Peek-a-boo...

A typical Bank Holiday Monday - cool, grey and windy!!

I have had a nice pootling sort of day today, starting out by tidying the fridge. With five of us in the house we need quite a large fridge - but things do tend to get lost in it. I'm don't think some some members of my familyare very organised! I found three cartons of natural yoghurt open, all within their sell-by date, three jars of horseradish sauce, two of tamarind puree and two of mango chutney...And nobody but me seems to put things back in the right places!

Having cleared out the dross from the fridge, I headed off to Sainsbury's to fetch supplies to fill it all up again, in time for the two older boys to return. When I arrived home I was surprised and delighted to see that Alex was already back - fairly muddy but with a healthy outdoor glow! He had survived the ordeal, though he said at times het felt like he was living in a shanty town. He didn't eat much and has lost some weight (he's already very slim) but having eaten three large bowls of home-made minestrone soup, I'm sure he'll soon put it back on.

Otherwise I've been report writing and cooking - carrot cake to try and use up the surfeit of carrots and spicy plum chutney. I nipped out in the garden for a quick blip and found this little creature on a mullein plant next to the patio. She sat quite obligingly for her portrait, though it wasn't easy to get a well-focussed shot, thanks to the stiff breeze making her sway to and fro.

She's a lesser marsh grasshopper Chorthippus albomarginatus, a strongly south-eastern species that's found on a wide range of rough grassy areas, often with sedges, such as roadside verges, waste ground, urban parkland, set-aside arable land and damp clearings in woods. She's almost certainly a survivor from one of Pete's local samples, which he releases into the garden after they've been sorted. Hopefully she'll enjoy living in our garden!