Sue Woodcock: Singing a happy tune as washing gets done and nature beguiles

I have a simple but very efficient washing-machine and was able to wash an awful lot of clothes and then had to get them dry.

Every time I hung them out on the clothes line, they would get almost dry and then it would rain. At least I knew they were well-rinsed.

Now I have piles of dry clothes waiting to be put neatly away.

I have had to discard many old clothes and need to be ruthless. I have T-shirts that are threadbare but they evoke memories and I am reluctant to part with them. I worked out that some are at least 30 years old.

I am not someone who collects a lot of trinkets so I have decided to cut out the relevant parts of them to make into a patchwork cover.

Boo has discovered rabbits – with a vengeance. She has worked out that if she waits long enough by a rabbit warren, she may get lucky.

The trouble is that she can’t keep still that long. She is so happy just being outside and in her exuberance runs round in ever-decreasing circles, gets giddy and then has to come inside and lie down while her world gets back to normal.

If I even leave the room or venture outside for a few moments, she greets me with great enthusiasm the moment I return as if I had been gone for hours. Such unconditional love is very comforting.

Froyle, my older collie, has finally got rid of her plastic collar which was battered, dirty and bent by the time the vet took it off. Her eye has healed and she has made a full recovery and is a much happier dog now.

She is 12 and an affectionate and placid animal. Her idea of heaven is lying in the armchair having had a good meal or basking in front of the fire.

She got so close to the fire the other day she singed some of her previously white coat and now has a large yellow mark there.

Brillo prefers to snuggle up on my bed where she worms her way under a blanket, her eyes just visible as she watches everything from her hidey hole.

The other collie, Fair, prefers to sleep on the flag floor by the front door. She has a very thick curly coat and there is always the chance I may let her outside.

The Sunday started well. The morning was sunny and warm. Then came the rain, lots of it. The wind was blowing down the chimney and causing the stove to smoke. The whole house got chilly and it was a most depressing afternoon.

The weekly quiz in the evening put things to rights. We raised £100 For Help the Heroes. The main group were cyclists on a tour of the Dales and I was surprised to run into an ex-colleague from my police days. It is a small world.

There was a strange half-light as I drove home. It was almost silver, with huge puddles of standing water on the roads reflecting the light. It made everything quite eerie.

I have been spending some time just watching the wildlife around me. The curlews, with their plaintive calls, fly overhead, and the wrens in my wall chatter incessantly. There are other birds around, dunnocks and even a robin but I was delighted to watch a pair of owls the other evening.

The baby house martins and swallows are growing fast and peer at me from the safety of their nests when I go into the barn. Pied wagtails are around in numbers, picking up scraps in the farmyard.

We had our choir practice for the Buckden Singers at the Church of St Margaret of Clitheroe, at Threshfield, and standing outside, I watched a starling, laden with worms and grubs, creep under the eaves of the roof, instigating a raucous screeching from its young. It then emerged to fly off in search of more food.

Some of the music we are preparing for our concert is very much to my taste and we even reduced our leader to tears when we actually got a couple of pieces right.

It was a happy evening and some of us, having sung our hearts out, adjourned to the local hostelry for refreshment afterwards.