The Visitors

My Dear Princess and Dear Friends,

Sunday was a lovely day here in Paraparaumu. There were few clouds in the sky, the sun shone down, and the temperature was pleasant. 

Caro looked out on her garden and was happy. It is just a small, kind of scruffy garden but on a day like today we felt rich, like we owned our own little country estate. 

And so we were in the perfect mood to meet up with Corrie and her partner Siu who are house-hunting in the area. They are a lovely young couple, currently living with Corrie's grandparents in town and eager to start their lives on their own. 

Property prices in Aotearoa are nuts and still going skyward, even where we are. All the same, Corrie had one or two prospects and has been approved for a loan, so mmmmaybe...

Caro was really excited by the prospect. Corrie may be 20 years her junior, but she's a smart, funny woman and I think the two of them would be really great mates, if we were near neighbours. Fingers crossed. 

I had a couple of beers with them over lunch so felt a bit sleepy when we got home. Caro and me had big naps and then settled in for a quiet evening. But - 

See, I've mentioned the blackbirds and thrushes before. How they eat all the bird food in the garden and then come wandering into the house. What I have not emphasised is just how OFTEN this happens these days. At the moment, it occurs every day and it doesn't matter how much food we put in the garden in the mornings. They are insatiable!

The hungry little birds eat it all within an hour or so and then the next thing you know, you can hear the BOOP BOOP noise of a cautious blackbird, checking out our kitchen. Then the SCRUFFLE of a beak in a cat bowl and the FLIP-FLAP of wings as they eff off sharpish. Usually leaving a shite behind on the kitchen floor. 

I mean. It is sort of cute and funny. But also. Shite on the floor. 

So I went out there to put yet MORE bird food in the garden to keep them out of our kitchen, when I nearly tripped over THIS little guy. It is unusual to see a hedgie during daylight hours so I called Caro to allow her to watch him puttering about.

He seemed relatively unperturbed by us, but in the end he went off to find his way out of the garden. Caro reckoned he looked a bit confused (he was trying to climb the fence, which is a bit ambitious) so she picked him up and plopped him by the hedge-hole. We hope that is where he came in. 

We also made sure he got cat food before he left us. I think he ate it all. But if not, then I'm sure the boop-boop birds will scoff it up before the sun goes down. 

S.