24/10: PATTER OF TINY FEET (or not) !!

My stepdaughter was due to present us with our first Grand-child on Friday but so far nothing has happened.  She was told that 80% of babies arrive later than scheduled which leads me to wonder why midwives/antenatal nurses don't just add 1 week to to the scheduled arrival dates to so they hit their targets more accurately ????!!

Anyway, grandchild is expected to be female and will probably be named Sophie Louise ....... watch this space !!!





In the meantime, I can report lots of activity on the 4 legged baby front.  We now know we have 3 hedgehogs.   Two are fairly small and one is pretty huge.    The two 'little ones' have turned up together to share food, the bigger one turns up on his/her own.

Unfortunately I can't get good photos because the noise of the patio doors opening frightens them and the big one scuttles off.  The little ones don't exactly roll into a ball (as I would expect) but they kind of lay down sidewards and 'play possum' for 15 mins or so ... till they think all danger has passed.

This picture is of 2 'littlies' ... disguised as one big prickly  'blob'

One of them was startled by the noise of the patio doors opening ... and scuttled off.  The other one was a little slower to react:   Bye !!!!!

and its survival instinct kicked in ... it took up this strange submissive pose and stayed  absolutely still for 15 minutes or so ... then realising the danger had passed it just ambled off !!

We've also had lots of squirrel activity in the garden.    We cut down all the sunflowers recently and left the flowerheads in the garden so the seeds were available for birds/squirrels.

This photo was taken on telephoto and although its not crystal clear I just loved the sun dappled effect on the garden/squirrel

Wasn't quite so chuffed later on when the little 'tree rat' decided to bury all the sunflower seeds in the 'better' areas of our lawn

but he/she is only stocking up in readiness for Winter (which is fast approaching) so I can't get angry .... and what a magnificent tail ....

Last night we attended the official opening of the 'Outside the Square' Art Gallery in Margate.

Despite the horrible weather, the event was really well attended and I met some of the artists exhibiting at the Gallery.    I met the Gallery owner a few weeks ago and he suggested he would be interested in exhibiting a few of my works in his Gallery, but I won't have anything available till the end of the year ... so let's see what will happen.

The Gallery was jam packed full of works from artists around the world so he obviously doesn't have space available at the moment for new artists.   The Outside the Square Gallery is being promoted as the one closest to the new Turner Gallery which will open in Spring 2011 - the area all around the Turner Gallery site is being rejuvenated and lots of grants are available to small businesses to encourage the growth of a 'cafe society' and bring the town back to life.... I have my fingers crossed.  Margate used to be such a wondrous place but it turned into a real 'no go' area in the last couple of decades when British Tourism died a death