Not very popular today

Today I did the annual emptying of the household compost bin. This happens either because the bin becomes full, or my tomatoes are ready for planting out as the compost is used at the bottom of the tubs.

This year it was because the bin was full. I was squashing all the kitchen scraps in the bin and then using all my weight to close the lid - poor worms.

The downside of this job is having to remove the top layer of stinky half rotten food (first picture) to get to the bottom layer of nice compost (second picture). The smell was pretty strong and probably not appreciated by the neighbours who are having a party tonight. It was probably not helped by my bad habit of putting old unused eggs in the bin whole and not smashing them up first. Five month old eggs do pong a bit. Thankfully my sense of smell is very poor having not properly returned following my nasty dose of Chicken Pox at Christmas.

Can't wait to get it up the allotment tomorrow.

One possible consequence of my activities today was a small present I found in the dining room. My two cats have been part of the family for 8-9 years. During that time we have had one baby blue tit and one mouse - ours do not do the hunting thing. But I discovered this - what a large mouse I thought - closer inspection revealed that it was a baby rat. I think it must have been Casper and not Chloe. He has been prancing round the house looking very pleased with himself today.