Hi Annie
Lovely to hear your news. The good news here is that I keep seeing a frog in one of the ponds. Not sure whether it’s the little one grown up, or a different one! But good to see the little chap/chapess there.
Sad to hear about the poor hog. As you say, timing wrong. That’s what sommetimes happens on smaller roads, too, even in normal times.
Good to hear about the lack of McDonalds containers. The current situation has some advantages, it seems!
I got some calci-worms from a local garden centre – luckily a while before everything closed. Make sure that the ones you get have a good ratio. I found a document online describing how the calcium levels can vary enormously depending on what the calci-worms are fed on. So the worry is that people will start producing cheaper ones and feed them on a bad diet. I tend to sprinkle just a few on top of the food – as a garnish! But I have a feeling that they put the cats off a bit, which has to be good!
Talking about food, I had a rat again a few days ago – grrrr. I normally give the hogs a mix of hog food and kitten biscuits. So I cut out the hog food and just put out the kitten biscuits (with their garnish of calci-worms) and the rat wasn’t interested. So last night I didn’t see it at all. How lucky is that to find a rat who doesn’t like kitten biscuits! Just have to hope that the cats don’t come back now! It was quite funny watching the rat on the video. It approached within about a foot of the bowls but then retreated. It came back a few times, as if to see if the food had magically changed again, but eventually gave up. Didn’t eat any of it. Hopefully it won’t be back.
I have a poor hog visiting every night at the moment who is quite badly blobbed. I did wonder whether it might be Igel, but not even certain whether it’s male or female at the moment. The poor thing keeps crawling on it’s belly, as if it’s been scared. I hope it has the sense to stay away from the dreaded blobbers from now on. But I haven’t been able to see underneath it – and no convenient scratching! At the moment the hogs seem to be complying with social distancing and all turning up separately for their food! Social distancing comes naturally to them, of course! But it would be nice to see this one with another, to get an idea of whether male or female.
The robin/s here are continuing their antics to get my attention so I give them more food. But it’s so lovely. I have a two tiered feeding place for the birds and the other day the little robin thought I was putting the food on the top and flew there (but I was putting it underneath), so I moved it to the top and at the same time she/he moved to the bottom and so we went on for a few seconds. Like (in the olden days!) when you were about to bump into someone in the street and both kept moving the same way to avoid each other. It was quite funny. Poor little chap. In the end I just left it on the top even though he was by then on the bottom. Clever little thing – he soon found it.
That must be very worrying doing the shopping with your immune deficiency. I’ve found that it’s men (perhaps ones who aren’t used to doing the shopping!) who seem to be the worst at keeping their distance. I have found once or twice that I have had to become quite assertive to remind people to keep away! Sounds lovely walking along the river. Another compensation of this present situation. The fruit and veg boxes sound good, too. I’ve tried planting some VERY OLD salad seeds I had lying around. (no new ones available in the supermarket). So far only radishes are beginning to grow, but better than nothing and worth a try.
Hope you stay safe and well, too.
