Of hedgehogs, Dads and I, Clavdivs

[strange_complex]

I believe I may have mentioned as much on this LJ before, but just to reiterate - my Dad is teh aces! When he arrived at 9pm last night, I only had one working telephone socket in my house - a bit inconvenient, since it was in my study, and I couldn't guarantee to hear it if I was downstairs and the study door was closed. Now, I have no less than four working telephone sockets - a little excessive for my needs, perhaps, but they were all part of an old system which was just there anyway, so he figured he might as well reactivate them all while he was at it. I am incredibly impressed at his cleverness.

He also brought a plastic outdoor table and chairs, which will be nice as hollyione is coming to visit me tomorrow, so we can enjoy sitting out in the garden with drinks while her daughter plays around us. We decided to take them straight through to the garden from the car when he arrived, and of course being 9pm it was dark, and the automatic light I have above the patio doors switched itself on as I opened them. And what should I see in its beam, sitting in the middle of the lawn? A hedgehog! I wasn't terribly surprised, as I see foxes and squirrels all the time, but hedgehogs are a bit more secretive, and I obviously haven't been out at the right time to encounter one yet. He didn't even seem very scared or anything - he didn't roll up in a ball, but just sat there, and after a while decided that maybe he would shuffle off somewhere a bit quieter. It was very exciting, and I hope I shall see more of him.

Anyway, now Dad has headed off towards Dundee, where he will be picking my Mum up from a Medical History conference and then going to the Moray Firth area for a holiday. Apparently the main attraction is dolphins, which can be seen by the dozen in the bay.

Meanwhile, in completely unrelated news, a film of I, Claudius is apparently on the cards. Could be very exciting if it happens, although I may be forced to kill myself if Leonardo DiCaprio is cast as Claudius. As Caligula, though... I could go with that.

Comments

[edling.livejournal.com]

Yay for hedgepigs! In my experience they don't usually seem very scared and so long as you don't do anything too sudden they're quite happy to potter around while being watched. They never seem to be bothered about being quiet either- in the autumn I used to regularly hear them crashing through leaf litter without a care in the world.
I guess they're not too fussed about being heard by predators as AFAIK there aren't many things that'll attack them for food on account of it not being worth getting though the spikes for (apparently foxes, badgers, owls and other big hunters will go for them sometimes but usually only if they're desperate).

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

not being worth getting though the spikes for

Good old evolution, eh? ;-)

Yeah, I think mine just got a bit fed up of having a big glarey light shining on him, rather than actually being scared as such. He certainly knew we were there, and there was a cat prancing around the place too which didn't seem to bother him. I would have sat quietly watching him if I'd been on my own, but I had to help my Dad get that table through, really.