Can you imagine taking this for a walk? Very ecumenical. 
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According to some mountain plane crash survivors, we actually taste like pork 
The other white meat!
No point me researching, since my heart attack back in May I have hardly tasted anything. Nearly ate the packaging on a ready meal the other day. 
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I have not eaten pork for many years after reading Simon Westonâs account of how he got his injuries and how the smell of burning flesh on the burning ship smelled like pork roasting.
When I put bird food in the bird feeder, which stands high on the garden table, I hear the sound of beating wings and the appearance of a collared dove - there she is top right on a branch, waiting.
She sits close by until I move away before landing on the bird feeder for breakfast.
This morning, she couldnât wait and flew over while I was shovelling food into the bird feeder. We were eye to eye as she ate breakfast. Didnât have a camera on me then but will try a close-up next time.
A different kind of pet, a wild bird?
Donât think so. Collared doves are far too trusting and despite the fact that I could probably have her sitting on my finger in time, she might think my cat, who she no doubt associates with me, is as trustworthy as me!
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Back in UK I used to throw stuff (seeds etc) out for the birds⌠and we would watch from indoors as all the usual mob arrived and then partridges and a pheasant.
It became a regular treat as Iâm sure they waited in the shrubbery/trees for me to give âem breakfast.
âPercy Pheasantâ became bolder and bolder and would, eventually, come when I called. No I didnât have him eating from my hand but it was obvious we âhad a linkâ⌠and, if I was late, he would come up to the window and wait for me 
Magical times.
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I saw recently in my local SuperU a sparse display of model wild animals which I suspect is symbolic of the only relationship children will have of nature in years to come â probably even now - including what theyâll see in books, on tv and on their smartphones. And in zoos & museums.
Despite attempts to reverse the decline I canât see much of a future for nature in the wild while we as a species exist. What a thing to say!
Links and magical times with nature are running out unhappily IMO. Best to make the most of those moments while some of them are still within reach.
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When my grandson first visited a few years ago⌠he was delighted to see real hedgehogs (only seen pictures before). Anyway, we had about 10 visit us for several evenings. âespecially to see an English boyâ was how I explained their decision to frequent our little patch.
We also took him to meet the goats, sheep and donkeys⌠and as many wild bits and bobs as possible. Even had him fishing for whales in the flooded ditch behind our house.. (although we had agreed that weâd throw back anything we caught 
)
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I remember the first hedgehog I ever saw at the age of about 7 as I was walking home from school across a patchy old field in Greater London. I stood and stared, knew what it was but never seen one before. Didnât see any more until I moved to France in my 50s! The hedgehog then seemed huge, because I was small! And I remember seeing it scratch away at fleas as they do. The memory is still there, and vivid. Iâm sure your grandson will remember and appreciate too, being lucky enough to have had his French nature tour at an early age.
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I am sure there must be several round here, because my natural garden is just perfect for them but, by that token, they will be well hidden. The last one I saw was 20 odd years ago when my Greyhound spotted one, touched it briefly and then realised that it was much safer to bark at it. It eventually ambled away. 
I do too! I was 18 and living in Denmark on a Rotary exchange programme, we were walking to friends house in Copenhagen, I think in a gorgeous graveyard. I saw another as well the same year in the south where i lived, so so cute! To be fair didnât see one earlier as we donât have them in Oz! When we moved here we bought the tobacco barn next to us, probably 8 years sgo and we found one in a nest, we left it alone but never saw it again 
. Iâm wondering if we build some hedgehog houses and put in s pond if we can get some? Perhaps not with the cat!
The oz equivalent is an Echidna but about 5 times bigger with big spikes. When i was about 10 we were out waterskiing and pulled into a beach on the dam (huge lake near where we lived) for lunch and I went into the bush behind yhe beach for a pee when I heard scuffling, it was an echidna, bless him heâd rolled up in a spikey ball (their defence mechanism), very special moment as they are so shy and rare 
In my experience crocks and alligators have the taste and texture of chicken. Give a me crock burger, amd make it snappy
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One of our Airedales, Clara, used to pick them up in her mouth and run round the garden. To begin with I used to worry about the hedgehog - thick gardening gloves to pick them up and put them the other side of the fence. But after a few times of extracting spines from her mouth as she dripped blood on the kitchen floor I worried more about Clara - she never learnt.
Have tasted a few reptiles, but never been impressed, and had a really unpleasant experience with pofadder wors from a farm in the Karoo - tasted of pus and took days to get the taste out of my mouth. Think there was a bit of venom in the saus.
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âThe oz equivalent is an Echidna but about 5 times bigger with big spikesâ
Saw a splendid echidna, a real beauty, on Cape Otway earlier this month, gorgeous.
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Where is that?
Itâs on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, west of Melbourne. The other fab place for wildlife was Wilsonâs promontory (southernmost bit of continental Australia, east of Melbourne) which is hotching with emus and wombats among other more usual creatures.
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They were building a new sticky out viewing platform last year which is is open now and gives excellent views, seething with people though when I was there most recently. I got much better photographs last year on the âoldâ set-up!
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