Mrs Tiggy-Winkle

Although living in the UK seems, on the surface at least, pretty similar to living in the US, there are differences.  The language (a popular saying here is that the US and UK are divided by a common language) and some of the customs, but also some of the flora and fauna, as illustrated below.

Before we moved into our current house, we needed to "camp out" for a day there.  The internet/phone (yes, we still have a landline!) needed to be hooked up, and based on G's experience when he first moved here, as he moved over the pond first, it takes a few calls before things get done.  The kids and I came to the new place for our camp out, to wait for the internet man, who was to arrive between and 8 and 2. (Someone show up at 8am here?  That'll be the day.  Everything, and I mean everything, starts at 9 am.  From schools, to coffeeshops, to service hours at various shops, to earliest Mass times, etc.  Things just start at 9 here.  G and I joke that's its island time.)  And we needed to be prepared to sit all day, as if the man arrives at the end of our window, he may go over the allotted time.  I received a phone call at 10, saying our internet couldn't be hooked up, but our phone guy might still show. (I'm not real savvy on computers, but isn't it all the same lines??)  They just looked and figured out that there was no way our internet could be hooked up that day, due to something in the wiring.  Rather than looking at this ahead of time to avoid inconveniencing the customer, they look at it the day of the appt.  The woman who phoned me wasn't sure if our phone guy would still show up, so I was to stay put.  The phone guy did show up, and said he'd do my internet too.  (Really??)  After putzing around forever, he couldn't get internet on my ipad.  Sometimes, he told me, it goes on after he's gone-it may be 24 hours.  (Really?? Not likely, but ok, you're the professional.)  Needless to say, no internet after 24 hours.  I scheduled a second appt (the next available appt was 3 weeks later), with another 6 hour window, and at that appt, it was ready in 5 minutes.

It was during one of those camp out sessions, that the kids discovered a hedgehog hiding in the bushes.  I've never seen a hedgehog before.  That was August.  G reported seeing one last week or last month or so.  This morning, I happened to glance out the window, to see one scurrying about, so I tried to grab the camera quick, but man, those things move fast.  It was just wobbling around, and finally disappeared into the trees.  The pictures are kinda rough, but document it anyway.

Profile of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle

Foraging

 The kids know I like Beatrix Potter, and always seem to name animals encountered after the characters in her books.  We had a lot of Peter Rabbits at our last place (TONS!!), but haven't seen so many here.  We had Jeremy Fisher (frog) in the cellar here for awhile (can you believe we have a cellar--most modern UK houses don't have basements), and we have MANY Squirrel Nutkins here (look out the window at any given time and there'll be at least 3-5 squirrels running around), and now we have Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, the hedgehog.

As you can see, autumn (not fall) is upon us here, with the days getting shorter.  Sunrise this morning was 737 am.

That's all for today.  Don't forget to comment, if you are still reading this blog!