Last week there were suitcases again but very small ones so we knew this absence would not be for long.  These short goings away mean that Meg comes up with her person and we have fine walks with her, which is very nice for a change.

Anyway, they returned and brought this Storm Freya with them, which was thoughtless and a bit of a blow.  They could have left her wherever they found her, and welcome that place would be to have her.  She seems to have chased off that lovely February spring, and all is wet and bedraggled now.  We have nearly finished the wood burner in the shepherds hut, so it is cosy as toast in there, but Freya keeps pushing the hut about and making it sway.  Back at the house her whining under the door makes me bark, but her big banging whooshes make me jump out of my chair and put my face behind a cushion.  Whatever is coming I don’t want to see it.  Skye can shout if she needs me…..

Earlier we were all feeling rather stir-crazy, forced indoors by rain and paperwork,  and now we are just back from a lovely long walk down the farm, all togged up against the weather, checking for damage and shutting and tying  gates.  It was great.   I bounced all the way, carrying a big long stick for Skye to play with should she care to wait for me long enough to give it to her.  Then we came back along the road, and I found an amazing smell!  A badger has sniffed and dug out a wasps nest…….or maybe a bees nest, I am not sure which.  All the bees/wasps have gone but the waxy paper of the nest is still there, at the back of a big hole in the bank under the hedge.  Most interesting.  (A photo will follow if it comes out).  Naughty, destructive, selfish Freya has gone all over the place with her cold sharp fingers, running them along branches and pulling off all the catkins,  making the trees bend and sway in a threatening frightening way, and she has knocked over all the beautiful daffodils along the roadway.  So sad.    And the rain she has brought has filled up the heads of the lovely crocuses and drowned them.  It is all very lowering if I am honest……but maybe Freya is a bit like me and smelly fox spraint;  maybe she loves all this destruction, knows it is bad but cannot help herself.  I expect that is it.  I must be kind and understanding.

I am concerned about OC who for a couple of days has been in the Sitouterie just standing, muttering “oh dear me” and drinking water.  She has stopped giving me advice and that is a very bad sign.  It has never happened before.  I always value her opinion.  I must confess, I am worried…….

I will be back when there is more to report……..