LizzieM

At a previous house we had a cat flap in the utility room door, inherited from a previous occupant. There was a horrible Ginger Tom that used to come in and stink the place out when we first moved there so something had to be done. We tried unsuccessfully locking it and one night the Tom cat got in and obviously couldn’t get out. He was running up the walls knocking down washing powder etc from high shelves, he went berserk and next morning when we went in that room we thought he was going to attack us! However, he didn’t come back into the house again!

I admit that we’re not cat lovers and we have a bigger garden than all our neighbours, most of whom seem to have two cats each. Every time I look out of the window there’s one of them sneaking around (and pooing) however we wouldn’t ever harm a cat or any animal for that matter.

A couple of months ago we had a tree felled in our garden and the concern was that a nest box on the tree has been used by blue tits in recent years so my husband built a wooden construction and concreted it in close to where the tree used to be and then attached the nest box at a similar height and facing exactly the same direction. Happily the blue tits started using the box and we watched them going in and out. Since last weekend there didn’t seem to be any activity at all so yesterday hubby climbed precariously up a ladder and lifted the lid to see a clutch of eggs but no parent. We were

We got rid of our big stereo setup years ago but kept the LPs, 45s and CDs so a couple of years ago I bought a fairly cheap thingy by Denver Electronics from Amazon. It’s fine for us, has 3 speed turntable, cassette and CD player, FM/AM radio and the wooden casing suits our decor.

And half of them work from home!

I agree with you @Oztalgianabout the new weird ‘sporting’ additions to the Olympic Games and have very little interest in the Games this year. As a family we’ve always loved watching the track events, cycling and swimming but our interest has waned somewhat over recent years. I had a wonderful day at the London Olympics with my son and daughter-in-law and when our boys were young we took then to the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games in 1986 and Victoria BC in 1994. Both trips were brilliant and a lot of fun, particularly the Victoria trip when we were staying with family and had tickets f

How upsetting for the owners @nonnaBnot just the fact of intrusion of their personal space but to go around totally wrecking the place. I can’t imagine how distraught they will be feeling now, it’s awful.

Muntjacs or Wallabies?

We had lots of muntjac in our wood down south, I believe they were introduced into the country many many years ago by Lord Rothschild who had lived nearby. They’re very shy and timid normally but occasionally one would venture out onto the lawn to be chased back into the wood by our Rhodesian Ridgeback ……. I witnessed the dog being chased out by the deer too! But seeing the resident wallaby hopping across the lawn will always be our favourite memory of living in the countryside.

When we lived in Hertfordshire a peacock turned up in the garden and wandered around for a day or so with our Guinea Fowl, then disappeared as quickly as he arrived. On another occasion the Guinea Fowl were carrying on like guard dogs when a chimney sweep came to the house. He came in and said “Do you know you’ve got peacocks in your garden?” To me they’re totally different, he must have been a townie!

On the itemised bill the Lens was £396, Chrome Trim (that cannot be removed without breaking it) was £147, 3 hours Labour £240, total £783.50 + VAT, Total £940.20. Never mind, it’s only money!!

We got the rear light bulb problem on our Audi S8 finally sorted yesterday at AMB near the Range roundabout by Meadow Lane. Despite Poole Audi and Nottingham Sytner Audi not being able to locate the necessary parts required. A slight crack on the lens caused damp to get inside. The bill was just short of £1000 !!

Shame it didn’t take a few trees down around Mapperley Park so we could get some sunshine in the garden.

Make your car stink though eh?

Did anyone see ‘Intruder: He’s Watching You from Within’ on Channel 5 on Monday night, 8th April? It was about a sadistic predator nicknamed ‘The Fox’ who caused absolute terror in the Beds, Bucks and Herts area, particularly around Leighton Buzzard where we were living at the time, in 1984. We were really first alerted to how serious the situation was when we woke one morning to hear a police helicopter circling over our house. My husband decided to take the dog a walk on the fields out the back of our garden and found dozens of police surrounding a wood, only 200m from us. They didn’t