Sunday 15th March 2026 - Tree Damage, Worming Cats and Pussy Willows

So surprised to wake up this morning and see a sprinkling of frost on the front lawn and on the car too.  We don’t have many frosts, here on the coast, so to see one mid-March was quite unexpected.  Clear blue skies for our morning walk but it was very cold.  My finger tips were numb by the time we were back home.  Generally, it has been cold the past few days; with the winds making it feel even colder than predicted.  It was exceptionally windy on Thursday when we were buffeted with gusts of around 50mph.  The wind brought down tree branches; we saw more damage of this kind than after some of the named storms which have blown across the county.  This left me with the question as to what constitutes windy weather to be classified as a storm?  I looked this up on the internet and the Met Office provided the following – ‘A storm means different things to different people and while it doesn't have an official meteorological definition, like a Hurricane, it is commonly used to describe a deep and active area of low pressure with associated strong winds and precipitation.’  With no formal definition, I conclude storms are different things to different people!

I’ve mentioned about, Lunar, the feral cat I feed.  After her re-appearance, in December, following her absence for months, she now waits for me in a tree and when I come into view, she jumps down and runs to meet me.  Despite giving her food, I presume she also hunts as well, catching and eating vermin.  This was backed up yesterday morning when I spotted a segment of tape worm on her tail which almost undoubtedly will have been sourced from one of her kills.  We always keep a stock of cat wormers and flea treatment, so I was able to apply liquid wormer on her neck today, while she was eating her food.  I am so grateful you can now get liquid wormers and no longer have to use tablets.  I wouldn’t like to count the number of times when we’ve been bitten and almost got shredded by claws, trying to get a tablet down the throat of a cat.  Even the most placid feline has turned into furious fur ball of teeth and claws in attempts, despite trying various methods, to get a tablet down their throat. 

Today’s photo is of pussy willow catkins on a field edge, which are just starting to break open.  I think I’ve mentioned before why these buds are called pussy willows.  There are various stories behind their name; this one on Fatcatart’s website provides details of one of the legends. For me, pussy willows, bring back memories of my Nana, who would cut sprigs from one of the trees on my grandparent’s farm and put them in a vase along with some contrasting yellow flowering forsythia and daffodils.