Strange but true

[Andrew Biggs]

A couple of days ago I was sitting at the engraving bench quite happily working away on a watch and generally being one with the universe.

Out of the corner of my eye a noticed the curtain move slightly. I didn't think anything of it because with all the aftershocks strange movements around the house are nothing unusual.

A few minutes later the curtain moves again, just ever so slightly. I check around for the cats and there they all engaged in their favorite activity of sleeping on the couch behind me.

So I pull back the curtain wondering what on earth it was.............and there, sitting between the bench and the wall tucked into the bottom of the curtain was a hedgehog looking at me. While I was working away this thing had crept into the engraving room past me and the "guard cats" and settled down for an afternoon nap.

By this time the cats were on full alert and gave me their best "What the #$%^& look" and promptly went back to sleep and left me to sort it out..........as they do.

So I managed to gently pick it up on the end of a shovel and put it in the garden. It was last seen with it's bum toward me burrowing into the hedge.

For those of you that don't know what a hedgehog is I've attached a picture taken from the internet.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[DakotaDocMartin]

Some people buy them for pets here. They do have a certain amount of "cuteness" to them but I'm not sure they can actually become house trained. So now I know at least one place where they live wild.

 

[Peter_M]

Its been ages since I seen one of them, when a kid we used to winter a hedgehog if we come across one late in fall. They are cute critters but not very cuddly, like cuddling a cactus

Peter

 

[Sam]

Cute little critter! How do they taste?

 

[Joe Jacob]

How do they taste?

From UK News - Ancient and modern hedgehog recipes
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1563095/Ancient-and-modern-hedgehog-recipes.html

 

[Cloudy]

NICE rescue! My cats "let" me deal with stuff, too!

 

[KCSteve]

Apparently word of the beauty of your engraving is really getting around.

Pretty soon you'll have to start charging for these tours.

 

[Tira]

Maybe he was trying to audition to be the model for one of your upcoming projects?

 

[Ed Westerly]

Posed with teeth bared and claws extended, possibly holding his own against a surly housecat!

 

[filbertius]

yup, forget the Mr Potato-Head engravings... it is high time for a hedge-hog series!

Gary

 

[silverchip]

Now I am a believer in "beauty is in the eye of the beholder. "

 

[mitch]

Cute little critter! How do they taste?

you've been around them Cajuns too long...

Q) What's the difference between zoos in the North & zoos in the South?

A) In the South, the signs with the animal info include a recipe.

 

[Sandy]

Big Game Hunter Andrew. What is next. LOL

 

[Artemiss]

Cute little critter! How do they taste?

Like Chicken probably... everything else does!

Damn, I haven't seen a hedgehog over here since I was a kid. Actually, that's a lie. I did see a rather flat one a month or so back! I think it was sunbathing!

 

[Paulie]

Hi Andrew, you have a good heart for animals:thumbs up: like I do! That's a very cute hedgehog you've been rescueing. At least I always tought they were nice & cute little animals, but... once I spotted an adult hedgehog agressively attacking/biting a chicken in someone's garden, really true! I was very surprised and a little shocked by seeing that, maybe it's not unusual, I don't know? Maybe it was a sick chicken, who knows? Regards, Paulie

 

[Chapi]

..."I was sitting at the engraving bench quite happily working away on a watch and generally being one with the universe."
-This is the best time for Nature to say hi.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Yip, hedgehogs are cute little critters alright..................and good for the garden as they keep the insect life down. Mary and I always put some milk and bread out for them if we know they are about. You have to be a little careful with them as well because they can carry disease and have fleas. So handling wild ones isn't a good idea. You used to see a lot of them about and quite a few flat ones on the road. But now you only see them occasionally.

Mmmmm.......hedgehog watches and knives...............now there's a thought!!!!

The cats are great. We have automatic cat doors installed throughout the house. The cats sit in front of them or scratch at them.................. and we automatically open and close the door for them. The system works perfectly every time

Cheers
Andrew

 

[DakotaDocMartin]

Cute little critter! How do they taste?

This sounds like it might be a good recipe:

Ancient recipe for roast hedgehog:

Gut one freshly killed hedgehog.

The animal should then be seasoned and prepared for cooking; pressed in a towel until dry, then either encased in clay or wrapped in grasses.

The meat should then be roasted and served with cameline sauce.

********************

Cameline Sauce

Cameline was one of the most common sauces used in the middle ages. It was so common that it could be purchased pre-made from vendors in late 14th century Paris. When the Ménagier was instructing his new wife about shopping he wrote, "At the sauce-maker's, three half-pints of cameline for dinner and supper and a quart of sorrel verjuice."

The following recipe is a typical one, based on a 15th century English source. I've added salt (common to over half of the sources I consulted), and boiled the sauce (which was sometimes done, and other times not). The result is a sweet and zesty sauce that is more than a little like modern steak sauce.

3 slices white bread
3/4 cup red wine
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/8 tsp. cloves
1 Tbsp. sugar
pinch saffron
1/4 tsp. salt

Cut bread in pieces and place in a bowl with wine and vinegar. Allow to soak, stirring occasionally, until bread turns to mush. Strain through a fine sieve into a saucepan, pressing well to get as much the liquid as possible out of the bread. Add spices and bring to a low boil, simmering until thick. Serve warm.

Source [Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books, T. Austin (ed.)]: Sauce gamelyne. Take faire brede, and kutte it, and take vinegre and wyne, & stepe þe brede therein, and drawe hit thorgh a streynour with powder of canel, and drawe hit twies or thries til hit be smoth; and þen take pouder of ginger, Sugur, and pouder of cloues, and cast þerto a litul saffron and let hit be thik ynogh, and thenne serue hit forthe.

 

[Artemiss]

Mmmmm.......hedgehog watches and knives...............now there's a thought!!!!

Andrew, hedgehog's wrists are far too small to wear watches, and where would they put knives? Afterall, they don't have pockets! :big grin:
Silly idea! LOL

 

[Cloudy]

hahahahahaha!