As I’ve written before we have a lovely old non domesticated cat that we inherited with this property. She never enters the house even with all the doors are wide open, she loves the wild and that’s how she lives, I’m sure she is on the title deeds of the house as no one has ever owned her. As I’ve always said she staunchly defends her garden from everything including the foxes of which there are plenty around here. Her name is “Tabs”.
But there is one prickly customer who she has no defence against and that is our hedgehog visitors. When they want food, nothing, including Tabs gets in their way.
Here is a small video as proof, of when I got home this evening, taken through the window after I put some cat biscuits down.
Get out of my way Cat
We are so fortunate to have these visitors, Tabs just sits back and lets them finish their eating, then resumes where she left off.
Just as Neil Diamond serenaded us in 1976 in the middle of a summer heatwave, it was the first song that came to my head when I awoke around 06:30 this morning.
A nice amount of water above us
It was raining. The UK, or at least our little bit of it up here in the East Midlands has been under heatwave conditions for a few weeks now. We haven’t seen a good rainfall for a couple of months now, only the occasional spot of rain, but not sufficient to fill a hollow tooth….of a mouse.
It has been proper raining today, and it reminds me that in one of the upper gutter systems i have a joint that needs attention as it leaks a constant metronomic amount of water on to the downstairs conservatory roof, giving a constant, tap, tap, tap that is somewhat comforting to listen to. My water collection butts around the house are all nicely filling as a result with good fresh water that the plants and baskets love and crave.
It’s a beautiful sound.
I know there are parts of the world that probably only hear or feel this kind of weather on very rare occasions, and for those people, when it does finally arrive it must be super special and spectacular.
But they manage.
Where as here in the Uk or any other part of the so called developed western world, a week without rain and the whole nation starts to panic, water companies that are ripping us off with their inflated prices are telling us to cut down, and then the nanny state kicks in with its list of things you must and mustn’t do. It’s crazy, we’re in a crazy world.
But my part of that world just lays here quite content, I have my metronomic drip to comfort me, I have a cup of tea beside me, and my whole world lays beside me in a comfortable and cool slumber, totally unaware of the weather situation developing around us. She will be happy when she awakes. The plants are happy, the birds are content and for a brief moment the world is good.
Then the weather report comes up saying we are in for another heatwave next week. Oh well, that didn’t last long did it. A brief reprieve from the intense heat was nice, but I can’t complain at seeing the sun, as to be honest that will soon be gone and we will go through a long autumn and winter all praying for its swift return. We can’t have it all, can we?
But it is an absolutely beautiful noise isn’t it?
Have a super day, enjoy the rain, sun or whatever you have in your region. Just stay safe.
Currently I’m in the west of London in the Sunbury on Thames area. I’ve brought my wife down to spend ten days with her friend as I’m about to embark on a long stint of night shifts. It will allow them to spend good time together. I shall be heading back to the East Midlands later today on my own.
Anyone who reads my posts will know that last year we spent a lot of time down here as her friend went through quite a bad episode of poor mental health. My wife assisted her through that, and helped put her on a care plan and arranged for her to have visits, so she could be checked on regularly to ensure she was receiving the necessary care and attention that she required.
I’m pleased to say all that worked out well, her friend has recovered and is back to her old self, confident and strong willed, you’d have thought nothing had happened. She has been weaned off her medications by the doctor, the welfare visits have ceased and it is so wonderful to see her back to her old self. We all need a little care and attention at times, and it certainly helps. And it’s good to have such a friend as my wife.
Azalea
And the above picture from her garden sums it all up for me. Last year there was none of this, the garden, though well kept lacked colour. This year it is so different and is ablaze with colour. This is what she is capable of, producing things of beauty just like this fantastic Azalea plant.
I’m lucky if my Azaleas get just a few flowers each year. She is so talented when it comes to gardening.
As I’ve always stated, never show envy, always turn that into appreciation and that’s what I have done here, she has such a talent, she is so capable and knowledgeable and I can only appreciate that I will be a better person, a better gardener by listening to the wisdom of those such as her.
I was expecting them to come, April is the month that they normally come out of hibernation and at 01:08 this morning the garden cameras picked up the movement of one looking for some grub.
Yes the hedgehog..
Our first hedgehog of 2025
This one is quite a sizeable one so I suspect it’s one of last years batch. We normally have the youngsters visit so I suspect they are yet to come, and this is one of elder lads and lasses that know where the food normally is, so they are doing their rounds to check what’s about.
We’ve a lot more cats visiting the garden now so I will have to put out a shelter where only the hogs can access, as the bloody cats will eat the lot.
Hogs return
Good to see them back, we are so fortunate to get them year after year and we are lucky as we are on a busy main road not far from the city. The garden has been developed for them with easy access, so I guess they know where a safe haven can be found.
This is the first prompt for days that I’ve been able to answer as I’d already answered those others previously. I’m going to make a slight change to this prompt and remove the word “Hate”. I never use this word as it’s such an awful one, and unfortunately it’s too prevalent in our world at present. I’m going to use the word “Dislike” as dislike can always be improved upon rather than the other word that is just so final. Once Hate is in place. There really is no turning back. So here we go.
What is one question you dislike being asked? Explain
Anyone that keeps an eye on this blog and reads the content will know I’m an individual who likes to keep himself busy. Just look at the projects and stuff I’ve posted recently, and the fact I still have 18 posts still in draft mode and you will see I’m a busy guy. On top of that I am a full time employed individual with a house to run a garden to look after and a wife who loves spending (Bless her x)
My time is quite well planned, so when that phone call comes in asking me, “Are you busy?” That’s when I have a sharp intake of breath. Normally it involves fulfilling tasks for friends and family, giving time that is precious to me and in many cases already accounted for. Now don’t get me wrong, I do not mind helping anyone, there is no greater pleasure in seeing someone’s face light up at the end of a well done project. The thing is I take so many on, that it normally means the same job at my own home is being neglected, it’s always more fun doing the job at someone else’s property for some unknown reason though.
The reason I dislike being asked is that I just can’t damn well say no. Saying no makes me feel guilty but that’s just the guy I am. I guess to me it’s just like that word “Hate” it’s just not in my vocabulary.
So that’s why I dislike being asked this question as I’m just not wired to say “No”.
One day I’ll learn to say it. But that’s not today. And probably even tomorrow.
I thought maybe that I’d answered this question in the past. But a quick search though my history confirms that is not so. I have spoken about them many times in the past (as well as our dogs that are always my very favourite domesticated animal) so my favourite wild non domesticated animal would have to be the humble little hedgehog.
Hedgehog in our garden
I have to make people understand that we do not yet live in a countrified part of the East Midlands, it’s very much the opposite. We live on the Far Eastern edge of the city, ten minutes east and we are in a more rural setting, but then ten minutes in the other direction and we are in the centre of a decaying lawless city that has seen better days. And we have hedgehogs visit on a regular basis, they are urban city dwellers and that is unusual.
We’ve lived in this house for around seven years now and I was always aware from the start that there was something out there at night snuffling around. You could always hear their presence and installing cameras around the house confirmed it, we had hedgehog visitors. We also had them in our previous house down in Hertfordshire so they were very much a welcome visitor.
Another smaller visitor
My garden has been a constant challenge to get right, it is North facing, it is extremely cold in the winter months and has developed over the years into a wonderful little haven for these guys with lots of perennial cover and wildflowers for their delectation. Yes it’s fair to say that when the garden was designed they formed a big part of the consideration as to how it was laid out.
We have hedgehog highways that allow easy access throughout our garden into neighbouring gardens, we have ramps to allow them up the paving as well as small water features around the garden that allow access to water. We also leave cat biscuits out every night to give them extra feed, because as you may well know their natural food sources are dwindling due to decline of wilded environments, yes, another animal the good old human being is killing off probably unbeknownst due to ignorance.
Hedgehog highway signs around the garden. I know they can read but it shows the way to human visitors
It is estimated that in the UK there are less than two million of these animals in existence. They are high on the endangered species list here, considering back in the 1970’s there were estimated to be in excess of twenty million in existence, that’s a decline of almost eighteen million in fifty years. Horrendous.
This is why I try to help and educate people of this animal. It is wonderful when we have guests, that I know we can all sit in our conservatory and at pretty much the same time, they can sit and watch our prickly friends come to visit and eat. It’s lovely to see and they are always happy to see them. Some have even left here and gone and set up similar environments in their own gardens. That’s a win in my eyes.
I believe we have the same family circle visit our garden as they know they are welcome. At the beginning of the year we have them come in and feed in twos and this year we even had three at the feed station at the same time. As they all get older we have the usual territorial huffing and puffing and only one at a time, but they can all be identified due to their differing sizes and attitudes. It really is wonderful.
Three at the feed station
I love these little creatures, I love all wildlife but these guys are different as they need a helping hand. And that’s the very least I or you can do. It’s no sacrifice. Be a friend not an enemy. It’s your choice. Just choose well.
If you had a million dollars to give away, who would you give it to?
At this very moment it would be going to help a very frightened lady in my family, my niece bless her. She’s had problems all her life and has pretty much won every fight despite the odds being against her. She’s now fighting the toughest fight of her life as the Big C has entered the ring, she doesn’t fully understand, and he doesn’t fight fair. I think a million would go quite a way to get her the best treatment possible.
But I haven’t won it, I can’t pay for that treatment so unfortunately the fight goes on. But we’re fighters and we will be beside her all of the way.
Hedgehogs. 🦔
There are so many little hedgehog sanctuaries around the Uk constantly fighting a battle to save and protect this wonderful little creature of the night. They won’t hurt anyone, they do wonders to your garden, however we as a population are killing them just by going about our daily lives, butchering their environment for crappy estates and making their existence intolerable. Now I have regular hog visitors to my garden as it has been built around them. They have easy access to water and food and a section of the garden that I have classed as the wild part where I know they live. I see them in the garden as youngsters in the early part of the year and only last night I saw one of them in the garden and he is now a lovely fully grown male, quite a lump. Earlier this year I had three at the food bowl at the same time, a first for me, probably all from the same family, I believe I posted the video here: And then we had three..
I love to see them grow and I am so proud of myself that I’ve developed an environment that they feel safe in. And that’s the problem. I’m not in the country, I’m in a city with two horrendously busy roads and occasionally I see them as victims. However I’m really surprised that the majority thrive, and seeing now that the suspected hedgehog population is now less than 2 million across the UK (it was 5 times that only a few years ago!) we need to protect them.
Humankind in its worst form wipes other species out without a thought. If a million dollars, pounds or whatever currency you use could help stop this rot then there would be no second thought, I’d do it.
But again I dont have it so I’ll just keep doing my little bit to help these beautiful little beasts.
We had a lovely lunch out yesterday, it rained as it always has of late, it was so damned wet that we didn’t get to look around the 38 gardens at Barnsdale created by Geoff Hamilton off of BBC Gardeners world.
As we were pretty miffed at this we made the spontaneous decision to bugger off to Devon a day early so we could benefit from an extra day on the coast.
We left the East Midlands about 16:00hrs and arrived at our destination at around 20:15, a good journey with the only real traffic experienced as we circumnavigated Birmingham’s rush hour.
My god, it’s dry!
It was obviously dark on arrival, very windy and you could hear the waves crashing on the sea walls, the hotel is comfortable and we have had a cracking nights sleep. Just had our first cuppa and the sun is rising, it looks gorgeous out and guess what….it is dry!
We’re looking at making our final move within the next 18 months. We’ve purchased new in the past and though the house was lovely we weren’t really happy as it was so “perfect” and needed nothing doing to it. We wanted a project, and 8 years later we have a nice house, though it’s not ideal and has been a drain on us both physically and financially.
We’re now exploring the new route again, this time more thought is going into it, we’re looking to move probably only a few miles from where we are as we have family here and we like the general area and I happen to work nearby and don’t want to increase my commute too much if I can help it.
Tabs protecting the garden
Believe it or not, one major issue for not moving just yet is the feral cat we have in our garden, Tabs. When we purchased this house all those years ago, one feature in all the exterior pictures of the sale brochure was this cat posing in all the garden shots. That was “Tabs”. She wasn’t owned by anyone, and all the neighbours had a hand in feeding her, as the neighbours have moved on that has become our responsibility, and she is fed regularly by us in exchange for her living in and protecting our garden. And boy is she good at that. She is getting old now, dosen’t leave the garden much and is very much into her senior years. We don’t want to put her through getting a new set of “Carers” and leaving her to potentially getting neglected by new owners, so we have committed to care for her and see out her final days being looked after by us. Should she then pass away we will be here, we will attend to her and see she is looked after. Only then will we continue our search for an “ideal home”
Tabs
Anyway, what is our ideal hone? To be totally honest we’re not looking for something outrageously expensive and inappropriate for just two people, we don’t want a ten bed mansion we simply want a nicely built and practical house. Three beds would be fine, one of those rooms to become a hobby / office type space. A small to medium garden that is currently a blank canvas for me to develop into a seasoned garden. The garden I have at the moment has taken six years to start reaching a maturity where it is kind of looking after itself and it is beautiful, I would like to do that again. We currently live on a main thoroughfare and the dust and pollution that creates would certainly not be missed. Yes a quieter area, more rural would be nice, and as this is a major route for emergency service vehicles, somewhere quieter without 24hr a day wailing sirens would be appreciated.
Quieter, peaceful, new, nothing more to be done apart from basic maintenance maybe with a garage would suit us down to the ground. The house we currently have I’m sure would be a good project for someone who has the time and money, but it’s not for us. We took the challenge on, and we learned a lesson. Been there, done it and got the tee shirt as they say.
The ideal home for us involves a simpler and more relaxed life. I think we deserve that and to be honest we are fortunate to be in a position to be able to do it. We’ve worked our collective butts off for it and we deserve nothing less.
But first off Tabs is our concern. There’s no rush.
VINTAGE COMPUTER BATTLESHIP MB ELECTRONICS GAME FOR SPARES / REPAIRS APPEARS TO BE COMPLETE BUT THE GAME IS NOT WORKING WHEN TESTED WITH BATTERIES HENCE BEING SOLD FOR SPARES / REPAIRS
Ebay
And here’s some info around it:
In 1977, Milton Bradley released a computerized Electronic Battleship, a pioneering microprocessor-based toy, capable of generating various sounds. Electronic Battleship was designed by Dennis Wyman and Bing McCoy.
Wikipedia
Now this is another toy from my childhood that I had envy over. This game is the one that coined the phrase, “ You sank my Battleship” as seen on many TV ads towards the end of the 70s. This time my nephew was brought one of these games for his birthday back in the late 70s when I was about 12 years old. I’ll be able to give a more accurate date of the unit when I get to see the main board inside. I suspect I’m looking at something around the 1979 timeline. Man this toy was the bees knees, again early computer technology at its finest. Here I am approaching the sixth decade of my life and I’m having another menopausal moment just as I did in this post a few months back: Big Trak CE3962 restoration
Computer Battleship
This is going to go in the games box in our garden pub / Man cave. I’m confident I’m going to get it working. I’m not too bothered if there are any small parts missing as there seems to be plenty of spare parts available online.
Let’s have a look at what has turned up.
Original boxOriginal packaging
Well I’m impressed. This game is in its original box with original packaging and is in pristine condition. It comes with the original instruction manual and all parts listed in the contents section are there. In fact there are more of the red and white pegs than required so to be honest it looks as if I have bagged a bargain here.
I’ve paid a grand total of £19:96 GBP for this game and that includes the postage, by far the best price that was on offer for any similar advertised games that I could see at the moment of purchase. Considering this game is now somewhere between 45-47 years old, a bargain you might say, if I can get it working.
I’m thinking that all the capacitors on this board as a matter of good practice should be removed and replaced. Let’s face it they are almost the same age as me, could fail at anytime (if they haven’t already) and are as cheap as chips so what’s the point of just replacing a singular one when there are only two of them on the board. I think I will do this, test them all and report back.
I know that this unit is a 70s creation but it is interesting to get some facts on capacitors and problems that they have caused over the years, especially during the 90s and early 2000s. See this old post on capacitor plague: Capacitor plague
Board removed One side of board
I have removed the board and there seems to have been some pre work done where all the wires are relayed through a connector block. This was a dangerous situation as the work that had been done diverted both negative and positive leads through this dodgy connector to the negative side of the board, causing a short that caused the batteries to heat up to a point where I thought they were going to explode as they were so hot. You may as well of just connected the two batteries together…childish mistake. I was testing for voltages and was suspicious that I was getting no readings, just as well I went straight to the battery when I did. Lesson learned for me.
Bad wiring
I have checked the speaker is working, this is a 32ohm speaker and it was indicating 31ohm so there were no issues there. I have removed the two capacitors and checked them and they are both within tolerance, hence I will leave these in place.
Speaker is fine
The batteries are separately wired on this board. The two negative wires go to the negative side and the positive wires go to the positive side, straight forward wiring, I don’t know why the previous clown wired it as he did. These four wires now soldered in place with new leads and connections allow me to attach the batteries and check voltages, all is good and reading as it should.
New leads made
I clean all the switches with contact cleaner, I clean the board with IPA and clean all the contacts. A good suction and polish of the frame and all is good.
I can confirm the board indicates that this unit is week 24 of 1979 as per the writing on the main board. That puts this particular unit at 45 years old. Will it work.
Hell yeah it does!
Main switch into the on position and the annoying sonar sound kicks in, my dog leaves the room as it’s annoying him, to me I have just been transported back to my childhood. It’s brilliant.
I collar the wife into a game, I have to teach her how to program it and it works perfectly. Every sound is there, it’s noisy repetitive and computer programming at its absolute most basic level. And it’s mine.
Computer Battleship – It works
It’s going down our garden pub to be used by the youngsters and adults alike. I think the kids will love it due to its primitive technology. They’ll learn from it.
Another piece of my past saved from landfill, and it will be put to good use. Just don’t trust any mods or fixes done by others, don’t inherit a fire risk. Check check check.
Foxes Den 
You must be logged in to post a comment.