Are you enjoying the unexpected heatwave? The weeds in our garden most certainly are. They seem to grow an inch taller every hour.

The warm nights are a huge hit with one of our two cats, Jasper, who vanishes for twenty-three hours out of every twenty-four. An aristocrat by breeding, if not by temperament - she regularly sleeps on top of our compost heap - she barely tolerates our presence in "her" home. Can it be mere coincidence that her rare appearances coincide with feeding time?

You may be wondering why a female cat carries a male name. This is because no-one realised she wasn't a he until a she was six months old, despite having been seen by a vet before then. We tried changing her name to Jasmine but she had other ideas, and so Jasper, or Jazzy, it remains.