The first broad beans came out of the garden on Wednesday. I put them in a paella with some leftover picnic squid from the weekend and some black pudding. Tasty! Last night I spotted a white alpine strawberry with that faint apricotish glow that signifies ripeness, then ruffled through the edge of the flowerbed and oh there were quite a few, so we had the first strawberries of the year, newly red and snatched from the jaws of hungry slugs. Somewhere in the middle of that the housemartins came back (when I was taking out the recycling I think) and were jetting round our heads, checking the house, twittering (them and me). It looked like most of last year's big brood had made it back, so we might be getting an extension of the martin houses this year! They have a big hole in the side of their nest, so we got to see them sitting in the nest, peeking out angrily. Hopefully they will repair rather than relocate.

Speaking of the twitters, last night I posted this terrifying image of Cowley Road street drinking on instagram and posted a tweet about the housemartins, and got back the response "It's happy hour again" which of course applied equally to either information item although in retrospect, the response "and again and again and again and again" was appropriate for all channels.

Old cat seems healthier. It's either the weather or the new supplements we have him on, but his fur is better and he is moving more easily. Young cat brought us a young rat, though this time she managed to make sure it was a) dead and b) not leaking. Go team kitten!