The Enid Blyton Society

Love to read both your stories, Number 6 and Rob! I also love Rob's photo. Very peaceful. I love countryside!

Rob Houghton wrote:Lovely! We always have grey squirrels and we feed them monkey nuts etc, and some become quite tame. Last year we had a squirrel who would come right up to the window and look in, with his paws on the ledge (actually its a door with glass right to the floor) and he would chatter and jump around, bobbing his head up and down comically as he looked in the window, to attract our attention! He used to take food out of my dad's fingers if he offered him a monkey nut. We don't have any that seem that bold and friendly this year though.

They're great characters & absolutely delightful to watch, especially when they are quite tame around you. I bet your dad was chuffed to bits to have such friendly Squirrels, Rob!

number 6 wrote:
They're great characters & absolutely delightful to watch, especially when they are quite tame around you. I bet your dad was chuffed to bits to have such friendly Squirrels, Rob!

He was! I think he's a bit disappointed that the squirrels this year aren't so bold!

I love reading your description of countryside, Floragord!

I also feel lucky, living where we do on the very edge of Birmingham - almost in Worcestershire - against the 'green belt' - with the canal at the bottom of our garden, we are often visited by animals.

Along with the squirrels we have so many birds of all kinds (including the odd sparrowhawk etc) and many foxes, which come for food that we put out in the wood near the canal. Then we have badgers sometimes, visiting the garden in search of peanuts, which they love. On the canal we have coots and moorhens and Canada geese, as well as swans and the usual ducks. Sometimes I've been lucky enough to see a king fisher. One thing we don't have right by us is pheasants - as they aren't bred for hunting near where we live - but further off about a mile up the lane we see plenty of them.

I went into the garden this evening and 'our' hedgehog was there sniffing around, so I put out some cat food for him - which is what they like to eat. I always feel we need to look after hedgehogs these days, as their numbers are sadly dwindling in this country. Hope it has a mate somewhere, so we can get more hedgehogs next year, as we used to have two or three but only see one these days.

Sounds like you're in a great location for Wildlife, Rob! You've got some lovely animals visiting your garden, too! Nice to hear you've got an hedgehog in your garden. Most people where I live have turned their gardens into concrete wastelands, where nothing grows & fences are so high that no hedgehogs can no longer wander from garden to garden. I can understand why hedgehogs have declined in recent years...loss of habitat!

Yes - many gardens around by us have 'concrete wastelands' and high fences - so I think 'our' hedgehog comes to our garden because we still have the old style 'picket fence' type of fence that doesn't shut them out.

That's good to hear, Rob. I wish everyone was as thoughtful & returned to the old type fencing. It does make a hugh difference for the 'hogs'! I feed my prickly friend dog food or left over mince meat, along with some fresh water. Sometimes I'll re-hydrate dried meal worms as a treat in the Autumn/Winter months.
Milk & bread is very bad for hedgehogs, so I never feed them with these.

Lovely to hear about the hedgehogs. I've never seen one in the wild, but earlier this year at the care home where I work, we had a visit from a wildlife carer who looks after hedgehogs that were born very late in the season and probably wouldn't build up enough body weight before winter to survive their hibernation. She cares for them over winter and releases them into the wild in spring. It was fascinating to learn all about them. She even brought one of her then-current charges for us to see and hold — so cute! If I have a home of my own one day here in the UK, I will definitely make sure to have hedgehog-friendly fencing if at all possible.

Great stuff, Courtenay! You're the kind of person that the Hedgehogs would love to adopt! You are really thinking positively about their habitat, & that is all it takes. I really hope you get your dream home sometime in the future & your garden is full of hedgehogs!!!!!!

floragord wrote:the constant chuckle of water as the stream is very full after the recent rains!

I do like the sound of your stream, floragord!