Nature knows a thing or two

We really have experienced some extremes of weather this week. Glorious sunrises which lift the waking spirit- we see these when we take Gunner (+Pilot and Lancer if they feel the need) for his early morning comfort run - have alternated with fierce easterly blasts which confirm one's idiotic mortality: incrediblely mild Indian Summer days, like today, have contrasted with dramatic sharp hailshowers on Wednesday and constant cold drizzle on Friday. Nature constantly keeps us guessing.

The creatures have been preparing for worse to come. In the very worst weather of the week the nut-bar has been 'home' from home to a very fluffy bird. Looks like a young Greenfinch but with a seriously 'furry' coat. There have been no others like him. We assume he's the last of a late fledging.

When we first moved here a squirrel was a rare site. Now - doubtless because of the constant supply of wild bird food - we have quite a colony. Their preoccupation this week has been setting up stocks for winter ... raiding the bird-table for nuts which have been assiduously buried in the lawns about the house. This year we have noticed, for the first time, that the windblown conkers, instead of laying about all over the place in an untidy array of shells and fruits, have all been neatly gathered up, the shells broken and the fruits gone. Squirrels? Or maybe badgers, who have also been leaving their tell-tale signs of corn husks up and down the drive? Probably squirrels but I've yet to 'catch' them at it!

And, always in tune with nature, the piggies have been gradually growing their winter coats; they are now becoming seriously curly. It is easier to understand how, in earlier times, they were shorn and woven into waistcoats. We look forward to seeing them in their full woolly glory in the depths of winter. Meanwhile, they spend much time sleeping - perhaps practising some ancient pre-hibernation ritual. Will they become totally comatose in winter? We watch with interest.....