Oh. My. God. I. Have. Hedgehogs.

It's been hot here. Really hot. Record-breaking hot. Cools down nicely at night though, when I open all the windows. Tonight, though, for the first time, I've taken my laptop out in the tiny back yard. I'm sitting at our patio table, watching the sky fade through an odd sort of steely blue mixed with yellowish-grey smoke at the edges, lovely meandering breeze with scents of honeysuckle and mown grass, and listening to this constant rustling in the ivy and leaf litter around the walls.

Initially I assumed it was the cat who'd been on the walls earlier - it's getting too dark to see well - but then the rustling was right up beside me, maybe three feet away, and the ivy is not so thick I wouldn't see a black-and-white tabby. So I looked a little closer... and a hedgehog came ambling out. Came across the patio and is now sitting where my feet would be if I hadn't folded them up under me at his approach.

There's another one down on the other wall, I can still hear the rustling.

Dear God. I have hedgehogs in my garden.

Life is good. :)