Are you a lark or an owl?

For much of the year I can confidently say that I'm an owl, slow to come to my senses in the morning and wide awake at night. But for a few weeks in the summer I'm up and raring to go as the sun comes up, wandering round the garden in shoes wet with the dew or, as yesterday morning, in mac and wellingtons because there was a fine drizzle of rain. June, the most delightful month. By lunchtime the rain had stopped. Friends came in the afternoon and we sat in the sunshine for afternoon tea and caught up on our news. (News! What news? We have been nowhere and done nothing for months!)

While strawberries are the favourite fruit of Pascale, whose blog is Le Jardin de Pacalou, mine are cherries. There are plenty in the shops just now. I make a chocolate and cherry cake filled with cherry jam and a sprinkling of frozen stoned cherries. (Fresh cherries I just greedily save for myself!)

A generous layer of cream on top of the fruit and it is good to go.

I praised the free-range eggs of Jack, the local farmer, in a recent post. At the weekend when I went to collect some more I learnt that a fox had come in broad daylight and killed thirty of his hens. The foxes are very active at this time of year, presumably with young to feed. But really, although they are lovely looking creatures, they are vicious and just love a killing spree. I would keep ducks again if I thought for one moment that I could keep them safely in the garden. We had Khaki Campbell ducks when our children were small, sweet natured pets and prolific egg layers, all killed by a fox on the one night that I forgot to shut their hut. There were tears all round!

Wee One and the ducks were good models for my illustration work!

Morning walk  with the camera around the garden.

It is great growing weather. The spuds are looking promising in the veg garden - now that's a sight to gladden a Murphy's heart!