BROCK

A poem written today for my dear friend Kathy's birthday, who is a true 'lover of brocks'.

BROCK

For Kathy on her birthday

I snuffle under your window in the night

Trusting your steady gaze and bedroom lamp

As I trust the Moon’s silvering

On my grizzled brow,

My shining snout.

I sense your loving spirit

Fostering me and mine,

As mid-rootle, I freeze to foil

Culls, baiters, diggers,

Or when I cross the ways unhurt

Where petrol predators stalk with speed.

To you, silently overwhelmed to see me,

I bring a badger’s blessing

From cubs curled in secret setts of tomorrow,

From slopes where earthworms wriggle to the feast,

From subterranean maze of passages

From chambers where we drowse,

Furry sleepers under heedless feet.

You we hold heart-deep, as you hold us dear,

Lover of brocks,

Of Britain’s most ancient burrowers

Beneath thin places we tunnel yet more thin.

Hedgehogs - why can't they share the hedge?

The title here is stolen from a groan-worthy funny that was doing the rounds of the social networks recently.


Today my own family of hedgehogs was doing its own spot of social networking!


I regularly see a pair of adult hedgehogs, a male ('boar') and a slightly smaller female ('sow'), snorting and snuffling and chasing one another round the garden in the late spring evenings.


Today I saw the little product of all that frantic noisy courting.


The young hedgehog here is hardly a baby. Baby hedgehogs have soft, flexible spines. But it is certainly a youngster, much smaller than the adults. Adult males sometimes kill their male offspring, so either this one is a lady, or a very lucky little lad!

It was wandering around the garden at 1pm, early this afternoon. It sniffed at bird food, clambering  through the leaves and stems. Now its found its way along this particular hedgehog friendly ramble, I hope I see much more of the family in the summer days to come! 

Can't wait!

These cute little critters can hog my hedge just as much as they like!

The young hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus, the European or Common Hedgehog) exploring my garden