Tuesday 4th July 2023 - Lunar, Hedgehog Haven and Apology Received

From time to time, in my blogs, I mention part feral cat Lunar who we feed and sleeps most nights in our conservatory. Sometimes she misses meals and occasionally goes off for a few days, returning ravenous but she has now surpassed the length of her absences, disappearing for about a week. Recently she has been quite reserved, instead of her normal friendly self, and was eating less. When day after day we didn’t see her, I wondered if she had found a better place to live. No problem with this, but felt it would be nice to know if this was the case and she was safe, so I put up posts on Facebook and Next Door. Some nice responses, but nobody had seen her. I had pretty well given up on her returning, even putting her dishes away, but then on Friday evening she came back. Looking dishevelled with a tuft of hair sticking up from one ear and covered in pollen she was more thirsty than hungry. Lunar and Sid don’t like each other, so it was interesting to see Sid go up to Lunar and for them to touch noses with no animosity. Since then, Lunar has more or less settled into her usual routine, although on Sunday she didn’t come in for her tea until 2 a.m. the following morning!

Marion Grimes from Hedgehog Haven was the guest speaker at today’s Gardening Club meeting, bringing with her three youngsters for us to see. During the course of her talk, I picked up a number of tips and information about them. It was interesting to hear, due to the increase in winter temperatures, hedgehogs now don’t hibernate until December or even January. We have heard of the problems late litters face. Born in October or November they have little time to gain sufficient weight for a successful hibernation. Marion told us, November is a particularly busy time, with abandoned underweight hoglets brought into her care, with the very young needing feeds every two hours. Marion said she keeps the very young in their boxes, on her dressing table at night so she has them nearby. Females are not the best of mothers. They have been known to leave their young to fend for themselves when it is time to hibernate and when moving them, if she drops one, she may not bother to go back for it. Out of litters of five, two can expect to survive and grow into adults. Apart from humans their main predators are badgers who are able to prize them open when they curl up into a ball. We currently have a visiting hedgehog, but as the food left in its feeding station was untouched when I checked it this morning, it must have given our garden a miss yesterday evening.

Going back to my last blog and North Norfolk News’ failure to acknowledge my copyright on two photos they published of Peter Talbot’s beach hut, I received an apology today with assurances, their error has been rectified.

Today’s photo is of the poppies growing in a field on the outskirts of Northrepps.