Ah the joy when you find your adorable kitten like cat is actually a tear away destined to shed every collar possible in far flung fields and still try to look cute while slinking back.

So Willow has now let her personality run riot. Collar destroyer, door jumper (new trick is jump at internal door and do backflip then run off at high speed), pigeon catcher, bird nest destroyer. Did we mention bee batterer, toe biter and farter extraordinaire?

All finished with a cute little whimper and a show of a belly.

Cats. They know how to tame us…

Sat here in the home office, busy talking to clients with Willow happily frogging in and out. As I’m talking I hear the usual brrt noise from the cat who was obviously having fun. As I turned the moment turned to slo-mo as Willow pounds up the stairs heading for our bedroom complete with dead pigeon hanging from her mouth.

I’ll have to call you back and slams the phone down, makes our bedroom door in 2 leaps over the cat to stop her in her tracks shooing her back down the stairs and out the door. Still with pigeon dripping from her mouth.

Gee!

Shame I didn’t have the camera ready for that!

We have a bumble bee nest at the bottom of the garden. Well, to be truthful it’s actually in next doors garden in an old bird house that someone has fastened to the fence, but we’ve got all the busy bees flying around on our side.

Apparently they are very rare to have and see. We should feel blessed that they have chosen this spot as they will fertilise all the local flowers.

Its meant I’ve learnt a thing or two (just to be on the safe side). The ones buzzing around are all males who don’t sting. There will be around 500 bees in the nest around the queen and it will last for several months until she either dies off or moves on to a new location. They love dark quiet corners and favour holes in trees or empty bird boxes. They are becoming rarer.

Should you disturb one then yes they will swarm and sting, so best not to, nor apparently should you breathe (yes breathe ) on one. Apparently they may see it as an aggressive act and swarm and sting you. I guess however it might depend on what you’d been eating and the state of your breath. I wonder if they like garlic?

So, lucky us, 500 bees buzzing across the garden.

Oh and Willow thinks it’s great to try to bat them in the air

Me I look so innocent and cute but just be warned, I HAVE let one go

And here we have DuCATi the latest signing for the England football team. Well she can’t be much worse can she.

This kitchen garden mushroom grower is brilliant. The Pearl mushrooms are coming on a treat.

Oh yes, spotted in the stove by Mrs Wills late last night a hornet. 24 hours later it was dead, let’s hope we don’t get a swarm of these monsters

At Christmas we received a fab and unusual present from The Finks for growing our own mushrooms from recycled coffee beans.

As soon as we came back from holiday I followed the instructions and watched and waited…..and now we have baby mushrooms bursting out. Such a simple process but so cool. Looking forward to harvesting them.