I am hand feeding two baby hedgehogs – about the size of your fist and all kitteny and wobbly. They are clearly orphaned, and tending to wander about in one patch of garden beside the house, where they have made lots of little tunnels and runways through the bushes. They curl up and nap in sunny spots on our paths. They were so starved that when I started waving food under their noses one tried to climb onto my knee. They’re becoming ever friendlier and stronger now they’re getting food. They must be a week or two old and neither are any larger than a tennis ball. Here are some pictures so that you can all have baby hedgehog squee.

This hedgehog is up on his hind paws washing his face like a cat. I guess it needed doing. 🙂

This is a third hedgehog that came along a little later. I like the peek of ears and the scale of things in this picture of him wandering up a hedgehog highway.

Waking up slowly…

Fast asleep in a nest of leaves.

Hedgehog gets something up his nose (sand I think) and wrinkles it…

Hedgehog sneezes!!!

Joel and I had a fantastic two hour art meeting today – perhaps the best yet for progress. There was some lovely stuff there <3 We have a massive chunk of the book all done but theres still quite a long way to go, and time is creeping, so I’ve set him a hard week. He had a couple of pieces that were ‘blocks’ for him so we are trying to tackle those, get them right, and finished. *fingers crossed*

Afterwards, I was hungry for Japanese. I drove my car down Japanese Restaurant Lane (Gloucester St, Christchurch) and parked my car in the only spot that was vacant. Right beside me was a restaurant that I’d never seen before, Tatsumi, and in moments I’d persuaded Ilka to end his homeward march and turn around to join me for food. It was a very successful adventure. Tatsumi had been open a week in a spot that used to feature a sub-interesting Japanese restaurant. Its fantastic! Every dish was a winner and we had six plates, rice, miso, alcohol and tea for two for $60. My favourite was the rare smoked venison, with blue cheese, drizzled in truffle oil. The chicken teriyaki meatballs in ponzu sauce were nice. I suspect the place will become very, very popular.

Through the night last night I could hear white cat and Noo playing on the roof thunderously but he wouldn’t come and visit me to be caught. So I just smiled at the fun that was being had, and daydreamed about owning a long eared Jerboa as a pet, in some ideal world where that was possible.