I feel extremely lucky that Claire and I own our own home. Not only because it is a place we can call our own, but the fact our wages are used to pay off the mortgage on our lovely house, and not the mortgage of some landlord living over a hundred miles away in the Midlands.

Our home is very special to us. Had we designed the interior, I am sure that we would have picked many of the features which are already present.

One aspect that my wife and I are both delighted with is the location. True, we both work around the corner from the house; but it is what’s surrounding our home which is one of my favourite aspects of where we live.

Ever since I was a child, I wanted to live somewhere next to… the sea, a train line, or the countryside.

There is no way I can make a claim that the 1995 Blur classic, Country House, was written about me. For one thing, it is 25 years old.

Another more significant factor is that, unlike the man in the song, I don’t live in the country – even the most devious of estate agents would struggle to convince anyone otherwise.

Our back garden is situated in front of Penn Hill Road. This road immediately backs onto fields. These fields connect to the countryside. I’m practically Worzel Gummidge.

What these seven or eight paragraphs are really building up to are the beautiful, warm and clear evenings the nation are enjoying, during our never-ending lockdown.

Like Claire, I am sure many of you were dragged away from your Sky HD boxes, in order to test your knowledge of astrology.

For the past few evenings, Twitter has been promising fascinating sights in the night sky – satellites, meteorites and even shooting stars – were all reported by users of social media and filmed very badly on camera phones…

NOTE TO PATRICK MOORE ENTHUSIASTS: THE iPHONE 8 CAMERA pDOES NOT MAKE A GOOD TELESCOPE!

Claire was pleased to have spotted some of the sightings in the night sky. I think I saw a shooting star, but I was indoors at the time. I still made a wish, but I can’t tell you what it was, otherwise it won’t come true. All I will say is that it didn’t involve Leeds United!

We were equally, if not more, impressed with some of the sights and sounds closer to home – literally!

During her time looking out of the window and standing in the garden, hoping to see some space phenomenon, Claire saw an abundance of wildlife – most notably a fox, an owl and a bat – the latter still guffawing at all the stupid humans for eating his brother.

The owl has been making its beautiful hoots and calls for the last few days. I had trouble sleeping last night, but any frustrations at my insomnia were kept to a minimum, as the wise old bird ‘twit-twooed’ for what seemed like hours.

I think the only person in our household that did not appreciate the owl song was Roman. Given how rabbit is the natural prey of owls – especially a juicy, well-fed house bunny – I’ll let him off for being a bit upset.

Indeed, as I write this blog post, I can hear her calling out across the fields. I’m assuming that this owl is a lady, purely based upon the fact the owl in the cartoon series Animals of Farthing Wood was female.

Incidentally, the owl in the original novel, on which the series is based, was male. Perhaps the one on the kids’ cartoon was hatched as a boy, but now identifies as a hen. Never say that a day every goes by, where I fail to teach you a fascinating fact…