We were away for the weekend and now that I am back the garden is shrouded in darkness between most of the hours from when I go to work in the morning until I am back in the evening. It seems a shame that that is how it is going to be until Spring next year when the clocks move again.

In the small amount of light there has been I had time to see that the squirrels have found a way through the plastic netting I put over my second attempt at planting some more tulip bulbs. They simply chewed through it and left a few neat holes where the bulbs had been planted.

I could of course try and look on some bright side and persuade myself that all the squirrels have done is take the bulbs off to somewhere else in the garden to be buried until next Spring by which time they will be gloriously in flower. A naive hope I suspect.

The more tangible good news is that at least one of the cats has now found itself some backbone and a weekend locked out of the house has resulted in one squirrel’s tail carefully laid out on the patio. Somewhere I have some recipes for squirrel. So if the cats are left locked out for long enough they could be bringing me a good square meal.

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In anticipation of that I have cooked myself some proper meals. Last night it was a plate of Moghrabieh with lamb and this evening it has been a baby chicken in a orange stew with burnt rice. They were both very good but the chicken in orange stew probably pipped the post.