Nemesis

yes, he looks sweet enough but this, my friends, is my nemesis. He is big and black and (more importantly), he'll eat anything green he can get his whiskers on.

these....

are just like candy for him. Part of my inability to grow things lies in my own problems....forgetting to water is the main one. However, for three years running, I started vegetable seedlings and then subsequently lost them to the black nemesis. Did I leave them just sitting about on an open windowsill?? Well...let's be honest here. Yes, one year I did.

However, the following year I learned my lesson and I bought one of those plastic green house things to cover them over. As we only have one windowsill that is south facing, I popped it and my precious seedlings on it. This window also happens to be the same one that W frequents for his sunbathing/birdwatching/hiding from small children activities. Things went along swimmingly until the seedlings started to grow well. Then I noticed more intent glances from said black cat. One weekend we went away.... and returned to seedling carnage. No, the cat hadn't eaten them this time, he'd dumped them out all over the sill and they had withered away.

The next year I tried again....green house, sticky tack on the bottom to keep it still, strong words with the feline. That year he outdid himself and managed to work out how to pry open the lid of my green house thingy with his claws. Goodbye seedlings...they were a quick green weekend snack.

This year I decided no more miss nice gardener. My DS was nagging for a garden, I was tired of losing to the fat cat. I put the seedlings on a different windowsill. And voila!

Nemesis no more.