Hedgehog arrival day

You may remember that I posted last week about our preparations for new arrivals and our excitement of offering our woods as a release site for some rescued hedgehogs. Well, yesterday was the day and off we went to collect our new residents. There are lots of photos but we were ubber excited and I got a bit snap happy with the camera.

Last week M set about building some hedgehog houses. Although it was a necessity I think he was enjoying putting all his diy skills to good use and he produced 3 lovely (and functional) hedgehog homes.

 

21 Hedgehog Row                     Prickle Manor

Spike Cottage

Perhaps we were getting a bit carried away but each has a felt or slate tiled roof, a little entrance hall, a blue ventilation pipe at the back and of course the obligatory name plaque.

 

As my assistance wasn't required in the production and assembly line I went hunting for some wool and a crochet hook and tahdah!! Herbert the hedgehog was born. I've never tried to make anything like this before and to be honest I found it a bit fiddly and tricky. So massive thanks must go to Sarah Lyons at The Crochet Stitch Witch for her wonderful pattern and amazing how-to video.

Even little Herbert had a look inside the new homes.

Anyway, after all that messing around with Herbert it was time to take the houses out into the woods and get them ready for their new residents. We put the 3 houses in semi-shade on the edge of the coniferous trees but close to all the wood piles in the deciduous area.

Each house was placed in it's own area just in case of any neighbourly squabbles.

The last one, the heaviest which has the slate roof was finally lifted into place. Excuse M's ridiculously dirty coat but I think perhaps he'd been in the pig pen with 2 very dirty pigs!!

So each house had some hay bedding and a couple of little ramekins filled with water and a generous helping of tinned cat food. (Note: no bread and milk - as that's really really bad for them)

We had been in contact with Hessilhead wildlife rescue for a few weeks and we were thrilled that they approved our request to provide a new home for some rescued hedgehogs. So yesterday morning we pootled off to meet and collect our new hedgehogs.

 

In addition to lots of really useful advice we were given a total of 3 hedgehogs, 2 females and one male, and each came along with their own bright pink fleecy blanket. We collected one female in our carrier (left photo) and a male and female in the cardboard box (right photo).

 

The journey home didn't seem to affect them too much as they were tucked up in their blankets, fast asleep when we opened the boxes.

This was our first resident, the female, she is just soooo cute. This beautiful little lady settled in nicely to 21 Hedgehog Row.

Our second hedgehog was slightly more camera shy although you can just make out 2 tiny paws. We're not sure if this is a boy or girl and to be honest we didn't investigate as we wanted to get them settled in quickly without too much stress. So he or she is now residing in Spike Cottage.

Last but definitely not least our third hedgehog was put in Prickle Manor. Initially we thought he (or she) was as shy as number 2 but then a little nose appeared. They are just so lovely.

With all 3 hedgehogs tucked in for the night we replaced the roofs and left them in peace to make themselves comfy. (Although the roof is not tight fitting, the blue tube at the top is there for some extra ventilation).

The wonderful people at Hessilhead advised us to keep them in for the first night and so we had to temporarily block up the front door. Note to selves: they do move quite quickly therefore we decided it was prudent to secure the doors before putting the hedgehog in.

This morning we went out to refill the food and refresh the water containers and to open the doors. It was lovely to see that they were all tucked up asleep and that all the food from yesterday had been eaten. The advice we had been given is that we will probably not see them again as they'll soon venture out and find their own, natural homes. Making the most of this last moment we took a few (not very exciting as they were sleeping) videos. However, we did set up the wildlife camera in the hope of getting some footage of one of them moving about tonight. Well, that was the idea but as the fog has just rolled in we have't got great hopes of having more than a white blur. Still, we'll see what tomorrow brings.

While we are focusing on hedgehogs: M has just found out that it is Hedgehog Awareness Week from 30th April to 6th May 2017. If all goes well we may be heading back to Hessilhead to collect some more hedgehogs in the next few months.

Preparing for New Arrivals

Frosty mornings

After quite a lot of rain in the last week we have been trying to stay off our land while it is a bit waterlogged. Thankfully though we have a wonderful country park quite close by and so we have been enjoying long morning walks there.

This is the river which flows through the country park. You can see by the colour and height of the river water that we have experienced a lot of rain recently.

This picture is of the large fishing lake in the country park and a couple of ducks. It always looks such an enticing hideaway but I'm not a fisherman/woman so we only stop for a brief look on our walks.

This is the central tree lined path which is also covered by a multitude of daffodils in the spring. On the left you can kind of make out the last remains of the old country house.

The views were wonderful and as the sun was rising we could just see the frost melting away ever so slowly as the temperature reaches a balmy 1ºC.

Hedgehog news

A while ago we had an encounter with a poorly deer and phoned the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ( SSPCA) for some help. You may remember that I wrote about it here. Well, the visit from the SSPCA was really helpful and the lady asked us if we were interested in re-homing some animals. Unfortunately there are many we wouldn't be able to re-home, especially cats as Jess and Finn are not fond of the feline variety and will chase them and generally make their lives unbearable. However, she did mention hedgehogs and as we have an abundance of slugs and snails we thought this would be ideal.

Fast forward a few months and we have been in touch with Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue and offered our land as a release site for their hedgehogs. They said yes, and we are very very excited. So apparently we just need to make sure we have some suitable hedgehog houses in place and the night time temperature needs to be above 8ºC. The former we can get started on but the latter is out of our hands and we may have to wait a few weeks at least for the frosts to abate.

So M has scoured the Internet for hedgehog accommodation plans and has been dispatched to the barn and byre in search of appropriate building materials. I have a feeling he may get carried away and the result will be deluxe hotel accommodation for our new arrivals. He also mentioned the beginnings of a duck house so it could prove to be a very productive day.

This is a little sneak preview of model no.1 in progress.

And, tah-dah, the finished product.

With removable lid just in case we need access.

Keeping Warm Inside

It is definitely a day for homemade tomato and chorizo soup with posh (shop bought) olive bread - mmmmmmmm.

In the meantime I am trying to keep warm inside as it is ever so cold today and attempting to finish my Venice cross stitch before I contemplate any other projects. At least I can see some progress since I first posted about it here. It's a shame the colours are so poor in the photo as there's lots more detail in the sky and water then is visible here.

I am also taking time to read my latest Simply Crochet magazine and my new Crafternoon magazine which has been produced in support of Red Nose Day. There are so many things I want to try and make but I really must finish something first before embarking on anything else. I can almost hear my crochet hooks calling to me, oh and my knitting needles too - I just can't wait to try Christine's Sockalong.

Planning ahead

Just a little post to share my new resolve to become more organised. With cold days and the inevitable waiting around for workmen (only repair and servicing work this time) we have had numerous inside days and this has been the ideal opportunity to catch up on some administration. I've also been trying to finish off some cross-stitch but that is slow going so you'll have to wait for a photo.

For the past couple of years I have kept a diary, not a full blown account of my life but just a simple record of what we have been up to. My memory can be pretty rubbish at times and so I find it's really useful to be able to look back and see what happened when.

I received this beautiful Country Living diary for my birthday and as I had already ordered my Dairy Diary I decided that this one would become my planning journal. I'm hoping to create some form of order in my fruit and veg planting by combining what worked well last year with a new batch of seeds and their associated sowing advice.

   

Hardy Annuals

Half Hardy Annuals

  

Hardy Perennial             Half Hardy Perennial

So, as a starter, out came all the flower seeds. I couldn't believe I had so many, some were used last year and the rest were bought in the sales at the end of the summer. It probably sounds a bit nerdy but I have diligently put together a database of all the flower seeds we have which includes planting and flowering dates along with positioning (baskets, pots, rockeries etc) and a brief description. I'm hoping that I can, in the comfort and warmth of the lounge, sort through the seed requirements and find out what I should be sowing and when.

So all I need to do now is sort out my seed store, make a few more labels and then sort through the fruit and veg seeds. 

  

Seed Potatoes Onion Sets

As I was in the midst of my database world these beauties arrived. I had almost forgotten that we ordered them last year. So another job for this week is to get the potatoes chitting, ready for planting out in late March or April - weather dependant of course. The seed potatoes are Casablanca - Extra Early, Charlotte - Second Early and Cara - Main Crop. The Onion Sets are Hercules, Centurion and Sturon, along with some Golden Gourmet shallots. I don't think we planted these onions last year but we have chosen them as they are recommended as good storers.

The potatoes are now laid out with eyes upward in a light dry cool area where, hopefully, in a couple of weeks they will start to show signs of shoots emerging. M has been busy building some potato planters in the hope that this year we won't lose quite so many to the slugs and wasps.

One last job we managed to complete was finally covering the rest of the big veg beds on black plastic. This should warm the soil up and prevent it from becoming too water logged before we can start planting out in the spring.

We've had some wonderful early morning frosty walks around our local park, Jess and Finn love the woods and the lake and of course meeting lots of other dogs to play with.

M and I both got Fitbit activity trackers for Christmas and so each morning walk has the advantage of adding to our steps for the day while we enjoy the lovely views.

A few wet days has turned the pig enclosure pretty muddy but Ginger and Spot don't seem to mind too much. The days are now starting to lengthen and we are enjoying the extra daylight to get out and about. Even the chickens are starting to lay again and we're averaging a total of 2 eggs a day. Spring is just around the corner - we can't wait.