On, I think, Friday, I gazed out of the bedroom window on rising. Oh Look. There's Marlo pottering on the path in the garden. Turned around. Oh Look. There's Marlo on my pillow, sleeping. Looked out the window again. Marlo on the path, pottering. Turned around. Marlo on the pillow, sleeping. I suspect one of these black, black cats of not being Marlo. In fact, I suspect the one in the garden of not being Marlo.

The Builder came into the room, bearing mugs of tea. Someone has eaten all of Marlo's meat and biscuits and Licked The Bowls Clean. Unlikely to have been Marlo. He seldom actually licks the bowls clean. Cleaning is our job.

Marlo woke up and decided it was breakfast time. Ambled downstairs. Stopped in the dining room and began sniffing vigorously and very suspiciously. Sniffed his way into the kitchen. Sniffed even more vigorously and suspiciously. Sniffed his bowls in horror. Stalked out into the garden and began patrolling. The Marlo clone had disappeared.

In the meantime, I lit all the oil burners. Downstairs smelled ever so slightly of cat pee. And it wasn't Marlo. He never makes the house smell of cat pee.

We've not seen the black cat since. The two grey tabbies have been about. Marlo sees then off when he spots them. I have decided not to bother with them. I've never had any reason to think that they're coming into the house and they do no harm in the garden. They seem quite well behaved, in fact. Mind you, the one who jumped on the garden fence when Marlo was sat sunning himself outside my potting shed disappeared pretty sharpish when it saw him!

Something has helped itself to three of our fish :-( One day there were ten, happily basking in the sunshine. The next time we looked, there were but seven. Steve next door could only see seven. And only seven have there been ever since. The Builder suspects a duck. We don't think it was a heron - that would have scoffed the lot. I suppose it might have been the black cat, though it would be a clever cat who could catch them. The Builder wants to cover the pond to prevent birds (or anything else) nicking the fish. I am a bit reluctant. Marlo drinks from it. So too do the blackbirds and the starlings (though I do have a water bowl for the birds). And once we found a hedgehog. Mind you, it was a bit of a worry this morning when I went out to feed the menagerie. I couldn't see any fish. Not one. None at all. Eventually four or so appeared. I hope the rest are still there or I may yet lose the pond-covering discussion!

It's been raining!!!!!!!! Really proper rain. The water butt which collects water from the bathroom and kitchen roof is full. You can hear the vegetables and fruit trees purring. Come to that, you can hear the flower beds purring as well. Don't want loads more just now, though. A burst of sunny weather with some more gentle rain next week would be absolutely ideal! Earlier last week The Builder built a bonfire, which has been smouldering away ever since, covered with couch grass turfs. Two or three times a day, The Builder places more turfs on to block the smoke holes. It's now absolutely enormous and looks remarkably like a volcano which is imminently about to explode. Since it started raining, it's been steaming vigorously as well. Quite amusing to watch. We rather thought that yesterday's downpour would put it out. But it was still smouldering this morning. The large piles of couch, dug from the new veg beds, are slowly but inexorably being turned into useful, wholesome potash!

Oh. And The Builder has a job! A real one. One that pays money (as opposed to the work he's been doing at home which is certainly a real job but one which generates no income). He's working in Rotherham hanging fire doors at (I think) the BT building. The agency thinks it should last 6 weeks or so. That will be nice. From a financial point of view anyway.

I think I might have worked my last Sunday shift. I was at Psalter Lane yesterday. I am working a further couple of Saturdays but am not available for any of the last three Sundays before the end of term. None of the branches is open on a Sunday over the summer. And by the time the next academic session starts all the new weekend workers in the new weekend structure should be in place, up and running. There should be no need for me to work weekends at all. Which will be nice from a not-working-at-the-weekend point of view. Catastrophic from the earning-lots-of-money-and-paying-off-my-once-very-large-and-now-medium-credit-card-bill point of view, though.

Marlo, in the meantime, continues to patrol the garden, suspiciously awaiting an invasion of clones. It's a bit like having a small dog. If you are out there doing anything he sits with you and watches. I think, at the moment, he is on guard, lest we be viciously attacked by these putative clones!!