Hibernation

It is time. I arrived home from the sleeper to find Omar digging her hibernation hole in the back garden. It takes her ages to dig herself a big enough den for the winter and she will need help once she's stopped digging. A bag of compost along with the BBQ lid (to stop the cat digging her up) over the top of the shell usually does the trick.

I had a lovely meeting with the Feast hub leaders and coordinator at Volcano Coffee. There are a couple of new hub leaders and there are a few new systems starting up so there was lots to talk about.

Afterwards, I headed to the temporary library to find out about plans for Nettlefold Hall and library, which has been closed since thieves stole the roof at the start of the year. The good news is that the library looks like it will move back to that building, but it may lose some study space due to a proposal that Picturehouse cinemas have produced. It's extremely exciting that a cinema is interested in opening in the area, but us West Norwoodians are cautious of handing over existing community space to a commercial venture. I think if the cinema group is open to listening to members of the community and putting their interests to the fore, then we'll have something good. The cemetery is keen to open a visitor's centre in the space, too. The cemetery is overlooked by Nettlefold Hall and there's a wealth of educational and historical value to be had in a visitor's centre. So, there are many ideas on the table - fingers crossed!

Talking to my neighbours at both the Feast meeting and the library consultation, each person I spoke to had a story about a burglary in the area. A neighbour a few doors down was burgled in January by a Portuguese drug addict. The police caught him because he'd cut himself on some glass. A neighbour across from him had their patio doors smashed in. Someone in the road adjacent to mine was burgled during the day when he was in the house! He'd left the door on the latch, as you do when you're inside your home, and people came in and stole stuff on the ground floor (he was working upstairs). A friend nearby said his place had been broken into four times before he bought the house. He and his wife have planted a great deal of spiky plants around their fence. He says he has to wear full motorcycle leathers and helmet in order to trim them. He has not been burgled in the 12 years he's lived there. I'm off to buy spiky plants (but not motorcycle leathers).

Bike update: my bicycle is no longer on Gumtree so I can only think that it's been sold. Ah well. I hope whoever has bought it will look after it. In the meantime, the two sellers of my bike and my neighbour's stolen bike are still at it with a new bike (probably stolen) posted on Gumtree today. It puts me right off buying items from there (not that I ever have, but now I will never do so).