As we watched the Men’s Final from Wimbledon this afternoon my wife suddenly let out a cry of, “Hedgehog! hedgehog!” At first I wondered if this might have been a comment on Djokovic’s prickly response to the partisan support of the crown for his opponent. Then I realised that, sitting by the window, she had actually spied a hedgehog in the garden. Immediately we abandoned the tennis, picked up our cameras and headed for the garden.
To our surprise a juvenile (“hoglet”) was wandering across the terrace immediately in front of the window. As it appeared to be in danger of heading for the street, despite the fact that traffic is pretty infrequent there we diverted its attention and left it sheltering under one of the shrubs. Although I am aware that hedgehogs are regular visitors to the garden it is only the second occasion on which we have met them in broad daylight. As this one was so obviously a juvenile immediately I started to weave an elaborate narrative. I have captured a pair of them on my trail- cam before, and wondered whether this was the offspring of the relationship I have between imagining for so long.
Turning to the serious business of life: the tutor at the life-drawing class I attend each week has recommended the web-site of a friend of his who paints in egg tempera. I looked it up and was intrigued to find that the rules about the use of this medium I had been given on my recent ikon-painting course are by no means “laws of nature”. Evidently there is a great deal more freedom about how it can be used than I had understood. Perhaps I will be able to be more relaxed about my attempts to get to grips with it. I’m encouraged to try.