B is for Butterflies and Bees...and Bunnies!!

When I started work on my bee garden (which also attracts butterflies) I didn't think it would attract other creatures also beginning with 'b'.

But we have a new house guest in the Much Malarkey Manor bee garden - a bunny!

A few days ago, we had the feeling we were being watched. You know, when you can feel eyes boring into you, but you can't quite tell why or where from. (My previous experience of this has been waking at 3 o'clock in the morning with one of the cats sitting on my chest, staring at me from a distance of two inches. This can make you jump and your heart pound for upwards of half an hour after it happens.)

We'd go out the front door and feel that SOMETHING WAS THERE, LURKING IN THE HEDGE. Or we'd open the curtains in the morning, only to catch a glimpse of SOMETHING DISAPPEARING INTO THE HEDGE.

And then, when Heather came home last Thursday, she said upon her arrival, 'Did you know there is a rabbit in the front garden.

Of course, when I looked, it had gone. Thoughts of Jimmy Stewart and Harvey flitted through my mind. I thought, poor Heather, all that intense university education for the last three years has clearly affected her brain.

But then I saw it too! It was sitting in the middle of the lawn and then it turned and ran into the hedge.

The hedge stands on the border between us and our semi-detached neighbour. At first we thought it was the neighbour's hedge as he was always out the front trimming it back with his large and loud electric hedge trimmer. Of course, he could never quite reach over the top far enough so there would be an edge on our side that remained tatty looking after the careful topiary ministrations on his side. So I would sigh and troll outside with our wholly inadequate-because-they-are-rusty-and-blunt garden shears and hack away at the remaining tufty bits until all was level again. And because I am not as tall as the man next door, and couldn't be bothered to shuffle my way along the hedge with my rusty shears atop a step ladder, the hedge, over the years has taken on a slightly slanted appearance.

Then I realised the hedge was actually OUR hedge. It was on our side of the border.

This put a whole new slant on the whole hedge trimming malarkey i.e whilst the neighbour continues to trim the side that abuts his property, I have let our side grow wild and free! His side is about 4 and a half foot tall; our side is almost 7 foot in places. I am happy to let him keep hedge cutting his side of our hedge. I am relieved I can let our side of our hedge grow rampant. I sing tra-la-la-la-la-la-la in my head when my mum comments on 'the state of the hedge, I'll bring my shears along and give it a trim for you, shall I?'

And I think this rampantness and wild verdure is what has attracted the bunny.

For the last two days, the bunny has been getting bold. It has been sitting in the middle of the bee garden eating grass and dandelions. This is good because it saves Andy having to struggle across the grass with our wholly inadequate -because-it-was-never-any-good-and-the-blades-keep-disappearing strimmer.

And sometimes the bunny just sunbathes. Like it was this morning.

I don't know why the bunny has suddenly arrived. I don't know how long it will stay. But bunny watching in the evening, with our own Much Malarkey Bunny, is very entertaining. (I just hope the next step of 'b'animals in the bee garden won't be a bear! Or a bison...)