The insults started, Iains, when Teribus started to put his oar in. Your detective skills need honing, old chap. And the best cheap wine comes from Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury's, not Tesco. Tsk. I note that Dave has engineered Morrisons Nero D'Avola back down to five quid. I'll raise a glass to that. The recipe for today is Delia's one of pork chops baked with cream and mushrooms, with new potatoes and runner beans straight from me veg plot. Mmm.

Gorgeous boy sparrowhawk sat on the fence post right next to my bird feeders ten minutes ago. Needless to say, the little birdies stayed in hiding. Good job none of them thar gamekeepers were around. I once saw two peregrines working as a team to bring down a wood pigeon at Northcott Mouth, quite a spectacle, and once, right by Stratton Church, I saw a kestrel bring down a collared dove in full flight. A few years ago the hooray huntin' Henrys in all their silly regalia, horns a-hootin', were on the far side of the field between us and Widemouth Bay..Meanwhile, a lovely big girl fox was foraging around just under our garden in the same field, occasionally glancing nonchalantly up at the fools with the hounds a couple of hundred yards away. I concluded that the cunning little vixen had more brains than all those dogs and men in red put together. Very heartening!