The bird feeder was on the ground when I arrived. Mr B confirmed what I guessed: the rooks knocked it down. Surprisingly little had spilt, so I screwed it back onto the lid and folded in the perches to see if that will stop them getting at it. The lid is not very firmly attached. It may need some help.

The ground is gradually drying, but it’s still very squidgy. The grass is horribly long, but maybe I’ll get to strim it down a bit if there are no more  downpours. The boundaries are starting to dry out though and I managed to do almost a bucket of pick weeding from the ledge and removing buttercups from the grass.

The pond was the clearest it’s been; I could see the pebbles on the shelf and at the bottom of the pond. Something is making the pond shallower than i think it should be. I managed to get out a fallen brick, which I’ve placed on the shelf to try and stop the liner billowing. I think there’s another paddle stone down at the bottom, which should either stand up again, or be moved to a shelf.

I cleared lots of blanket weed with the net, scooping up lots of floating pieces. The elodea is floating around, but there’s no sign of the hornwort yet. The veronica on the bank is thriving and the mazus has its first flower open.

I’ve covered the hedgehog house with a layer of moss to make it more cosy and waterproof. I just  need a little more to finish off.

The last little job I did was to finally stick the small gladioli bulbs from the shed into the ground near the pear tree. The bulbs had been turfed out when I dug out the pond and were now starting to shoot. So we’ll see if they do anything.