Sickness

Finally, after months of being bug free, illness has arrived at Hillside. Not that we're ill, thank goodness, as it it would seriously limit the work we could do to finish the build and get us back into the house.

When C mentioned yesterday that she got within a few feet of one of the rabbits that venture into the garden I wondered if it was really that she caught it by suprise or something more sinister. Today I saw first hand, and it confirmed my suspicion, when I found a rabbit up by the veg patch that could only just see me from a few feet away through it's infected eyes. Yes, myxomatosis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myxomatosis) has arrived.

I remember telling my mother, during a summer holiday back in the '80s, about a rabbit that I'd been able to stalk to within a few feet. I got so close I was able to take a half-decent photo with my old SLR and it's small zoom lens - http://www.flickr.com/photos/danrandom-archive/2269603542/ . It was only when asked how the rabbit looked, and I had to admit it had weird, almost closed and swollen eyes, that my mother pointed out that it was almost certainly very sick with myxomatosis. On the one hand I feel sorry for the rabbits as it looks like such a horrible illness, and a nasty way to die, but with some very obvious damage being incurred to the garden plants recently, with tops taken off geraniums, strawberries and sweet peas to name a few, I'm quite happy to see some of the culprits removed. Sounds harsh I know, but then nature is after all!

I'll miss seeing the rabbits playing at the top of the garden and in the horse paddock for a while, but rabbits being rabbits you can be sure the population will recover and they'll be back!