed. The hens soon learnt to come in and a couple started laying in the cardboard box of shredded paper. This was fine in the summer, but when winter arrived it got cold, the hens stopped laying, and then one started to roost at night, and left a lot of mess on the floor. So we got another catflap and after a couple of nights the roosting hen realised we weren’t going to open the door, no matter how often it tapped on the door with its beak. But the laying hens came back. At first we thought they were coming in if the door was left open, but one day I put one out five times, and I know the door was shut so it had to have learnt to use the catflap. Unfortunately the dogs have learnt to eat eggs, so we don’t always get them, and sometimes the cat sits in the box of shredded paper and then the hens get very cross.

Thank heavens the pigs haven’t learnt to dig tunnels!

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