Meet Hubert

Ste Marina
Yesterday's weather: pretty good really. Lovely warm evening.

Yesterday's lunch party went well. I had found a new recipe (lovely James Martin) for salmon, mustard and watercress pasta bake. I couldn't get watercress so we had spinach in it instead but it was delicious, and the tarte au citron went down very well - bottom not too soggy!

We had a very exciting night. We were sitting outside enjoying the warm evening air. The valley was very peaceful and I noticed that we had a visitor trotting along the patio investigating the drystone wall.

At last I found the pooing culprit. Here he is:

He spent a good 15 minutes snuffling around the wall, checking all the nooks and crannies and then suddenly became very self conscious after all the photographs I was taking and decided to squeeze himself into a hole and sat there watching us, watching him. I felt like paparazzi!

After a while, Misty came trotting past on her way indoors for 'a little something' (check out The House at Pooh Corner) before bed. She pulled up short and her nose was working really hard until she found the cause of the scent and peered into the wall. She has obviously met Hubert Hedgehog before as she didn't try to shake paws with him, but was very cautious, just letting him know that she knew he was there too.

We are hoping that Hubert is a very hungry hedgehog and will feast himself on our enormous slugs. He does look very healthy and well fed.

Jon and the deer have just passed the time of day together communing in the garden. The local animals are obviously getting used to us being here now and show no signs of concern about sharing our land. The hare has been back basking in the evening sunshine and deer are here on and off all day long. We will have to find a way of protecting them when the shooting season starts in September but for now they are all enjoying the summer.