A horrible discovery!

I was up at 4.40am this morning, visiting the loo, and I looked out at the garden to see if the hedgehog food had been eaten. The birds were barely awake and I was pleased to see it had all gone. Last night, Keith and I had sat in the conservatory until past 10pm to see if we could see him (or her) coming for their food, but we didn't see anything. We've been a bit worried that our little hedgehog hasn't appeared for a while, but I think he or she is coming out a lot later. We did see lots of bats, though!

I woke again a bit later and felt much more energetic today! After two coffees, I completely stripped our bed to get all the bedding out on the line in the sunshine. The day had started cloudy, but the sun and blue skies soon made an appearance, and it was a perfect laundry day!

Sophie went to see Laura and her new little puppy, Wilbur, and they are both coming over to us next Sunday for the Wimbledon Mens' Singles Finals. They were going for a walk today, and having lunch at Smith's Farm Shop.

I went outside to clean the windows, and Keith followed me as the weather was so lovely. I opened the lid of our compost heap to put some veggie peelings in and was astonished to see an array of blue balls and the rat poison we'd put down... Keith was astounded, and we worked out that the rat had been living in the compost bin as there were several old fat snax balls, the poison and some other food we'd put down for the birds! Neither of us has any idea why the fat snax were blue... There was a hole at the bottom where he'd obviously dug his way in. It was a horrible discovery, to be honest, and we had to scoop everything out and dispose of it properly. It made me feel very uncomfortable!

Once that was done, we sat in the garden and enjoyed a beer each. I had the last bottle of my Fischer Ambreé, and it was heavenly to sit and relax in the peace and quiet (yes!) and watch the birds. A very brave young blackbird (female, I think) fluttered down and pecked at the ground while we were sitting there, which encouraged the sparrows to be brave as well!

All good things come to an end, and after a lovely time relaxing, it was time to carry on with the chores! I hoovered the house and put all the bedding back, including the valance around the base of the bed. Keith had to help me lift the mattress up, which was hard work!

It was great to know that the bed was lovely and fresh and clean, though, and I settled down to watch the Tour de France that I'd recorded earlier. Sophie came home and she chatted about Laura's dog and how much it has affected Laura's life. She said it was a bit like having a baby!

We opened a bottle of wine and watched the cycle race before having dinner of cold meats and nibbles again. We'd had so much left over from last night that it made sense to eat it tonight and save the barbecue for tomorrow.

After dinner, we saw the end of the race which ended on the Puy de Dome, an extinct volcano!