Now that it’s getting warmer the insects are coming back. Last night I saw our first jumping spider and tonight, whilst washing the dishes, I heard a cricket outside. (Now that Andrew has gone back home I have to wash my own dishes again).

Unfortunately the ants never really went away. The ants like house guests. House guests leave cups and plates on the table and more people eating means more crumbs dropped on the floor for the ants to find. House guests also managed to find food that the ants really liked – little sealed cups of jelly that brought the ants out in droves. So that even after cleaning the table with bleach my Japanese teacher was able to teach me the counter for creatures by counting the ants walking over my Japanese text books…