Once upon a time there was a black and white kitten, called Minus, whose kindly guardians were going on holiday to New Caledonia for two months. They offered to give the kitten to some equally kindly newcomers to the village, who had a mouse problem. The newcomers promised to look after Minus well, but he didn’t understand that, and every time anyone tried to catch him to take him to his new home, he miaowed and scratched and escaped as fast as he could (which was pretty fast!), leaving the newcomers feeling – well – catless.

Will this tale have a happy ending? You’ll have to visit us again to find out!

But no visit to neighbours in the Gers is entirely fruitless; we did come home with a large boxful of pumpkins, tomatoes and peppers; all home-grown, of course.

Nick and Kieran could wait no longer to get on with some “real” work, so this afternoon they started digging out the base for an extension to the garden shed and filling it with some of the rubble from the pig sty. We hope that we’ll get planning permission for it, though it hasn’t been granted yet. Still, it kept them amused for a few hours!