Hedgehog visit

So, if you're like me, you probably never actually gave much thought to where hedgehogs come from (no, not from their mother - I mean where they are native to), although you may have acknowledged that they are adorable and briefly pondered getting one as a pet (was that just me?). It turns out, they are native to Switzerland! And probably many other surrounding countries, but that is irrelevant to this story. And yes, this is how I tell stories orally, and it takes me a long time to get to the point then, too.

Anyway - so I had never given it a thought until we were in the US driving on rural North Carolina roads, and my friend from Boston noted the number of roadkill present - mainly squirrels, groundhogs, and the like, although we did see an intact dead deer, which is unpleasant even for WV-raised me - and this led to a discussion of commonly-sighted animals. My friend is originally from Arizona, so in my mind she deals with armadillos and roadrunners (no?). B noted that he was used to seeing hedgehogs, and we had the following exchange:

Me: Why would you see hedgehogs?

B: ...Um, because they're in Switzerland.

Me: Why are they in Switzerland?

B: <weird look, probably pondering his PhD-wife and her stunning ignorance> ...Because they are. They're native there.

Me: HEDGEHOGS ARE NATIVE TO SWITZERLAND?!

B: Yes - you've seen one.

Me: No I haven't! I would remember that!

B: Yes, you have - remember when we were walking along with my family, to the restaurant after we moved?

Me: You mean when it was cold and your brother and I ran ahead to be warm and you guys took forever?

B: Oh, yeah, right. Well, we were looking at a hedgehog.

Me: I MISSED A HEDGEHOG AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?

B: Um, I didn't think it was that big of a deal. They're not uncommon. What were you going to do, go back out in the cold rain?

Me: I WOULD'VE IF I KNEW THERE WAS A HEDGEHOG INVOLVED!

...I'm rather excitable.

Anyway, so last night I was lying around on our floor blanket that acts as a sofa  productively unpacking our suitcases when B, who was sitting at our kitchen table told me to come over quickly. He is the exact antonym of excitable, but his voice was raised and he sounded urgent (also not an adjective that one associates with him), so I came over right away. I thought maybe he'd caught two people messing around in the bushes.

Not two people messing around in the bushes. WAY COOLER than that.

 But there, on our patio, was a HEDGEHOG!! It was much larger than the pet ones I'd seen in the US. It was standing right next to our door and waddling about in an adorable way. I freaked out and starting turning off lights and rolling down storm blinds so that I could try to get a picture. It moved off from the door some but hunkered down against the wall and stayed put. All my picture efforts through the glass door were pretty horrible failures, so I risked running off to get my decent camera (as opposed to my cell phone). It was still there when I returned, so I managed to open the door and get a couple shots of it (I was hesitant to open the door or use the flash - are hedgehogs aggressive? I know that their spines don't latch on like porcupine's, but I still didn't want him/her charging me. B assured me it wouldn't.)

Another shot. Yes, it looks the exact same, but it's not.

I grabbed a few shots and posted a bad cell phone shot to fb, and it was gone by the time I wanted to take more. Sadness. Still, I was thrilled that it had come by to visit! Then I started to be concerned that maybe they eat basil and I would have to somehow find some anti-hedgehog plant spray (my mother's gardening experience in WV was one continuous fight against roaming deer and rabbits). However, I was happy to see that according to Wikipedia, they are actually well-liked by gardeners because they eat insects, slugs, and such (and they are super freaking adorable). So yay! I hope I didn't scare it too much with my flashing camera and that it will come back to visit many times.

Home and back again

I'm actually not sure what "home" I am referring to in this title - either Zurich or the US would be appropriate, I suppose, and honestly, I'm not sure I feel 100% home in either place at this moment. But let's not get deep. B and I just returned from a wonderful 12 day visit to the US that included seeing many of his family and mine. We spent 3 days over Mother's day weekend in near Fort Lauderdale, FL visiting with B's aunts, grandmother, and multitude of cousins. It wasn't as hot as I feared, although it was humid (ick). Regardless of the weather, we had a great time. I'd only met his family at our wedding previously, but they were all welcoming and much fun.

Dania Beach in FL. Gorgeous. I missed getting any pictures of the enormous shark yard-long tarpon that was near shore when we first got there (I had wikipedia tarpon - some random man on the beach claimed that's what it was, so I actually have no idea. But isn't a shark a better story? You could see the dorsal fin above the water, that's how it goes in the movies!)

We spent a week in near Chapel Hill, NC, visiting with my sisters, parents, and friends, including one who flew down from Boston to hang out - and I'm proud to report that I finished her supposed-to-be bridal shower gift and finally handed it over (as perspective, she celebrated her 1 year anniversary last October, so...yeah). We also managed to fit in an evening in with one of B's aunts from the other side of his family, who lives in Charlotte and was generous enough to drive 2.5 hours each way just to have dinner with us. Much chatting, hanging out, game-playing (of the card/board variety) general merriment, and puzzle-solving was done - both of the crossword and jigsaw type.

Embroidered apron gift, ~1.5 years late, but finally completed! Thanks for being patient, J :)

One of the three 1000 piece puzzles that B, myself, my mother, and friend completed over the course of a week. Totally not addicting.

I was eager to get back to Zurich to my garden and see how it survived my 12 day absence, since I hadn't actually finished setting it up before I left (I actually had 3 separate dreams about this in the US - my brain just searches for things to stress about, apparently. My favorite was a dream that involved B's grandmother requesting that I describe the garden to her in Spanish; not only did I not know the plants' names, but also each time I reached for one, I realized it was dead or moldy).

The garden answer is mixed. I couldn't believe how some of the 'inherited' plants exploded in a good way (the now-confirmed-as-peonies-due-to-the-inevitable-ant-presence bush is about 3 times as tall and full as it was before we left, to the detriment of some other plants I put in), as did a few of my potted ones, but my cilantro is yellowing and going to seed, while someone seems to have snuck over and chewed up, then bleached, my basil plants.

Out-of-control cilantro on the left, basil in the center/foreground. Seriously, what happened?

Success stories! From left: sweet pepper plant, tomato plant, pea seedlings (yes, I will need to thin that - I had no idea it would be so spectacularly successful).

Peony bush - it predates my efforts with the garden - although note the weeded ground surrounding it. In the foreground, if you look carefully, you can see a small brown twig on the left that is supposed to be my blackberry plant and a rather sad looking iris plant to the right. 

Anyway - I have much to blog about, including many pictures from my US trip, my exploding yarn stash (I have issues controlling myself, especially when STUFF IS SO CHEAP IN THE US - and yarn makes an awesome lightweight packing material), my lack of hitting my Camp Nanowrimo goal last month (boo), my part-time job that thinks 3 assignments a week actually means 3 in one day (ahh!), and how today is the first day of the rest of my life (no schedule, no job, no German class), it's almost 4 pm, and I've done one thing on my list so far - this blog post counts as the second. Carpe-ing the diem is definitely something I am working on.

PS - did I miss the Swiss spring/summer while we were gone? The predicted low for Friday and Saturday is 1 degree Celsius.