I WENT down to feed the hens the other morning and my path was blocked by a fallen tree. It was a medium-sized sycamore and a couple of years ago it had been damaged by a grey squirrel.

ABOUT 10 days ago I was woken at dawn by the incessant calling of a cuckoo. Dawn is rather early at this time of year so I went back to sleep, but it was a pleasant alarm call.

NOT FAR from where I live there’s a forestry plantation of lodge-pole pines. If you look at it from a distance you’ll notice an odd, umbrella-shaped tree in the middle of the plantation that towers over the pines.

I’M BEHIND schedule with my gardening this year. Mind you, nature is a bit behind schedule too. Blackthorn blossom and primroses in May — they should be flourishing in March. The soil in the vegetable plots is cold.

I DON’T really know how to phrase this — I don’t want to annoy anybody or to end up sounding pedantic or silly. Not everybody realises that there is a time-honoured tradition in the newspaper business that one set of people write the articles and another set write the titles and headlines.

LAST SUMMER I got a phone call from a man who lives locally to say that he had picked up the body of an animal that had been killed on the road and he was having an argument with some of his friends about its identification.