Do you ever get those weeks when nothing goes to plan, when you have so much to do that you seem to be running around in circles trying to fit it all in? Well, last week was one of those for me. Every time I achieved one thing another demanded attention. I planned to write a blog post last Thursday and then I put it off until Saturday. Realistically that was never going to happen, so I thought Sunday would be a safe bet. But that day too came and went, time raced on, hours flew by, more things stacked up on my ‘to do’ list.
It turned out to be quite an eventful few days and I knew I just had to find the time to sit down and tell you all about it.
It all started with a storm warning on my phone last Thursday evening. We were put under an orange alert for high winds. Izzi, our eldest daughter, had flown in from London for a long weekend, we also had friends staying with us for a couple of nights. I remember we had an apéritif outside in the evening, it wasn’t overly warm and there was a keen breeze but the sun was shining and we strolled around the garden, stopping to pick and then savour the occasional raspberry and redcurrant.
Friday morning the wind had picked up, the sky looked ominously black and the clouds scurried past in an enormous hurry. Broken foliage littered the lawn, leaves flew past the kitchen windows as if it was autumn. By the afternoon it had reached its full strength. Gusts of over 145km/h were recorded.
We lost several huge branches from various trees, one plum tree was literally reduced by half, our front gates were damaged but nothing else. We were lucky compared to many. The big garden clean up would come next!
Saturday morning, as is so often the way after a big storm, dawned bright and sunny, not exactly flat calm but no longer blowing a gale. That is the morning we found Thanos, the hedgehog. We were having coffee with our friends outside when he was spotted on the terrace, unresponsive and lying in the sunlight: not the natural behaviour of a hedgehog. He had a wound above one eye which was bleeding.
Perhaps it was the storm that had displaced him and caused the injury, or maybe not, we had no idea, but one thing was for certain he needed some help, left in the open during the daytime would have been a sure death sentence for a young wounded hedgehog. We called our vet who told us they did not treat wild animals and gave us the number of the local wildlife rescue centre, not actually that local at all, but nevertheless we gave them a call, willing to set out on a long car journey. But they were closed until the following Tuesday as it was a holiday weekend. We had no choice, either we let him suffer and take his chances or we did the best we could. We chose the latter option.
Thank goodness for Google. Millie, who has previously raised and treated quite a few baby animals, quickly did a lot of reading and courtesy of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society she gleaned plenty of information. We weighed him to determine his age and learnt that he was about four weeks old and therefore technically referred to as a hoglet. We carefully treated his wound with Betadine (an iodine solution)
and then found an old cardboard box which we heaped with plenty of straw so that he could make a nest and put him in the guest bedroom and firmly shut the door. Out of reach of the dogs and Rory, the cat! During the afternoon we bought some canned kitten food, which we learnt is a great thing to feed them.
Meanwhile, we had a couple of birthdays in the family to celebrate and were heading out to lunch at the beach. I had found a new restaurant, a crêperie to be precise which I was keen to try. I had managed to keep it a complete surprise to those celebrating and the setting was sublime and the crêpes delicious, nothing extravagant but just as a crêpe should be.
Afterwards we enjoyed a long walk on the beach nearby which was nearly deserted.
We watched a local fisherman lower and then raise his net from his traditional fishing hut called a carrelet and particular to this area.
Later in the afternoon we returned back home, happy to be a family of seven all reunited for a short time once more. A Greek evening followed, with a feast that was fit for a king, prepared by Roddy and Izzi who are certainly les chefs extraordinaires. Originally this was planned to be outside under the stars, however we can alter many things but not the weather!
Meanwhile operation ‘Save Thanos’ continued. We gave him the kitten food and left him undisturbed. Returning a couple of hours later we discovered that he obviously liked it as he had done the strangest thing. He had anointed himself with it. Apparently this is what hedgehogs do with new food, they literally cover themselves with it, the box looked as if it had been sprayed with kitten food! He on the other hand was perfectly content and as we thought about our beds and sleep, he was wide awake!
As the long holiday weekend continued the weather took a turn for the worse. The wind might have ceased but the temperature had plummeted and the rain had returned. This did not feel at all like June as the big garden clean up began. It was funny to think that just a couple of days before Izzi had commented that she had never seen the garden looking so fabulous, that calm evening as we strolled in the weak evening sun. Now it looked as far removed from that as could possibly be. I had hurriedly tied up some hollyhocks which had been flattened and revived flattened tomato plants. The potager looked more like a picture from November!
Thanos on the other hand was oblivious to climatic conditions, he was recuperating in five star luxury and appeared to be thriving on the attention. In the daytime he made his nest and slept. At night he came out to eat. His wound had healed and before we knew it the time had come to think about setting him free once more. Our garden is large and walled on three and a half sides and is incredibly safe. We have several hedgehogs who live here, we knew he would be ok and we also knew that it was the kindest thing we could do, to let him go and live as he is meant to. And so four days after finding him, we weighed him once more and then at nightfall, when the sky was quite black we took him outside once more. We let him loose at the very end of the garden, amongst a mass of old fallen leaves. We know hedgehogs live here, but we also knew it was an area large enough to accommodate many, he would be safe here.
The next evening we saw him again, just as darkness fell. Perhaps he will remain with us always, perhaps we shall never see him again, who knows. But I like to think that we helped him and did the best we could.
Our French Oasis 
Lovely post about the hedgehog, sorry about the weatherman.
What a beautiful post. Thanos is a lucky hedgehog!
And at the end of the day, that’s all we can hope for-that we helped them on their journey. Well done.
I enjoyed your seaside meal. That is a lucky little hedgehog.
Susan, how exciting. Last December, we had winds that were clocked at 125km. A tornado touched down on parts of the island. We had ten trees come down around the house…missed the house and car. Others not so fortunate. We are still cleaning up.
Please share the location of the restaurant. What a gorgeous spot…maybe next year …
Ali
Adorable story – especially about kitten food for little Thanos. What a giggle. Bravo to Millie for her brilliant research and kind heart. Sounds like a fine birthday week for all the worthy celebrants.
Thanos is a lucky little hedgehog to be found by your family. Kind hearts can’t and won’t see any of Gods creatures suffer without doing our best to help. That was some wind, glad no damage was done to your home.
What a wonderful adventure and how fun that we got to share it with you from your post!! Many, many thanks! So happy to see your family reunited and celebrating birthdays and life together. xo
Enjoyed your post but then I love reading about your life. So sorry about your storm – hope your property is looking better!
Great post – you certainly were very busy! Loved seeing the pictures of your garden, even if the wind blew things around a bit. And little Thanos – adorable. Could you give out the name of that lovely restaurant and its location? Also, lovely beaches – where was that?
I had no idea a hedgehog could be so adorable! How great that Izzy could find the information needed to help him get better. And what a great find with the creperie, with its beautiful setting. Great photos!
So pleased you were able to give the hedgehog another chance.
What a storm that was. The previous Friday we took our old car to Soulac-sur-Mer via Royan for the weekend festivities. It was calm, sunny and the temperature went up to 30+ on the Sunday. No wonder the plants are so confused this year!
You were fortunate the weather didn’t hamper all your birthday celebrations even if it wasn’t what you anticipated.
Oh I loved this post Susan. How marvellous that you found Thanos and were able to help him get over his injury and regain his strength! I took especial pleasure in this story because I have a peculiar, deep longing to have a hedgehog. There are hedgehogs indigenous to South Africa, but I have yet to find one.
Love the story about Thanos, so glad he was able to recover and be returned to the wild. I hope you see him again! Lovely pictures of your beautiful country too. So sorry you had to deal with all that storm damage!
What a lovely story Susan. I know nothing of hedgehogs. The weather has been so odd everywhere hasn’t it?
Thanos became certainly a new family member. Weather is crazy also here in Southern Spain. Very stormy, cloudy and
too cold for that season where we usually had already a swim a least in the pool. What’s happen with our climate?
We have had the same kind of weather in Ohio but did not find a hedgehog! So sweet & it looks like you took care of him or her (don’t know much about hedgehogs)! Hope your garden has recovered & I enjoyed your pictures so much. Thank you!!
You are such beautiful people…. With all the havoc caused in your garden, you still took the time and attention to care for the little hurt hedgehog…. Brave and kind!
Our garden looked the same, we had plenty of acacis, (who actually aren’t ‘ours’ but the Mairie’s, only they don’t care one bit) very nearly crushing our electricity and fibre cable lines, our phone line too and Hero Husband was VERY busy with sawing, cutting, whealing the largest shears with the longest arms to get that prickly avalange of acacia beasts tamed. Some trees couldn’t break and fall over because of the high hedge around one part of the property, but their stems were heavily scratched and mutilated by the spikes on the hedge. HH filled 11 very large ‘green bags’ for collection on Monday and we wrote a mail with photos to the Mairie. Of course we haven’t heard anything!
I’m sure it must have been Roddy’s birthday – how could I forget?! Give him both our kindest wishes, much love and bunches of greetings – he’s a super fine friend and we love him to bits.
But that rock-hogging resto is the BEST! Where is it and how did you find it? Yes, do tell us the name – I would anything they offer with that setting, but crêpes are just fine!
You know, I’m often surprised that you find the time at ALL to write blog posts next to your multiple tasks and accommodating guests, gardening, household(ing), look after all the animals and of course your children. That family photo is priceless and I’m happy that Izzi made it for a weekend home too.
Much love from (presently) Switzerland and then from France again, for a few days.
Quite a storm even for us here used to such in season. – 145 lm winds would send me to wait it out in a cellar had I such 🙂 ! Sorry about damage in the garden – thank God the house was not damaged in any way . . . and great that the weather became blue skied and balmy for that wonderful seaside lunch ! Happy retrospective birthdays to those celebrating ! Thanos: a sweet interlude . . . he may have been attacked by other creatures in the garden had you not put him into a very special private hospital with no exorbitant fees at that 🙂 ! Hope your summer stays constant from here on in . . .
Great story, love the hedgehog. I just blogged for the firt time today.
So brave of you! Brava. Meanwhile, even if that resto served inedible crepes, it would have been an enchanting place to spend an hour.
Nice… and i like it
iT IS AMAZING HOW YOU MANAGE TO KEEP TRACK OF SUCH A SCHEDULE! ESPECIALLY ON WEEKENDS, WHEN ALL YOU WANT TO DO IS LIE DOWN AND SLEEP!