DM is waiting on some paperwork before starting his new job so he’s very helpfully doing DIY/maintenance jobs around the house. Today I set him the task of getting another of our lawns under control because the forecast was good and sooner or later our weather luck has to run out. Then the lawns that remain jungle-like will be frozen in time until next spring when the weather warms up enough to do them again. We fully expect to see a grizzly bear or two emerging from the luxuriant undergrowth, or perhaps a zebra will come and graze the lush grass.

Then again, perhaps it’ll just be rabbits, talking of which we had a bad incident with a bunny yesterday. I let the dogs out at about 7am (well, it was the weekend, I deserved a bit of a lie-in) and surprised a cutie bunny on the lawn who did three laps of the fire pit with Lola in hot pursuit, then realised that it wasn’t getting away from big scary dog (it’s all relative, we know Lola is a cutie puppy and small for her breed but she’s certainly bigger than a wabbit by several-fold). The bunny decided to make a break for the “hills” and ran out of the mini-Indy 500 circuit towards the dry stone wall at a pace suitable for escaping from an over-excited collie. I thought the story had ended there because Lola came out from the shrubbery and proceeded to complete her morning ablutions.

She was a bit quiet for much of the day but that’s not completely unusual. Late in the afternoon, I noticed something odd outside on the lawn. Upon investigation it turned out to be the masticated and part-digested remains of a rabbit, complete with some fur and a host of entrails and bony bits. Lola had perked up a bit and the only reasonable explanation for the less-than-welcome find was that the bunny had been less successful than I’d thought at escaping its tormentor and that she’d not only caught her prey but she’d scoffed the thing whole and her body had gone some way to digesting it.

Anyway, I digress, the lovely folks at the Met Office got the weather wrong and the lawn remains uncut – DM got let off the hook on that one for today at least. So, here is a photo of rain on a metal bench on the University campus to demonstrate the truth of this statement!