Hedgehog in the shed

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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

Weeds, flowers in the wrong place?

I went out to meet someone and saw a bank of weeds at the end of the carpark. There were some interesting flowers amongst the plants and the bees and hover flies were drinking at them. I recognised Himalayan balsam and Convolvulus, Dock weed and Teasle, Thistles and Ragweed (I think its called). I think it’s amazing how plants can push up through tarmac, live in walls, grow on cliff faces. Life will prevail!

Old bike spanner

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Funny what you find in the drawer when you are looking for something else. Hubbies bike spanner for tightening up his nuts. It’s a little rusty but still useful. If you turn it nintey degrees it looks like a shocked face! Maybe even like the painting the scream! The other end of the spanner has a curve at the end. I think it is meant to be a tyre leaver to leaver off a bike tyre when changing a tube or repairing it.

I love the old worn look of this spanner, I guess it’s at least forty years old. Sometimes things get put away then turn up when you least expect it.

Fresh blackberries with chocolate icecream

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Ice cold from the fridge, picked half an hour before and rinsed under the cold tap. Fresh from the garden fence (growing through from the neighbours garden), we had a bit of chocolate icecream in the freezer so we added that to the berries. Lots of our fruit plants have been profligate this year. Except for the plum trees? I think the blossom might have got blown off because they are not in a sheltered part of the garden.

The pear tree is almost horizontal, held up with a piece of wood. There are lots of pears set. Maybe I could make a Perry? I could do with a recipe. Mmm getting ideas…

X

Model trains….

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My hubby collects n gauge and oo gauge model trains and has set up a layout to play with them. He knows that this is an 044 side tank M7, southern railway engine…. just from looking at a photo. He said its an old fashioned steam engine that was introduced in about 1964. I find it fascinating that steam engines are still being used across the world. Maybe they will be used for decades to come? His layout is basically an oval with a siding. When it’s set up I will add a photo. The layout had been stored with cobwebs and possibly a spider or two for the last few years, but we’ve decided to release it into the wild (of the garden shed). It is about to become friends with the hedgehogs and the stray cat. I hope it survives. 

White lily

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Another one has flowered, sitting in among the nettles and the convolvulus. There’s monbretia in there too.. What’s its newer name? Crocosmia I think. Its like when Fushias suddenly became Surfinias and Geraniums started being called Pelagoniums to differentiate them from the perennial ones.

I went on a walk on Tuesday and found myself pointing out the names of garden plants to my hubby. I don’t know why. I saw a couple of plants that I didn’t recognise.

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What is this. From a distance I thought it was a fushia?

Walking!

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A couple of hours and about four miles. Up hill and down dale. My feet hurt. I haven’t been that far for years. By the time I walked down our hill at the end of the walk my legs started wobbling underneath me!

It started as a gentle walk up our steep hill. Left along a slightly flatter road to meet (at a social distance) a couple of friends. Then we walked around the contour of the hill we live on. This photo is looking out over the Trent Valley across the school fields. Then right up the hill and saying goodbye to our friends. Me, my hubby and our friend we usually walk with carried on down a side street. Down hill, then up a pathway between roads, I didn’t take a photo but there is a high wall with a huge crack in it. It felt like it could topple and fall. We came out of the pathway onto another road. Downhill towards the old hospital site, past the local cemetery. We walked through side streets, past terraced houses, slowly wending our way towards home. We stopped off at a corner shop to sit and rest on a brick wall under the canopy of a large street tree. We bought ice creams to cool down and sat for a few minutes. When I got up I was feeling very stiff and my feet hurt. From there we went down a hill with a view over the south if the city, enjoying a cool breeze. We left our friend there and we walked up a side street, then down our hill to the house at the bottom. I had to hold my hubbies arm as my legs had started to wobble!

I feel tired but happy to have done another walk!

My computer died?

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Oh darn! (or worse words!)

Last night my computer just switched off. Everything went black, the monitor stopped working, the printer stopped. The only thing still on was my speakers. I think it was a thermal cut out? One of my transformers was very hot and the extention lead that things were plugged into had stopped working (the light on it was out). So, back to the computer shop. All my course work is on it. I can’t do things on my phone! So DARN it!

Hedgehog information.

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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.

X

Triffids?

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Don’t let it come close! It will swallow you whole. The woman screamed at me as I walked up the hill. I saw what she was pointing at in front of me. A giant swirl of leaves and tendrils.

What is it I asked her. But she was running in the other direction…

Then I noticed the thing was moving, it was edging towards me. I turned to run but there was another one. It had sneaked behind me when I wasn’t looking.

I jumped in fright, ducked and tripped. Falling and running at the same time, I twisted as the tendrils touched my coat, desperate not to let them touch my flesh.

A hand grabbed my shoulder and arm, it pulled me away from the plants.

You don’t want to let a Triffids get you. A man pushed me into his car. We drove away.

Now I’m in London, I still don’t know what’s going on. Hopefully I can find out?