HAVE YOUR SAY
THANKS FOR WRITING TO US, WE LOVE HEARING WHAT YOU THINK
Prickly customer
£100 letter
I read ‘Hog spot’ (September) with interest. My husband and I are delighted that four hedgehogs come into our garden to have their supper. We think they are a family of dad, mum and two young ‘teenagers’.
The first to come was ‘dad’ – a very handsome fellow, who was obviously doing a recce to see what was on offer. A few evenings later, ‘mum’ arrived, a little smaller, darker in colour and more timid. Then the two younger ones turned up and they are quite happy to share the same dish of food. If we’re lucky they are all on the patio at the same time, otherwise it is a bit like a ‘drive-through’, with various comings and goings.
We find we spend a good deal of our evening just watching them through the window, but what a privilege to share our garden with these fascinating and gentle creatures.
Panel discussion
I try my best to cater for our native wildlife in my garden: I have a wild corner, a pond, a toad/frog house, two hedgehog houses, I grow bee-friendly plants, and I feed the birds (and other critters) every day.
Some years ago, I had a hedge along the back of my property removed as it was mostly dead. For ease of maintenance, I decided on a concrete post and gravel boards with wooden panels type of fence as a replacement. I was conscious that it is not very wildlife-friendly, so I checked online that there were gravel boards available with pre-formed holes.
Unfortunately, there was not one stockist within 100-plus miles of where I live in north Cumbria. The cost of shipping them was prohibitive so I had to have the standard boards and my contractor attempted to manually cut holes. A few boards had to be scrapped as they cracked in the attempts, so the venture was rather costly, but it did result in sufficient holes to aid small animals moving about
I cannot understand the reluctance of major DIY stores and fencing suppliers to stock the boards with pre-formed holes. Perhaps some of the wildlife groups could lobby them and change perceptions of what their customers want.
New connections
It’s very useful having an article about friendship (August) – men especially often struggle with this – and while your examples were interesting, I’m surprised you didn’t mention the u3a (they prefer this title as opposed to University of the 3rd Age as no one needs to have attended higher education). Many who are no longer working full time have found it transformative in terms of learning, getting into new activities and primarily making friends and connections in later life. Some of us in large cities often find our longterm friends are scattered far and wide and that it’s great to have local friends and to use local venues rather t
