Let’s face it. I love to cook.

Cats kill 1.4 billion to 3.7 billion birds and 6.9 billion to 20.7 billion small mammals in the U.S. every year. Those startling statistics were recently revealed in a paper published in Nature Communications and picked up by media outlets from Comedy Central to the New York Times and Smithsonian.

Last year, I became a gourmet chef. That may be a slight exaggeration, but growing herbs near my kitchen door raised the bar in my cooking skills.

Loch Lomond opened to the public Friday, March 1. The opener brought clear blue skies, warm temperatures and some afternoon wind.