A normal day at the Manor
Yesterday was a very quiet day at the Manor.
Hah! I don’t think!
It started with the arrival of the skip.
I should mention that the lane is quite narrow, as is my gate. So reversing a fucking great lorry into the front garden takes a lot of skill. At first the driver refused, saying I needed a smaller lorry. I told him that I had had a skip delivered before. “They all say that” he replied.
Anyways I buttered him up and he agreed to try. He made it backwards through the gate with about an inch to spare on each side. I had told him that a) I wanted to be able to get my car out and b) I wanted to be able to open the up-and-over garage door. So he reversed back and dumped the skip.
This is a large skip which must weight at least a ton, so once it is deposited, that’s where it’s going to stay. I opened the garage door. It opened all right. I measured the gap between the skip and the partially opened door – 4mm. I coudn’t even poke a finger through the gap. I had to congratulate the driver and he grinned and buggered off.
A friend then drove up. She had been waiting while the skip-lorry was blocking the place. She insisted on cleaning the house from top to bottom and set to work with polishes, the vacuum cleaner and anything else she could find to clean with.
Then a nurse arrived in the middle of the cleaning and went into see Herself.
Nurse had just left when two caring assistants arrived and insisted on washing Herself’s hair, thereby blocking up the kitchen [the kitchen sink is the only place anyone can wash her hair for various reasons]. Things were getting chaotic.
In the middle of the chaos the physiotherapist arrived so the care assistants buggered off.
Finally the physiotherapist and our friend went on their merry ways leaving us with a quiet house.
I wondered who else might call. The afternoon passed with no further interruptions. But later on, towards midnight we had another visitor. Penny alerted us with her barking so I let her out.
It was a hedgehog.
I haven’t seen one in years so I was delighted. Penny was just confused. She lay there beside it, silently watching it in the dark.
A peaceful end to the day.
We get hedgehogs coming into the veranda at night to scoff the cat food. There are two of them and regular as clockwork they arrive at 2:00 a.m. They have lost their timidness and grunt at any of the cats should they want to object. They then pee and sh*t as a way of saying thankyou and bugger off into the night.
I get regular Hedgehog visits now, they disappeared for a couple of years but are back now. I leave them cat biscuits which they seem to like. Last year they brought the hoglets, one ate cat food went to sleep in the dish! They are lovely, I did buy expensive hedgehog food but unfortunately the visiting fox loves it.
We had another visit last night. Penny got all excited and I peered into the darkness. Sure enough Mr Prickles was back in the middle of the lawn. Next thing he went off running into the bushes. I didn't let Penny out as I don't want to scare him off altogether.
There is no point in putting out any cat food as Cat will just eat it He's a greedy little fucker and seems to have an endless and insatiable appetite.
Keep an eye on that skip. 4mm is bugger all if it settles into soft ground. Personal experience.
At least Penny had the sense to just lay by it. I once had a dog that would attempt to eat them and then come home with hedgehog quills all over his muzzle.