Dark in the dark, old garden - Shhhhh . . .

Very late - last night ... well past midnight, there were some strange noises outside. It was pitch black as I ventured out into the dark, dark garden and there half-way down the path, near to the fence was a fairly young adult hedgehog. I couldn't help myself but to rush back inside and cut some small chunks of cheese off a block of Cheddar and grab the camera in the hope that the beautiful little hedgehog hadn't run off. Luckily, it was still there snuffling at the floor ... not a slug in sight. I scattered the cheese and soon the little creature was gobbling it up.

I heard a second noise, a sort of scraping sound ... I had to see what it was. Near to the base of the bird table I had left a little tin (originally used for the cat's dinner). I use these tins again to make little dinners for the blackbird. The tin had been stuffed with a variety of things including fat, scraps of meat, rice, boiled vegetables and lastly I had stirred in some rolled oats. It was all packed down nicely and had set - not too hard. During the day, the blackbird had managed to eat about a third of the contents - but this lovely full size hedgehog gradually demolished the rest of the meal. It stuck its nose and its tongue into every corner of the tin and by the time it had finished licking it out, the tin was clean.