In clover

For those who have been wondering about Reg's whereabouts after he slipped his tracker on Monday, here he is in all his handsomeness on the lawn, browsing the clover in the brief interlude of sunshine this afternoon.

Wifie and I were both out at work yesterday, and my mother-in-law Nancy spent part of the afternoon in the garden looking out for him. But Nancy doesn't see too well, and she was wary of stepping off the paving on to the lawn in case she stood on him. If he did emerge, he probably did what he did today, and stuck furtively to the edge of the lawn ready to retreat into the dense flower beds once he had finished foraging. So he wasn't seen.

Today I worked at home. There was no sign of him until mid afternoon when the sun finally came out and the garden warmed up. I was working in the garden room with the doors open, and then I saw the tell-tale sign of a buttercup waving from the far side of the overgrown lawn. And there he was.

The tracker is now attached with duck tape, it doesn't do much for his good looks. I think I am going to have to reach a point of acceptance that he is perfectly safe in the Summer, free range in the garden, and there will be times when I don't see him for a few days at a time. But like a fretful parent worrying about their teenage children coming home late, I haven't reached it yet. We may reach a stage anyway, where he has made so many tracks through the flower beds that I should be able to find him with relative ease. There is already a perimeter track that he has made in his circuits next to the garden wall.