Hibernating With The Hedgehogs

My Dear Princess and Dear Fellows,

Caro was AWAKE this morning! At the same time as me! It's a miracle!

I'm used to having about 2 or 3 hours to myself every morning, while Caro comes out of hibernation. But today I woke up for a wee and found she was already looking at her phone in the dark.

It turns out she had been woken up by high winds (it is the tail end of a cyclone, apparently). So she went out in a raincoat, bra and knickers to get in the washing. Needless to say, after an experience like that, she was WIDE awake. 

She's done this sort of thing before. I remember about 20 years ago when we were staying at her parents' house, she was playing with their cat, Pusscat, in the garden. 

Pusscat was not too bright, as cats go. But he was very sweet and he loved his mousie on a string. Caro played with mousie on a string for AGES and he was so happy. In the end, it was time for dinner and she draped the string over a branch of a tree in the garden and we went inside and that was the end of that. 

Until 3am the next day. When Caro awoke to the sound of HOWLING from the garden. Pusscat was sitting under the tree with mousie on a string, and crying because he wanted mousie and couldn't get it. 

Not only that, but it was raining. So poor Pusscat was bereft AND cold AND wet.

So Caro went out in her sarong to get the mousie for him. But as she was untangling it, and cursing herself, the sarong blew off in a strong gust of wind, leaving her in her knickers in the garden. 

"It's a good thing no-one was looking," she said. "I'd have had to pretend to be a statue."

So today, Caro and me adjourned to the living room early for Matlock, Columbo and Murder, She Wrote. Caro napped gently from time to time. 

And now it is the evening and theoretically hedgehog time. But we haven't seen many hedgehogs this evening. Just one so far. Normally it is far busier than this in terms of hedgehog-traffic. 

We wonder if they have been put off by the weather too. Or perhaps they have joined Caro in hibernation. 

Never mind, hedgehogs. We will be here, waiting for you in the Spring.

S.