We still have not deployed the rabbit traps. I don't suppose we'd catch one on the first night, but tomorrow is forecast to pour with rain and we have relatives coming to lunch, and I don't want to be tottering around in the rain with ten minutes to go until I have to go and collect my parents, trying to work out how to release a live rabbit from the cage. I am reluctant to set them anyway when it's due to rain too hard, since it would be miserable to be trapped in a wire basket for several hours in a deluge, and I don't want to torture the rabbits, just relocate them. We had further confirmation this morning that something needs to be done as the Systems Administrator went to retrieve the wheelbarrow from the bottom of the garden and disturbed two in broad daylight.
There isn't really much to be said about the day, since it was spent cooking and cleaning. Supermarkets get a bad press for being big and impersonal, but the Colchester Waitrose is as good as a village shop. This morning I met one of the other music society committee members, last time I went I was greeted by name in the checkout queue by somebody who'd heard me speak to her garden club, and two trips before that I ran across a fellow beekeeper. On the last trip when I didn't meet anybody I knew (or who knew me) I still had a pleasant conversation with the woman ahead of me at the till, who was stocking up on dog food prior to going into hospital to have her hip done. It was a rescue Bedlington, who loved people but disliked other dogs and was afraid of rain.
I took a couple of breaks from guest preparations, to update the music society's website and check the watering in the greenhouse. The website was my first chance to copy in a big chunk of text, since the group booked for the final concert in the season had notified us of a change of line-up due to illness. I doubted whether any member of the public would really pay that much attention to music society's website between this lunchtime and Wednesday morning, but I was sure the Chairman would, and since I didn't want her to think that I wasn't serious in my offer to keep the site updated I thought I'd better get on with it.
I had a nasty moment when I went into the greenhouse and discovered that my Lotus berthelotii had wilted dreadfully. I watered the pot while cursing myself for not checking the greenhouse yesterday, but assumed it was a goner. Silver leaved plants tend to react badly to being dried out so much that they wilt, and I fully expected the curled up foliage to remain crisped and drop off over the next couple of days, but when I looked at it later in the afternoon it seemed to have plumped up again, so maybe it is more tolerant than I thought. Do not try this trick with Callistemon, you will kill them for sure.
Black and White Alsatian Killer Cat has taken up temporary residence in the conservatory. We mentioned this over lunch yesterday to our neighbour who is his nominal owner, and she said that he was a horrible cat. Our other neighbour who has Airedales said that they were terrified of Alsatian Killer, and he had seen the cat pin one of the dogs into a corner so as to be able to attack it properly. We have been drinking our tea in the sitting room, out of harm's way.
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