Way out West (incorporating Way up North)

There was quite a lot of shouting at around 3.00 am this morning, and there were muddy footprints when I got up to make coffee. I thought nothing much of it, confining my activities looking around rather bleerily in case I was going to stand on something nasty and still warm.

So, some time around midday, I was a bit disconcerted to wander into the kitchen and find a large field vole sitting in the sink, eating fresh mint that had broken off the pot on the windowsill. The cat had thankfully subsided into his customary coma, and was unable to assist me as I popped a cup over the rodent prior to evicting it. As I walked across the roadway outside the kitchen door, I startled a deer about 25 yards away, and it crashed off into the nether regions of the estate. I suppose we should be grateful the cat is sticking with things he can still get through the cat flap.