Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Hedgehogs and Dogfights
by admin - 23:40 on 14 August 2011
Hedgehogs can climb. I have proof.
Late this evening (too late for snappery) I stepped into the garden of The Rural Retreat, weighed down by the usual nuts, eggs and sweet treats favoured by pine martens, and saw a dark figure sprint into the bottom of the hedge.
Prime suspect was Mrs Speedy, but I wasn't certain. I left the goodies in the regular places, plus a dollop of Nutella and peanut butter on the medium-sized boulder next to the egg, close to where I'd seen the intruder.
It wasn't long before my watch from the window was rewarded by the sight of a hungry hedgehog snuffling around the scattered peanuts intended for Mrs Marten. Closer examination revealed a second hoggy – if this was Mrs Speedy and the tiny offspring I saw a few weeks back, the infant's doubled in size. I left them to it.
A while later I looked out again and saw one of the hedgehogs atop a boulder that was at least twice its size, as eager for junk food as any pine marten. Mrs Marten's egg had also been snarfled. It's as well for her that they can't climb The Nutella Tree. Or can they...
Earlier in the day I delivered Matchgirl to the airport, for her regular trip to Shetland, via Fort George where the annual Celebration of the Centuries was in full swing. The highlight was a dogfight – sadly, without sound effects – above the fort.
Our boy emerged victorious, of course.
The dastardly Hun swoops out of the sun (what there was of it)...
...but he's not seen our brave Brylcreem boy...
...who gives chase...
...and makes the skies above Blighty safe again.
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