"Did I tell you?"

Herby Hedgehog (or one of his relatives) is still with us.  How do I know?  Well, I haven't seen him, of course.  Hedgehogs are nocturnal and I am not.  However,I had been blaming the cats for what I found on the lawn.  I thoiught it was a bit unusual though, then had a sudden idea.  A little research,
(I've got a good book for that) revealed that what I was finding was, in fact, hedgehog "poo".  They say you learn something new every day - I just did.

Another first for me.  Looking out of the window,quite early the other day, I saw a large bird planing and circling over The Hoe (22.7 acres) and rapidly approaching the house.  It flew low and close over the garden so that I could distinguish, in addition to it being as large as, or possibly larger than, a buzzard, its deeply forked tail.  Leafing through yet another of my books I was able to confirm that what I had just seen was a red kite.  As they are partial migrants and this is not typical kite country I think I was lucky to spot this one.  I have since been told that they have been seen more frequently round here; is this another sign of the changing weather pattern?

And finally, still on birds, a heron has spotted the large, fairly recently established, pond in the Stackyard Close.  It is well-stocked with fish so perhaps he will be a regular visitor.  We shall have to see.