Weather

Tuesday 2nd June was hottest day in Ireland (27.5C) since summer of 2006. We have now had 11 consecutive days without rain although the temperature has dropped back to a more usual 16C. Still warm and sunny during the day so I wonder how long it will be before the papers start talking about a drought.
Neil – our racing pigeon – finally decided to leave after 5 days. We had fed and watered him for the first three days but on the advice of the experts encouraged him to depart by stopping the bird seed. It worked.
Getting used to Dougal and his mum on the paddock. Dougal has become livelier in the last day or so and beginning to chew the grass a little but mum is only interested when it is time for her feed in the morning and evening. They are not really making any inroads on the new growth so they will be joined by two more cows next week. May still have to spring for the ride-on mower – there was a comparison of the latest models in this weekend’s gardening section which I read with interest!
The mother-in-law left on Thursday – as expected she arrived bearing lots of gifts – including a litre of very drinkable malt – and was the perfect house guest. Did a lot of the tourist things and even managed to get her to weed the flowerbeds. Hope our next visitors – arriving on Monday and Wednesday respectively – are as well behaved. Looking forward to some male company and perhaps some trout fishing.