Yes I see wild animals, mostly birds including Robins, blackbirds and wrens, but a squirrel jumped onto our garden fence last week, right outside the kitchen window. I’ve previously seen hedgehogs and also spotted a fox a few years ago. My garden is a bit of a wildlife haven with bushes and trees for the animals to rest in. There’s also a leaky pond, so sometimes we have tadpoles and frogs.
I must put out some bird food soon. I’m a bit nervous though of slipping on the leaves out there. My garden is on a slope so I could end up sliding down it in the mud. Must be careful.
List three jobs you’d consider pursuing if money didn’t matter.
I guess this question is asking what jobs you would consider if you already had sufficient funds and didn’t need to earn more?
I would like to do jobs that were useful and interesting, and that helped people. Perhaps someone who volunteered to support patients and visitors at hospital, explaining where various wards and departments were, offering to get people a drink of water or show the where they could get food?
Alternatively I would like to work on some environmental issues, support natural wildlife, perhaps in a hedgehog hospital?
Finally I would have liked to persue a more formal career in art. I’ve always painted but never been able to make enough money to turn it into a career. Oh and sell books too!
But basically I think it’s important that people are paid a decent living wage. So many people have been working at below the poverty rate and taking two or three jobs to survive, and that’s just in industrialised countries. Think about it, one man is likely to become a trillionaire in the near future and also being offered tax cuts to increase his income even more. Total madness.
Next weekend I’m busy with an open day at Spode and an exhibition and craft sale at the Whitfield centre with Orme Art Group. I was trying to think of a theme to use for some little paintings I want to do and I’m thinking owls and maybe hedgehogs (which will be curled in autumn leaves). If it happens I’ll post some pictures.
Two years ago we were having regular hedgehog visitors to our garden, but this year we haven’t seen any. We live next to a busy road and I worry about them. There was also an area of wasteland next to our garden that had brambles growing on it. That was cleared by a builder who removed all the vegetation from it, our garden is quite wild but there was old bits of wood to hide under. I think we will start leaving food out for them to forage again.
Trees, that’s our garden, and leaves in the summer. We planted most of this about thirty years ago. There is an Irish yew tree, an old goat willow, holly trees, a sycamore, a walnut tree that must be 60 foot high, cherry trees, apple trees, ash trees, mountain ash, an elderberry tree, eucalyptus tree, two oaks, and a huge laurel bush at one end that is now tree sized.
Why? We were regularly pruning the trees and we plant perennials beneath them like poppies and geraniums and roses, plus a fig tree and wisteria and ivy everywhere. But for several years we didn’t actually own the garden, we rented it. Then the owner wanted to build on it, but we objected because we would have looked out onto a new house and the garden had become a natural place, with a pond and frogs, hedgehogs and the occasional fox. We have bluetits nesting every year and it’s home to house sparrows and other birds too.
Then we were in dispute and the owner would not let us tend the garden for about three years, so it grew wild and wooly. Eventually though, we bought the land, but by then the growth had got a bit out of hand. The land is where two houses used to stand. But we made it green. This is our way of lessening our carbon footprint…. I’m proud of what we grew!
Something keeps digging up bulbs in the garden, from pots we planted up last autumn. The bulbs have roots on them but haven’t grown yet, (unless they are having the leaves nibbled).
I’ve replanted them a few times, but something comes back and pulls them up again. Not plants, just bulbs? Hubby thinks it’s a fox doing it. I think it’s a squirrel. Has anyone got an idea? The bulbs are in pots on the ground, not up on the wall where some of the other pots are. It seems to just happen at night. Could it be hedgehogs trying to find worms. We might start leaving cat food out for hedgehogs again.
We have been seeing our hedgehogs for about a month and a half now. They either feed by the back door or in our shed late at night. My hubby goes out most nights to look for them and they will be on the aths round the garden eating worms they have grubbed up or in the shed. We’ve got sand on the shed floor so we’ve seen their paw prints. They were using it as a latrine but that seems to have stopped. When they eat and drink they often knock the bowls over. We put out hedgehog food but they much prefer the dry and wet cat food that the stray/abandoned cat has. (we are still trying to get him in the house). There was one big and one small hedgehog, but after over a month of nightly visits they are both big now! It’s great to have wildlife in the garden.
I just went out to check if there were hedgehogs in the shed. One was eating cat food but scuttled over to the corner as I shone my light in, so I took a quick photo and came out again. It’s quite a cool night so at least the poor thing has some shelter, food and water in there. There is a smaller one somewhere so we might have Hoglets soon. I think the shed needs tidying up a bit. Hubby seems to leave everything on the floor, but as long as there isn’t anything dangerous for the hedgehogs to eat they should be fine. I’ve got details now of the local hog charity so I might get in touch tomorrow. X
I hope you can read this. Hubby has been going out and buying ‘specialist’ hedgehog food from the local pet shop. Then a friend on Facebook posted this! I don’t want to be responsible for harming them so that’s the last lot of hog food we will be buying. There is also a meaty version so we might get some of that.
Mallaband-Brown 