Written 7.8.19 Apologies if you get this twice.
Yes, Siili is free again! It has been several days of mixed emotions.
Yes, it was lovely having little Siili in the kitchen although I really wanted her to be in her box outside to get really used to it. But never mind, she was in the outside box, sleeping, for a couple of hours before I opened the door.
Not as nice as you might think, having her in the kitchen – she was a bit smelly! No wonder she started self-anointing before she came out of the outside box! I had never actually seen it before and she was partially hidden, but it was definitely what she was doing.
It was about 2 hours after opening the door, before she came out and then she had a wander around before disappearing into the bushes. Would you believe it, on checking the camera the next morning I found that it had caught none of that, which meant that I didn’t get a chance to see what she looked like on video, post-injury.
The next night there was no sign of Siili on the video, nor the next, nor the next. I tried to convince myself that one of the other hogs could be her, but they all had two bright shiny eyes and I thought it would be strange if Siili suddenly did.
I was beginning to wonder whether I would ever see her again. Then last night I looked down from upstairs and saw a smallish hog, so rushed down with my binoculars, just in time to see who I thought must be Siili disappearing. This morning I checked the video with some trepidation and there was a hog with no eyeshine! And at the right time. Unfortunately, she left almost immediately. The camera let me down again and didn’t capture her arrival. But, then I saw her again on the other camera on the grass. So, I have no idea whether she has actually been visiting every night but been wearing her invisibility cloak! But really hope she will be here again tonight. I expect you can imagine – I was thinking maybe she wouldn’t remember where she was after such a long time, did I do the right thing putting the case for her return, etc., etc. So it was such a relief to see her safe and well again and FREE. Although I don’t imagine that will stop me worrying about her!
The rest of the hogs seem o.k. apart from the grafitti. Igel – not sure why she was absent for a while, because she seems to be back as normal, with no sign of hoglets – although maybe she’s keeping some hidden somewhere. I did think I saw the rear of a smallish one disappearing into a flower border one night, but possibly too big to have been hers. Most of the rest are males. Although there is a newish one, who I’m not sure about yet.
Lovely that you have lots of hogs there, Annie, and youngsters as well! Sad that you couldn’t get the little one on your avatar. Although I am finding, recently I don’t seem to be able to get them bigger as easily, so not so easy to see any detail. Brilliant that Frankie’s kennel is being used again. Typical hog presenting the camera with a good rear view!
I have wasps in the roof too. Unfortunately, they pass the bedroom window on their way in, but so far have managed not to become trapped in the house. Sparrows blocking the guttering – a bit of an occupational hazard. They seem to be quite keen to fill them up again as soon as they are emptied. Luckily because my house has dormers, the bit they use is only fairly short – but still provides lots of water for my water butts. Not really sure how the whole system isn’t completely blocked! Although I do have some scrunched up chicken wire in the top of the downpipe, which seems to help.
Lots of butterflies around at the moment – including 1 or 2 painted ladies. I heard that we are supposed to be getting lots of those this year. Not sure what they are going to make of the weather that is threatened for the weekend.
