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with sunbathing beasts: shieldbugs, spiders, ladybirds, bees, and two cats nestled in at the bottom. The newts have returned to the pond too; four of them were swimming about in there. These are the regular denizens of my garden, but two unusual visitors were a

 of its call. This year it's remained firmly hidden, but it has been rather vocal. I lay in the tent, at somewhere between 5am and 6am.  The cat slept, the children slept, but the cuckoo appeared to have just woken up. It was the first time I had heard

between neighbours appear regularly in the news, with obsessive behaviour sometimes leading to jail terms and even murder.Leylandii hedges aren't the only cause of antagonism between neighbours. The height of fences, boundary disputes, neighbours' cats

, snug compost heaps be until spring, where hedgehogs will rest and also find food.Leave a dish of water and some dog or cat food tohelp boost their fat reserves. Stop feeding them as winter sets in to encourage them to hibernate.Always check bonfires

and we decided on setting up humane traps to deal with the problem. We have a small dog and they have several cats, so we didn't want to risk leaving rat poison around. We both invested in these metal contraptions with precariously balanced doors

and dropped to the floor. And yesterday the cats brought in a huge black and grey moth - the old lady, Mormo maura - which fluttered around the kitchen ceiling until rescued.Wednesday also brought the first large cabbage white butterfly of the year. I don

and the odd really unfortunate one got into my mouth. Then they came indoors, having discovered open windows and open cat flap, and hung around the fruit bowl like miniature vultures or drowned in the chianti.They're all gone now...or so I thought. In fact

because he knew mankind would often be in its presence.Nowadays the only dung I ever get first-hand experience of (although it's usually first-foot experience) is dog, cat or fox, and none of them is renowned for its sweet scent. I have found the odd

. This is in preparation for a new series that I am writing for the magazine which is planned to be published next spring. So that everything did not blow away we set up in one of our multi-spans. Of course one of my cats, in this case Basil, had to get in on the action

sink is the flowering currant with its limply hanging pink flowers. Not only is it extremely boring but the slightest contact with the leaves releases an unmistakable smell of cat pee. (I could just about accept Ribes sanguineum King Edward VII if I