Poppy thief!

This morning I was up early and making muffins for the Open Gardens taking place in the village over the weekend. I made a batch of twelve but Keith said they looked a little too cooked so I made another lot which were much better!

Sophie went off with Hannah at 10am for breakfast at Buddies in Northampton. I took my muffins over to Sue and Paul's house and Paul happened to mention that the glorious display of poppies in our planter at the entrance to the estate had disappeared... I was mystified as to what had happened but when Keith and I went out a few minutes later we saw that he was right.

We went to Jones's to get some bird food as I had stopped feeding the birds for a while because of the huge amount of starlings that have been coming to our garden. We had this problem last year with the parents and the babies completely overwhelming our little blue tits, sparrows and robins. They pooh everywhere, fight and squabble and eat all the food and are a complete nuisance.

Over the last couple of days, it's been quiet so I decided to try again with the feeders. I miss seeing our blackbird family and also the robin that is constantly in our garden. I bought some fat snax and some seed so I just hope the starlings have given up and gone somewhere else.

When we arrived home I went to mow the front verge and whilst doing it I cut the electric cable in half...The bush in our front garden is now very overgrown and it had hidden the cable so I didn't see it. Luckily the RCD unit kicked in and shut off the electricity completely! Keith came out and was not at all happy with me! However, he managed to save the cable and attached a new plug to it, grumbling away at me all the time! I didn't do it on purpose!

I then mowed the back lawn and Sophie came home, so we sat in garden with a beer each and admired my hard work.

I cleaned the bird feeder and all the containers and put everything back. As soon as I'd put a fat snax on the lawn a female blackbird appeared and started eating it. Had she been watching me?

I wanted to go and investigate the case of the disappearing poppies myself so Sophie and I walked down to the planter to find that the entire plants had been uprooted. Compare the two:

Thursday

Saturday

I know that a couple of residents are really angry about it and it appears we have a plant thief about. I shared the photos on our Facebook page and also sent them to other Facebook sites connected with the village.

I cooked Chicken Kiev for dinner in the evening and before we ate we all sat and played cards in the conservatory. The weather today has been mostly overcast but it's been quite humid. A good thunderstorm would clear the air nicely! Keith went to watch the football in our bedroom after dinner while Sophie and I watched two episodes of The Good Wife on Netflix. We're becoming hooked!