Rabbit wars!

Look, we have a new work bench!  Quite useful really.  We have plugged the washer in (it says 'Hello' on the digital display when you turn it on), just to see what it can do.  Blimey they've got complicated all of a sudden.  You can choose the temperature, spin speed, etc, etc.  I used to just run our old washing machine on the same programme for just about everything.  Mind you, I just used to put everything in the oven at Gas Mark 6 too.  I think Laura and Ben grew up thinking that those were the only settings you could have!  No doubt once we've palyed with this machine a few times we'll find a new standard setting.  It is one of the larger sizes (8kg), but it looks absolutely tiny inside - I've got used to the 35kg machine we use at the launderette . . . . . . must remember not to put a whole weeks worth in in one go!

I was using the washing machine as a work bench while I tiled the surround for the sink in the utility room.  Mmmm, looking at that picture, there's not actually much surround at all is there?  Bob has been building the carcass for the cupboard underneath and that is now put together and has had one coat of paint (it's only plywood, so we can't leave it as bare wood).  Tommorrow we will try it in place and put some battens on the wall to support the bit over the washing machine and then put another coat of paint on it.  We could also attach the sink to the top so that when the paint's dry it can all just pop into place.  That will then be ready for the plumber to sort out the pipes underneath.  The sycamore work tops around the kitchen sink have had their two coats of 'Seal & Finish', so they should be heat, grease and waterproof after tomorrow.  I caught a glimpse of that corner of the kitchen through the hole for the stairs this afternoon and it looked just lovely (I thought) - very cottagey.  I went to get the tiles for the splashback this morning - 20% off, so that was good timing and while I was there I noticed that they also had 25% off Little Green Paint Company's mixer paints (English Heritage approved colours, no less - how posh are we?!!).  They have a colour - soft, pale, olive green - that would look right on the cupboard doors in the utility so that was good too (so long as they still have it when we go back).

WARNING:  The next paragraph contains tales of a violent nature, please don't read it if you are squeamish

The rabbit wars have started.  We have put up with rabbits eating things in the garden for the last two years.  We've put chicken wire around the flower bed which looks lovely as you can imagine.  We've put chicken wire around the hedge and the vegetable plot.  We've clapped our hands at them to scare them off, made allowances for the baby rabbit we found in the flower bed, we even moved their babies carefully to persuade them to live elsewhere.  But, enough is enough and they are really taking the mickey now.  They live inside the wire in the flower bed, they've eaten the tops off all the leeks (they've never even liked them before) and have completely stripped the flowers off a 15 foot length of planting.  Yesterday we decided that the baby rabbit that used to run straight through the small holes in the chicken wire must now be too big to fit through and so it would be safe to plant some veg in the gaps in the flower border.  As we looked at one such gap a rabbit ambled into it, saw us and went and hid under the holly bush.  That was the last straw and Bob got his air rifle and made short work of it.  I know, I know, they're cute, but we have a constant battle with them and they don't seem to understand the rules!  Anyway, it didn't look as though there was much meat on it so I took it up to the clearing at the edge of the quarry across the lane and left it for the buzzards.  An hour later it had gone (and I'm pretty sure it hadn't made a miraculous recovery) so last night I think the buzzard chicks had a tasty rabbit supper.  Unfortunately, I found another blessed rabbit in the flower patch today . . . . oh, why don't they stick to the woods, there's loads of lush greenery?!  hold on, maybe that rabbit did make a miraculous recovery and has moved back in!

UNWARNING:  OK, you can open your eyes now, the violence is over.

We have other wild life which is not such a nuisance.  The family of woodpeckers are around most of the time and the kids do an awful lot of squabbling.  There were three of them on the top of the telegraph pole yesterday making a huge amount of noise.  I think that was two young and their mum - young have a red cap, adult females don't have any red on their heads and adult males have a red patch at the back of their neck.  The young nuthatches have definitely worked out how to get peanuts out of the feeders and we regularly have three around.  You can't tell the difference between the young and the adults except that the young are not quite so 'busy' and spend far more time just looking around.  We had a young jay on the feeder a couple of days ago - they just look huge hanging off the nuts.  Again, the young just look like the adults, but act differently.  Once this once got a peanut out, it didn't really know what to do with it so it went and spent five minutes eating sand from the pile in front of the caravan!  Most mornings we are woken at about 5.30am by the bird olympics on the caravan roof - I think a crow or raven likes the sound of its feet running the length of the van.  This morning though I don't know what was on the roof - sounded like a grizzly bear bumbling around!  It sounded big enough for Bob to get up to have a look, but whatever it was had gone.  A mystery, but I hope it doesn't wake us in the same way tomorrow!