Things that go bump in the night

I was woken in the early hours of yesterday (Saturday) morning by a dog barking. Our dog, Fern. There was nothing particularly noteworthy about that; it happens not infrequently as Fern gets quite upset by foxes invading her territory - or yowling from a little farther away. She did continue barking for a little longer than usual, but I was too snug to get out of bed and call to her to be quiet.

It was not until later in the day that I had occasion to go down the garden so it was some time before I discovered that the gate between the decorative part of the garden and the vegetable garden had been opened and left open. Now, this gate could not have come open of its own accord, notr could it have been forced by any animal short of battering it down. The catch is far too stiff for that to happen. Human intervention must have taken place. I assume that somebody had come through the garden of the neighbour at the back of us. crossed the boundary (where a fence had been taken down by that neighbour in the summer which he has never got round to replacing) and come up the garden. Only to hear the dog barking - and so to beat a retreat.

Fern had earned her breakfast.

And as we continue to remember, this is the headstone of a distant cousin, 2nd Lieutenant Thomas Waldegrave Nops,  9th Kite Balloon Section, Royal Flying Corps, killed on active service, at Trois Arbres Cemetery, northern France.