Phew
What a scorcher, it's like mid-summer out there, 24 degrees in town (on the coast) my car said this morning, and the forecast for the weekend is looking good. But it's likely I'll be stuck in the office catching up on this past week and getting a jump on the next. I have had so much time off this week dealing with a sick hound that my in-tray is full to overflowing and next week AW is on holiday, HB has important meetings to attend and I've got more vet and consultant appointments. We'll be short staffed on Tuesday morning so advance apologies for any delay in our usual speedy service.
Occasional office dog Finnegan has spent three days as an in-patient at the vets after emergency surgery to remove an intestinal blockage of cause unknown, he's back home now with 15+ visible stitches (lots more inside) he currently requires 30 different pills every day but is living the high life on poached chicken and pasta with plenty of pandering too, and being a hound he needs lots of TLC.
This week we've had large flocks of house martins mixed with a few swallows although most of the swallows have already gone. The martins with nests here are still busy with the second brood so they'll be here for a little while longer. Our big discovery was a huge elephant hawk moth caterpillar, doing a very good impression of an elephant's trunk. It munched the willow herb for a couple of days but has now wandered off into the undergrowth. During the whole of Butterfly Conservation's Big Butterfly Count we saw at best a couple of cabbage whites, since the survey ended we've had all sorts from a magnificent peacock to lovely little meadow browns, and some stunning orange under wing moths too. Just shows how topsy-turvy the weather has been this year.
Looking at my in-tray I'd better stop waffling and get on with some 'real' work so here are this week's numbers, the Weekly edition has gone to press at 10 pages long (not much news this week, but I will write about the potash mine plans some time next week) with 35 new paid posts of which 22 came direct to CJS plus 11 adverts for voluntary posts.
Occasional office dog Finnegan has spent three days as an in-patient at the vets after emergency surgery to remove an intestinal blockage of cause unknown, he's back home now with 15+ visible stitches (lots more inside) he currently requires 30 different pills every day but is living the high life on poached chicken and pasta with plenty of pandering too, and being a hound he needs lots of TLC.
This week we've had large flocks of house martins mixed with a few swallows although most of the swallows have already gone. The martins with nests here are still busy with the second brood so they'll be here for a little while longer. Our big discovery was a huge elephant hawk moth caterpillar, doing a very good impression of an elephant's trunk. It munched the willow herb for a couple of days but has now wandered off into the undergrowth. During the whole of Butterfly Conservation's Big Butterfly Count we saw at best a couple of cabbage whites, since the survey ended we've had all sorts from a magnificent peacock to lovely little meadow browns, and some stunning orange under wing moths too. Just shows how topsy-turvy the weather has been this year.
Looking at my in-tray I'd better stop waffling and get on with some 'real' work so here are this week's numbers, the Weekly edition has gone to press at 10 pages long (not much news this week, but I will write about the potash mine plans some time next week) with 35 new paid posts of which 22 came direct to CJS plus 11 adverts for voluntary posts.