Sue's Blog - Some assembly required.

They are back......

At last.
I saw our first Chippy Chipmunk this morning.
I was really beginning to get worried about them.  They hibernate through the winter .....in tunnels under our lawn.
I have always wondered how they survive when the temps drop so low here.  The ground freezes solid, just like a block of ice, for a couple of feet down.  This is why no one has fish ponds.  Well, I suppose you could if you put a very heavy duty heater in it but then who wants one more thing to worry about during the winter.  Will the fish pond heater give up?
Back to the chippies.........as we are halfway through April, the chippies have normally been raiding my bird feeder for about a month by now.
They can empty a bird feeder in an hour, filling their little gobs up and dashing off to feed their babies.
By now they are usually amusing the cats and driving me nuts...(Nuts!...did you see what I did there?).
I mentioned the lack of chipmunkery to Philip at the weekend.  I wondered as this winter and the cold weather (ground was covered in snow again yesterday morning) is dragging on so long that maybe their food reserves had run out.
Maybe, the poor little things hadn't woken up but died of starvation in their sleep.
Not a nice thought.
But then..........TA DA........this morning there was a chippy, bold as brass, raiding the birdie feeder.......little sod.

Philip had made tentative arrangements to have his first round of golf on Sunday.
Snow etc soon put paid to that.  Golf course was closed.
We did stop at the second hand or 'gently used' golf shop and he got a couple of new bats.
The driving range was open so he tested them out over there.  Doesn't look to be too much improvement in the weather this week so who knows when he will actually get out on the golf course.

The gluten free thing is proceeding.  Like most things, it gets easier as you go along.
Philip says he has less ....ermmm....how to say this........'windy pops' than he used to, which is always a good thing.
I am having to be slightly more inventive with meals but I really don't mind.  It is something of a challenge and I sometimes like that.
I can't say I have noticed anything astounding healthwise but there was a segment on the news the other day about gluten and how people who are allergic obviously have to really avoid it, but it also said that most of us could do with eating less of the stuff as it isn't very good for us. 
I found this quite interesting.

posted by Sue Banks @ 10:53 AM