“I have to confess that it hasn’t been the most productive week here. It’s all the kittens’ fault – they are just so cute and such terrible timewasters. We can now tell the difference between them with reasonable certainty. Bertie is blacker and has a shorter, thicker coat than Harry, and is much bolder than his brother. Bertie blanks the dogs but Harry goes past them like a hairpin, tail like a lavvy brush and spitting. The dogs simply look bemused. They have been outside for the first time this weekend and are exhausted. Our garden is like a jungle so they have been very busy exploring.

About our jungle/garden: with more time now, I am resolved to make it into something I am less ashamed of. In my previous life, the Council’s Land Services Manager would ask me every year if I was entering the Garden Competition – was she having a laugh, or what? I don’t aspire to winning prizes but being sure that there are no families of pygmies living in it without our knowledge would be a start. Alas, the wildflower meadow is therefore doomed. It’s just in the wrong place and wildflowers grow all around our property. This year’s growth has been cut down and will be regularly mown next year. Actually, the sheep will give it a good trim over the winter and they do an awfully good job round the clothes poles.

With my new found time and enthusiasm, I have spent a couple of days weeding, so have an array of scratches and stings. I’ve tidied up our east patio, removing the net from the new strawberry bed and the enormous thistle (circa five feet tall) from the honeysuckle. The strawberry plants are producing loads of runners, so I’ll be allowing these to root. The patio is fenced to protect it from the hens; it faces south east and is quite sheltered, so that’s where the herbs, outdoor tomatoes and cucumber go. I also have two blueberry bushes in pots there – so far we’ve had five berries off one and three off the other. Muffins seem a forlorn hope. We used to have a table on the patio, but there’s no room now.

The little courtyard at the west end of the house has been swept up following the cutting of the hedge. Actually, it’s less weedy than normal – the debris formed a mulch, of sorts. The plants I put in a few years ago aren’t really suitable; some are too big and some aren’t thriving at all – so much success!, I hate throwing anything out, though, so I’ll need to identify somewhere for them to go before I remove them.

We are planning to increase the height of the fence round the vegetable garden to exclude the hens. They are so destructive in their foraging. You can see how they have decimated the comfrey. We usually net it but didn’t get round to it this year.

The new hens are now settled in and integrated with the rest of the flock. Hector, the cockerel, seems to consider them his “girls” now, if the flurry of feathers this morning was anything to go by. Some of the older hens are starting to moult – the hen house is full of white feathers, so it looks like the Light Sussex are leading the way. The Legbars look a bit tatty as well – their crests have all but disappeared.

The kittens are awake now, so must go and feed them.”