Eep?

My Dear Princess and Dear Fellows,

So here's the hedgehog hole. The Tiggywinkle Gate, if you will. If you look through it, you can just see the spare pavers that the tradies put down to create a series of steps for our prickly pals.

We have not actually SEEN a hedgehog for about a week. But then that's about normal at the moment. We think they must have gone into semi-hibernation and visit us a lot less lately.

As for Cattica, Punky has been probing the defenses. First of all, he tried to stuff himself through the hedgehog hole and I had to tell him off. The last thing we need is to have to call the fire brigade because our cat wedged himself into a fence. Caro reckons she also caught him climbing the fence like a ninja. So I think he will not be allowed out unsupervised until we get the roll-bars installed. 

The good news is that I don't mind spending time in the garden with the little guys. And also Punky is a very biddable cat. Here's what I mean.

ME: Punky! Get away from the fence!
PUNKY: Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

As compared to:

ME: Jasper! Get away from the fence!
JASPER: Get tae f*ck, bawbag.

Jasper is extremely wilful. The more I FORBID him to do something, the more he wants to do it. 

One unexpected side-effect of letting Punky outside, is how much more talkative he has become. As you may remember I have previously described him as a relatively circumspect fellow. He rarely meows at all, except when he's scared. 

Not any more. Yesterday he was walking around the house giving it, "Meow? Meow? Meow? Eep eep eep eep eep. Brrrrp. Oooo. Ooo-ooo. Wow. Eep."

It's all right. I mean. It is noticeable but he's still not particularly loud. Like SOMEONE I could mention.

JASPER: Away and raffle ye ****!

But all the same. Punky seems like a cat transformed. It just makes me sad that it has taken us 9 years before we could gift him a garden. 

In other news, I tried to make an apple crumble today. Not with proper cooking apples, but with regular apples we had lying around. The crumble bit came out fine, but the apples did not cook through despite my following the instructions. Do you need to cook regular apples for longer?

I might need to par-boil the apples for the next one. Caro does love a crumble.

S.