I was only just saying that that nothing about our prickly pals surprises me anymore, but they’ve just managed to do it again. Despite having two hog houses and a log pile in the garden, they have all remained empty since the last tenant (a serial hoarder!) moved out nearly two years ago. He had managed to cram one of them so full of bedding, that there was no way that anything could possibly fit inside, the only reason I can think of is that he didn’t want a next door neighbour. Anyway, where was I …oh yes, the new tenants. Hog house number 1 is now nestled in a very quiet part of the garden and has finally attracted some interest…a lot of interest! A camera has been trained on it for the last week and it is fascinating, all of a sudden the hogs are fighting over it, or whoever is inside. It seems that a lady may have moved in and the boys have tracked her down to her new lodgings. If she doesn’t emerge early enough in the evening for their liking, they go and wake her up. I was rather hoping that it was a female about to give birth, as she has been very active during the day going in and out of her new abode, but with all the boys around she might just find it a bit much and up sticks.
I’ve done it again!…There’s been so much going on in the last few days that yet again I’ve managed to get side tracked. My astonishment is all about the new resident/s of number 2 and the log pile on the other side of the garden under the sycamore tree. We are all familiar with the hedgehog being the gardeners’ friend and dining on all those pesky little black slugs, but I never had them down as gardeners themselves. As anyone who has ever had dealings with a sycamore tree will know, they are classed as agricultural weeds. As much as I love them, at this time of year, the garden becomes a sycamore nursery. Up until two days ago, the ground around number 2 and the log pile was a mass of rapidly growing seedlings. Uprooting them before the Parish council had the chance slap preservation orders on them, was on my ‘to do’ list, but the hogs have done it for me…yes, they’ve actually removed every last one including two piles of hay! So there you have it, we can now add weeding to their long list of many talents!
A short clip of our new lodger at number 1 taking a mid morning stroll, it’s a pity I didn’t have a camera trained on number 2 whilst they were busy pulling up all those weeds!
