Hearts And Spines

 I was woken in the night by what I thought was out-of-breath burglars. A loud huffing noise was coming from the dog rose bush below my window. What I saw was two hedgehogs having a stand off. One of them was hissing angrily, darting at the smaller animal, circling it and retreating. The smaller one appeared to keep a low profile, sitting quiet and still until the aggressor blundered off, more raging bull than boar. At first I thought the comical sliding dance was a seduction technique, but the hissy fit had the 'inferior' hedghog making a run for it as soon as it got the chance.

Heart-shaped dog rose petals from the bush in my garden are scattered like soggy confetti in the grass. I am off to seek more to collect for cake decorations (paint with egg white, dip them in sugar,  dry for 12 - 36 hours), and to gather armfuls of elder blossom to steep in water and sugar for champagne or cordial. I found a recipe on the Cambridge Carbon Footprint website.