Green and country in the city 2 July

Lovely to have had some rain for the garden - and nice weather - sunny, but not too hot - this weekend.

• Disturbing frogs a lot this year. This week there has been a frog in the top of the wild strawberry pot who is not disturbed when I am picking berries and checking there are not snails around the inside of the rim.
• The farmers 5-day forecast on Monday morning on radio 4 was completely different from the ordinary day's weather on the Today Programme about 10 minutes later. Was it going to rain that day or not?
• First thing Tuesday morning there were 2 fox cubs playing on the grass in the next door garden. Later there were 2 adults playing together (which I've never seen before) and the small cub. Then one adult played with the cub.
• Day off on Wednesday and after breakfast I was meditating. I felt what I thought were the tip of a cat's whiskers on my forearm - but it stayed the same pressure so I opened my eyes to find a thin, black and yellow caterpillar. I didn't know what plant it had come off so put in back on the blackcurrant bushes as I had been picking some blackcurrants to have with my breakfast.
• Picked blackcurrants to make blackcurrant gin but I forgot (again) to buy a bottle of gin from Tescos. Looked to see what I had left from previous years. I had enough - and 4 empty gin bottles for the recycling.
• Many more butterflies, bumble bees, other bees and other insects this year than I have had for several years which I am really pleased about. Yesterday there were 3 bumblebees on my lavender. Recent years I was lucky to have 3 bees in the whole garden. I did notice when I left Wanstead Meeting House after being one of the storytellers at a Leytonstone Arts Trail event that there were 12 bumblebees on the lavender in their front garden!