Nature made me jump again!

This time I was pruning a fuchsia that grows next to the drive (so's we can open the car door to get in and out) and - suddenly - I stopped chopping just in time: Isn't this Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar amazing!

In case you missed it: the last time nature made me jump was when a frog jumped out of a flower bed. But that was only the beginning. Mr PP and I have spent the WHOLE DAY excavating said flower bed as it had got wetter and wetter. At last we discovered a leak in our water pipe. (And when we checked our latest bill, we should have realised sooner: it's huge compared with normal bills.)

Mr PP has managed to stem the flow and we've turned off the stopcock in the road as far as we can. We found out that it won't entirely shut off, but at least it reduces the fountain to a drip. Dreading our next bill, not to mention the cost of fixing the leak. As it's on our land, the water company won't pay; we shall have to. Oh, yikes!

So it's a late blip (after a very late meal - and very glad of another slice of apple and blackberry pie)! We're both exhausted and somewhat stiff.

I'll try and catch up on comments soon.