Spiking interest...

in wildlife

So who do you think might be tucked away all cuddled up in here in a
cosy garage owned by a friendly foster mummy?

He's a bit shy to start with.

And a wee bit sleepy as an overly keen gardener had woken
him up from his hibernation by accident. Isn't he sweet!

And quite long too.

With quite nibbly teeth. 

He wasn't alone, either.
At the moment Conni has about 6 hedgehogs to look after,
fattening them up while the weather warms up outside.

Another little fellow was rummaging about in the newspaper shreddings.
We could just see his nose inside the box but couldn't get a good photo.
Jake tried with his phone but we didn't want to scare him with the flash.

There are two hedgehogs in this big box but they don't get on
so the doors to their separate hoggy homes have to face different ways. 

Outside in the carport, Conni's clever husband has made this multi-box condo that
can be sectioned off to house lots of hedgehogs needing help.

That's just as well because last year Conni had 86 hedgehogs to care for
- 23 was the most at one time.

Of course, hedghogs like woodpiles better than moving boxes.

The bigger the better!

Conni started fostering seven years ago when a family of young hedgehogs lost their mum. Now she has at least four permanent prickly residents in her garden.

So what does it take to be a hedgehog foster mum?

You need time, according to Conni. A call can come any time, though the peak season is from May until November. And you need the stamina to care for sometimes wounded, infected hogs and to remove ticks, mites, maggots etc. if necessary from the poor little creatures. Naturally, the society puts new recruits in touch with an experienced contact person to help advise on looking after sick hedgehogs, bottle-feeding hoglets and homing hoggies. Food (kitten biscuits) is delivered to the door and the cost of medicine is covered by the society. Anyone interested in volunteering in Denmark is welcome to write to plejeransvarlig@pindsvin.dk. They are also interested to hear from potential drivers who can pick up hogs and drop them off with foster parents though the petrol isn’t refunded and all work for the society is voluntary.

If you don't have a big woodpile like Conni, but would like to give a
hedgehog a home, they can make do with a pallet pad covered in insulating plastic...

...and full of straw.
We'll be making our own pallet pad for a hedgehog next time we go up to our cottage
where the garden is big enough for a new resident and the neighbours are friendly too.
So look out for that post in a week or two.

BUT FIRST...next Sunday (3 May) we'll be posting photos of how to bake a chocolate and strawberry hedgehog cake to celebrate the first day of Hedgehog Awareness Week in England.

Mmmmmmm! Fingerlickin' good!

Who needs perfection in confection anyway?
A good dollop of fun is the icing on OUR cake!

Our trip to see the lambs at Herstedhøje in Albertslund

Høj means 'high/hill' and it certainly was - for Denmark, that is.

Jakob and Petra soon took the lead.
Well Jakob has climbed Mont Blanc,
so this was right up his street/hill. 

It is a long way up down there, as my own granddad used to say.

But something tells me we might find sheep and lambs pretty soon...

Laura tripped but didn't roll down the hill, thank goodness
and dusted herself off quickly.

Lauras little red rabbit came along for the ride in his own travel box.

What a view!

Especially upside down!

There was a circle of stones - perhaps a Viking relic?

And there were the little lambs. They've all been born now and were
having a lovely time lounging and roaming free on the grass.

This one was thirsty.

This one was hungry.

We sat down very still (relatively speaking - or relatively not speaking) 

And they came close enough to see what Jakob's hair tasted like!
It did look nice and tufty ;o)

We called this one 'Wiggy'

This mum looked like she'd been up all night.

Petra loved them.

Then after our picnic, Laura enjoyed pond dipping with the 'nets' that the nature centre provided free of charge.  

She made a little friend who had caught a young salamander. 

We caught 'cribbly crabblies'.

There were also three or four bonfire huts - perfect for parties. 

Nice and cosy inside.

Another party was making dough twists with dough
they'd brought along.

You can book them in advance or take pot luck but they are quite popular. The number and email address are in the bottom left-hand corner above.

Then after Laura had been pond dipping for about 2.5 hours,
we went in the cafe to stuff ourselves on cake.
We weren't alone in the stuffed department.

There were a couple of live snakes in large terrarium as well as this fox. 

You could taste different kinds of cress and stuff. 

But we liked the ice cream best!

Fed up with eggs? Hope not...

Because here's how to make Scotch eggs

Sausage meat (we made our own). Enough to coat the number of eggs you need - about 1 cm thick)

Hard-boiled eggs (boil for 8 mins should be about right)

One raw beaten egg

Flour

Breadcrumbs (some big and some smaller)

Grated onion

Milk (four tablespoons)

Thyme (sprinkling)

Here is Jake grating breadcrumbs. We used half a loaf altogether)

Mix the minced pork with some largish breadcrumbs,
grated onion and a sprinkling of thyme. Roll the hard-boiled eggs in flour.
Now take two lumps of the sausagemeat mixture and
mould it evenly round each hard-boiled egg. If you only use one lump and try and squash it round a whole egg, you may find the coat kind of explodes and the egg starts popping out.

Coat al the eggs.

Turn your computer sideways ;o). Mix four tablesppons
of milk with a raw beaten egg.


Dip the Scotch eggs in the egg and milk mixture.

Roll them in the small breadcrumbs.

Jake got quite fast at it. Make them nice and even.

So they look something like this.

Get an adult to heat the oil. Fry the Scotch eggs.

Then when they are nice and golden brown, take them out and
slice them in half with a knife dipped in hot water.
We missed the yolk with this one but Jake doesn't like yolks
so that was perfect!

This one...

...worked better.

When they are all done, garnish with tomatoes and serve hot or cold.

Watson loved them.
Here he is in his Easter bonnet.
Very chic!