Sunday 11 October 2009

Darkening days in the garden

Smitonius:

I am way late on blogging, to the extent that Sonata, my mother, may disown me (we wouldn't want that, would we?). But there have been reasons, some work related and others not. The arrival of Autumn, with the crispening up of the air and the sun setting earlier each day, has brought a little sadness into the garden.

One of our resident foxes (many years ago a vixen made a fox hole behind the Hidrangea bush and, since then, cubs and others have rotated residency) turned up to drink out of the pond. Upon taking a closer look at him drinking, we noticed he was badly injured. A stressful call to the RSPCA followed, and the catcher arrived an hour later. Sadly, the fox was able enough to run away, because he really needed veterinary help.

However, some other residents, appear to be coping fine. The squirrels are madly burying their winter stores, and have eaten all the green tomatoes (so no green tomato chutney will be made in this house!); the birds are still flitting in and out to eat from the bird feeders; and this little chap popped in from somewhere....


8 comments:

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

How could I disown a daughter who brings a hedgehog into the family ? Sonata .

Anonymous said...

Oh, my! That is a darn cute hedgehog! So glad your mom decided not to disown you!!

FWOG. said...

I'm trying to figure just what the hedgehog was going to do with that stick... not being well acquainted with hedgehogs I am thinking anything is possible.

Good luck to Mr Fox.
W

Tania said...

Keep talking about critters in the garden and you'll have another enthusiastic follower. Will get Kid Number Two on to this post as soon as school finishes. There's a bit of an echidna/hedgehog thing going at the mo!

rachel said...

I'm going to worry about that fox for days now....

molly said...

Your little hedgehog neighbour is so cute. I don't think hedgehogs live here but we had a few in our garden, years ago, when we lived in belgium....this reminded me!

My Farmhouse Kitchen said...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE hedgehogs.......

he is adorable...I wish he lived with me...

Marcheline said...

What a cutie!!! Sorry about the fox - that's one of the drawbacks of nature being enveloped by civilization. We're close enough to see the drama of the wild, but not close enough to help sometimes. We have foxes, too, here on Long Island. I remember leaving one of the large state parks at dusk, and seeing a mother cross her entire brood over the path in front of me. She stood and looked right in my eyes while her babies got to safety, and then she trotted off after them. It was a special moment.