The neighbours have now paid for some new doves and Herb and I have been looking at designs for homing cages to hang on the dovecote to ensure the new birds safety. I rang the breeder today to find out if he had any squeakers ( young Doos) coming up for sale and he has. He also told me not to make or buy cages as he would lend me some that are made for purpose for my type of doocote, so things do not look quite so bleak.

The neighbours are starting a period of retraining for the dog and having invested in a buzzing collar for him a while back are now going to use it properly and give the dog a tingly zap rather than just a buzzing noise if he comes near our garden. Of course that is fine if they are with him so we will see, as long as he steers of me I shall not resort to some of the more radical solutions some of you, thanks Lizzie, suggested. I think I might find myself in court if I did shoot the dog!

Yesterday would have been a great day for dove watching, it was our hottest day of the year and I actually lay in the garden with a cold beer and got too hot, no pleasing some folk. Today of course we return to normality with a bump, we have an inch of rain forecast, I think it may have fallen already. I have had to shoo the chickens into the covered run as they were standing looking drookit and totally bedraggled. Still I got four very big eggs from them despite the foul weather. Yesterday they spent the day squabbling over whose turn it was to get in the tub trug full of soft sand, known as the Chicken Spa!